Hello and welcome to An Altitude Problem, where there is finally payoff. Right now, in Summit County, we would not be loving life. We would be in the middle of spring break, dealing with barf and slush and crowds of really bad drivers on roads designed for a fourth of the traffic. We would not be skiing except at night on weekdays. If we could negotiate a few hours off work, we would be seeking out the backcountry, with it's extremely unstable snow and dangerously windloaded aspects, fearing to go on inclines of more than a 30 degree angle and wishing for the season to end so we could take our celebratory and inevitably rainy mountain biking trip to Fruita or Moab.

But in Western KS, life is kinda alright. It is close to 70 degrees and only mildly breezy. (And why, you ask, do I sit inside and blog on such a rare gift of a day? Good point. I will be going for a run soon. Then I will soak up every ray of sun my winter-white skin can handle. But at the moment, my low blood sugar has me thinking I need to eat first, but the energy to do so has gone the way of my blood sugar. So it is easier to type for a moment.) Since writing the words "mountain biking trip", I got this physically painful longing to be on my bike, crisp mountain air and hot sun, sage and pine. But there is other stuff to like. I keep repeating this to myself. Other stuff. Like warm, quiet days in the middle of March. Other stuff.

My post-breakdown prying-my-butt-off-the-couch has come full circle by now. Thanks. I rebounded in a big, scarily enthusiastic way. I enrolled in online school for the next two years, The Institute for Integrative Nutrition, to become a health coach. I set wheels in motion for a community garden, and eventually, hopefully, community greenhouse to become a reality. I called a "local" (by local, I mean only 90 miles away) yoga instructor to inquire after the best way to turn my love of flowing, stretchy poses into an (most likely pitiful) income in a western Kansas town. I am inquiring and kicking over rocks, trying to devise a workeable business plan for a zen little wellness center and whole foods retail in the middle of a factory farming community. And I feel like I was always going to do this, I just never knew it until now. I am amazingly calm about this. If I can't make humans, I can help the ones who are here get more out of life. And if I should happen to suddenly discover one growing down there in my possibly broken regions, it is a life that can accomodate it. I am feeling so good, not being stagnant anymore. It took a few months of living luxuriously unemployed before I realized what it was doing to my mental stability and self esteem. I have realized that my personality must always be reaching to appreciate what I already hold. Personality flaw or strength? I don't know. A little of both.

And now, a salad calls my name, as does a golden retriever, the best he knows how. Perhaps at a later date I shall go into the particulars of school, wellness center, and community garden ventures, but for today, there will be good times and sunshine. Ahhh....