My Rocky Mountain Heart

One year ago, we made the move from Denver to Leadville.  You know, cause who needs all that oxygen available to you at 5,200 ft of elevation? 😉 We moved from a house with a yard and doggie door to a 3 bedroom apartment with no dishwasher, no washing machine in our building, and the WORST florescent kitchen lights you could ever imagine (think cheesy horror movie effects).  And all my Leadvillian friends will appreciate that we were initiated into Mountain life at the Eagle’s nest.  I quit a full-time job with paid summers off to start a job back in the hospital setting as a PRN OT (aka ‘as needed’).  (Insert all the money fear…).  Ryan started a job at Climax mine…and no sweet sister, he is not a ‘miner.’  But I do love that my surgeon little sister seriously asked me that when I proudly told her that the mine offered him a job! Absolute gold.  We collected all of our loose change and made a laundry jar, because hello coin laundry!  We bought sweaters for Larry David and Jackie because holy snow!  The first full week we were in Leadville in early January, it snowed like 8 feet in a couple of days.  People around town were saying it was the biggest snow storm Leadville had seen in over 100 years! I mean how else would a small mountain town welcome a couple of Texans?

Since those first few days here, a lot has changed.  We broke our apartment lease 3 months early, bought our dream home (with PLENTY of guest rooms!), closed my LuLaRoe business and started vision crafting all over again.  Why?  Well, we had been dreaming of this mountain life for many many years.

I remember on a summer trip we took up to Colorado when we were engaged (back in 2006), we were driving along I-70 looking around at the majestic snow capped mountains and saying, “We should really live here. Yeah, we should! Why don’t we?” At the time, the answer to that final question was because I wanted to stay in Dallas as long as my grandparents were still around and I never regretted staying in Dallas as long as we did.  Not only did I get to spend the last few years of my grandparents lives with them, but we got to spend time with both of our families enjoying Shabbat dinners, holidays, and creating memories that I absolutely cherish to this day.  Like that time we decided to have both of our families over for a ‘Christmukkah’ celebration and my 90-something year old grandmother revealed her die hard love for egg nog and whiskey! Who knew?  A blending of traditions can be a truly beautiful thing.

Anyway, we talked about moving to Colorado for a VERY long time before Ryan contacted a real estate agent to list our house in Dallas. And that one decision was the catalyst for SO much change that eventually led to this present moment: me sitting by the fire and Christmas tree in Leadville, CO blogging about how this all came to be (and yes, the tree is still up on December 31st).

I remember back in May 2013, when we sat at our kitchen table in Dallas with our realtor and discussed all of our selling options and I could feel my anxiety rising by the minute because we had NO PLAN beyond listing our house.  I felt my body becoming more tense, my breath becoming short and shallow and my mind started spinning with the dreaded ‘what ifs.’  We got an offer on that house 3 days after listing it and we had 24 hours to make a decision! (Insert panic!) Obviously we accepted and moved out quite quickly.  However, we had no place to live for the summer because my job in Denver didn’t start until August.  So we moved in with my very generous and accommodating in-laws for 3 months before we finally said goodbye to that Texas heat and hello to those beautiful mountains!

All throughout this process, I struggled with letting go of control because I worried about EVERY little detail: where would we live in Denver? Would we find somewhere we could afford?  How long would it take for Ryan to find a job?  How would the dogs adjust to living in an apartment?  Would Harley make it through the winter?  And on and on and on….

Since we took that leap of faith and moved to Colorado (4.5 years ago now), I have learned so much about surrender and trust – especially through our move to Leadville.  You see, while I fell back in love with being an OT in my new job, I am only PRN (as mentioned earlier, I technically work only on an ‘as needed’ basis) and that lack of job security created a lot of money fear for me.  Would I be able to get enough hours to help pay our bills? How will we make it work during slow season when the hospital is dead? Will there be other opportunities to earn extra income? How? What are they?  What do I need to do to prepare? etc…

And let me tell you something: living in fear is absolutely exhausting!  So what did I do to combat this wretched way of living? I invested in myself and signed up for a 12 week coaching course called The Great Big Journey.  Through that process with the guidance of any amazing intuitive coach, I started to release my fears and eventually made a major shift into faith and trust.  I started to trust the universe to provide for us.  I trusted myself to be open to make changes according to those little nudges from the universe.  Like closing a business that no longer served me and just did not feel right. And accordingly decided to follow the callings of the universe and I signed up to become a student again – with the end goal of becoming a certified wellness coach.  Ultimately, 2017 helped me let go of that illusion of control in order to attain emotional freedom!  Talk about a MAJOR SHIFT! And do I know what 2018 will bring?  Nope! Not a clue.  BUT I am 100% confident in the following things:

1. ) It will undoubtedly bring me a lot of lessons and growth, if I am willing to maintain an open mind and heart.

2.) It will bring abundant blessings if I can continue to foster a mindset based in trust and gratitude.

3.) It will surprise me! No doubt about it – every new year brings unexpected challenges and blessings, but it’s all about going with the flow of life, instead of trying to control the weather and waters (which let’s be honest, we can’t control anyway!).

2017 was the culmination of a lifelong vision of living that #MountainLife!  It brought us our dream home here in Leadville and helped us create space for new dreams and goals in the future.  And I celebrate that accomplishment and all that space for the unknown. I’ll be honest though, it has been hard at times to let get of certain things and relationships through this transition but I can’t wait to see what this next year of life will bring.  It just feels so full of possibility and magic, doesn’t it? 💫

2017: Thank you for keeping it real and helping me grow.

And for this everyday view from my front porch.

With immense gratitude and excitement,

Sondra