I caught some sleep during the short interlude between frenzied barking dogs and the crowing roosters. It wasn’t enough. I won’t lie, this Mexico trip wasn’t easy, and in all the cliché ways: A grapefruit-sized whip spider shedding its exoskeleton on the bathroom ceiling, a scorpion skittering down the hallway, tiny biting ants stinging my […]
Laura Pritchett
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Pritchett: As it finally arrives, I’ve written a love letter to snow
If water is the essence of life, then snow is its most playful expression. Consider the wackiness of snow: It’s one of nature’s most fragile compositions, yet its heft can cause great damage. Each flake so tiny—often .05 inch—but from one comes large swaths of blizzards! And while it’s certainly wet, fresh snow is 90% […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Pritchett: In honor of our children, let’s demand solutions to gun violence
On Valentine’s Day — a day of love — parents across Fort Collins received emails informing us our children had been in a lockdown drill at roughly the same time that 17 children were being killed in Florida. This was in 2018, but I remember my kids’ stunned faces as they told me their drill instructions, which included advice such as: “If running to safety is not […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Pritchett: In praise of Colorado and grizzly bears and especially Enos Mills
Coloradans love their state, and I am no exception, and with each new season comes a new kind of love. Me, I take a cue from the bears: Fall signals hibernation, which signals books, which signals reading about my state, particularly the areas I’ve just tromped through in summer months. After all, as they say, […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Pritchett: Coming to grips with the daunting Alzheimer’s elevator ride
About two decades ago, my father stood outside a Denver apartment and wouldn’t get in the elevator because he didn’t know what it was. We were helping my brother move, and we were both hot and tired and hungry and had heavy boxes in our arms, and so when he said, “What’s this?” I snipped, […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Pritchett: If this is the coolest year of the rest of our lives, it’s time for action
I recently overheard a climate scientist say this zinger: “This may be the coolest year of the rest of your life.” Ooof. The weight sank heavy. To hear such a comment in the middle of a heat dome, the worst air quality in the world, flooding and resultant mudslides, and August heat—well, it hurts. More […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Pritchett: In the wake of megafires, forest restoration also nurtures our souls
The Poudre Canyon calls to me—most of my free time this summer has been spent exploring this area of northern Colorado. For one thing, it’s the canyon nearest my home, and the one I have the longest history with, but I’m also am fascinated by the recovery from what was Colorado’s largest wildfire last year, […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Pritchett: Re-engaging post-COVID is like riding a bike. It might involve a wobble before a steady ride.
My first professional gathering in this Brave New World—you know, the kind with more than pajama bottoms required—was at the Mountain Words Literary Festival last month. As with everything, it had been rescheduled and hybridized, and I arrived unsure if I’d speak with a mask, without a mask, outside, inside, half on Zoom, none on […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Pritchett: For parents in a pandemic, it’s more an open nest than an empty one
My two college-age children live 10 minutes away from me, a distance we uniformly agree is pretty ideal, being that we sincerely like and love each other — and want to keep it that way. Parenting was the best and most satisfying creative endeavor of my life, and launching them has been rife with the […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Pritchett: You’re going to die. So now what are you going to do about it?
My position on death? I’m against it. That said, I will concede I lose that argument, and that moreover, my opinion has never even mattered. Die I will. And I am not alone in this — you will die, too. After all, death, darn it, just happens. Globally, about 65 million people die each year, […]