For columnist Laura Pritchett, a 6-year-old letter to her future self revealed an overstretched woman yearning for calm and laughter. And it allowed her to measure her progress.

Laura Pritchett
Laura Pritchett: An appreciation of time and health in a stretch of rampant illness
Columnist Laura Pritchett found the weight of emotional and physical symptoms of illness all around her drove home the importance of saving for a long-anticipated family trip.
Laura Pritchett: Reconnecting with nature at Aldo Leopold’s early home
For Laura Pritchett, a month living in the former residence of the author of an enduring “land ethic” prompted reflection on both landscape and cultural heritage.
Laura Pritchett: The pitfalls and importance of political participation
In a close-knit rural community, standing up for candidates and issues can be a fraught endeavor. But silence isn’t an option.
Laura Pritchett: Curiosity helps define our love of Colorado
Once we’ve discovered Colorado’s wonders, the next step is protecting and preserving them in all their glory.
Laura Pritchett: Over the Gunnison Valley, airplanes and acronyms converged
Three things are true: One: I crush on my birth state and forever state of Colorado. Two: I do not crush on acronyms. I loathe them. I loathe them because they generally signal something suspiciously complicated; meetings with too many acronyms make me want a whiskey. Three: Yet I crush on my job shepherding students […]
Laura Pritchett: Feverish reverie and collapsed time mark COVID’s silver lining
I will admit I thought it would be milder. I’m vaxxed and boosted and eat my veggies (metaphorically and literally), so when the two lines appeared on the COVID test, I thought I’d have a few days of snot and cough. It’s good to be humbled, I suppose. It’s good to be proved dead wrong. […]
Laura Pritchett: Graduates, embrace that wonderful “catastrophe” called life
Congratulations, Colorado graduates. This month, you are graduating from high school or college or trade school, and soon many of you will find yourselves wearing some cheap-silk robe thing and a wackadoodle hat, which you’d never be caught dead in otherwise. On top of this atrocity, you will also be subjected to an ancient tradition, […]
Laura Pritchett: When it comes to rites of spring, bring on the Bear Dance
As someone not particularly fond of the last miserable, windy throes of winter, I’ll take any spring ceremony I can get. I need to release my grumbles, need to rev up my energy for all the exploring warmer months will bring. And as someone who is fascinated by bears, particularly the whole wonderful idea of […]
Laura Pritchett: Just passing through, sandhill cranes remind us of the peace in wild things
Nuclear forces on high alert. Two million evacuees. Photos of bloody children and haunted eyes. The potential for escalation. The knowledge that humans have the weaponry to end all life, shatter this amazing, spinning blue ball, and that our economies and power structures and governments and egos have put those weapons into the hands of […]