Dear Denver,

Dear Denver,

I know I didn't visit you long...but you were my first taste of the wild wild west.
And so I feel like you deserve some acknowledgement:

I'm not sure what I expected when I visited...I had so many preconceived notions of what you might look like and smell like and sound like.

Thank you for not disappointing, Denver.

You were absolutely wonderful.

Thank you for showing me the wide-open - your open skies and your green prairies...your beautiful, breezy summer nights and snow-capped mountain ranges.
I loved their constant presence around the city and their quiet reminder to keep my head up.
I loved feeling small beneath them.

Thank you for the pianos on 16th Street Mall...and for the music that constantly floated from them. There's nothing like walking to get morning coffee with happy notes floating on the breeze.
It made everything so much brighter.

I know it sounds crazy, but thank you for my first encounter with a prairie dog.
They sure are different than the squirrels and chipmunks in North Carolina and I can't remember the last time an animal had me so excited.

Thank you for early mornings of quiet and for beautiful sun rises...for only 2 hours of jet lag that served as the most perfect, beautiful time of prayer in the morning.

Thank you for green chili and for thousands of food trucks and for the largest REI I've ever been to in my entire life. I'm pretty sure I had goosebumps.

Thank you for giving me a chance to see the Lord's heart towards so many lost people...and for showing me love through smiles from homeless men and women.

Thanks for revealing rivers in the wasteland.

But thank you for also giving me time with my Padre.
And for giving me a spontaneous few days away...I love trips like that.

You were an adventure.
And I needed it this weekend.

Thank you, Denver.
I know I'll be back - you've got so much to explore and I'm not quite finished yet.

So, until next time,

Graysie

“Forget the former things;

    do not dwell on the past. 

See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness...streams in the wasteland." 

isaiah 43:18-19