My Colorado

Colorado Moments

Colorado Balloon Festival
© Matt Inden/ Weaver Multimedia

By Theresa Malone Clode

So, I'll admit it. I'm not a Colorado native, and truth be told, I just couldn't get my head around moving here. We were living overseas at the time and I had fallen in love with the Third World culture of Indonesia. The archipelago's gentle people, tropical jungles and unspoiled beaches had touched my soul and rewired me from the inside out. I had nearly "gone native"—island native, that is.

But as Indonesia's dense humid heat, monsoon rains and verdant rice paddies seeped into my veins, Colorado's mile-high air, lapis skies and ubiquitous red rocks gradually found their own way into my heart.

Landing in Denver fast-forwarded me into the 21st century. Traffic for me had not been multi-laned, vehicle-choked I-70 or I-25, but a herd of goats, several water buffalo or a six-foot monitor lizard laying claim to more than their share of a dirt road in the jungle.

The first time I purchased gas here in Colorado, the gas pump spoke to me. I felt like I had landed on another planet. I was used to pulling my Jeep into a dirt courtyard full of chickens and barefooted children to get my gas from a gentleman in a sarong, who used his mouth to siphon the gas from a rusty oil drum into a hose and then my tank. I'd bow in thanks, and off I'd go, the kids running after me.

While standing at the talking gas pump here in Colorado, I longed for my sarong-wearing friend.

Still, the day I was dazzled by a new-fallen snow and its millions of rainbow-colored crystals while cross country skiing through a valley of millennium-old red rocks, I felt my spirit opening to Colorado. Or perhaps I felt Colorado's spirit opening a new part of me. And just when I thought that was enough, I heard a quiet hush above my head. I looked up to see an enormous jewel-colored hot air balloon cresting the top of a cinnamon spire, framed by the sapphire blue sky. I was humbled. I was blessed. I was home.

I've since had many of what I now call "my Colorado moments." A stream glinting silver spilling down a mountain washed in new spring green, an eight-point buck taking a break in the shade under our trampoline, the impossible burning gold of autumn's aspens. And though I am not a native, every morning for those few magic minutes when the mountains behind our house glow phosphorescent orange, purple or pink, my heart swells and I thank my lucky stars I landed here, in Colorado.

Your Turn

Do you have a special memory or humorous story about living in Colorado? EnCompass is looking for original essays that capture the uniqueness of our state. Payment is $60 upon publication. Entries must be typed, double-spaced and 350-450 words. Please include a daytime phone number. Entries will not be returned. Mail to: EnCompass, Attn: My Colorado, 4100 E. Arkansas Ave., Denver, CO 80222, or email: editor@colorado.aaa.com. A response to a submission may take six to eight weeks.