In Memory of Dr. Bledsoe, "Daddio"

I spent a month in Aspen, Colorado this summer. Aspen means so much more to me than just a beautiful place where there is great (expensive) shopping and a great music festival. Aspen is a healing place.
Last year, I went to the music festival two months after I lost my dad. The mountains were one of his favorite places to go. He actually lived in the North Georgia hills and spent a lot of his time "rambling" around the country looking for new places and visiting old places. He told me before he died that he wanted to visit me in Aspen if I got to go. At the last minute, I did get to go.
Those two months last summer were some of the hardest I have ever experienced, but also the most healing. You cannot not joy or peace without experiencing the counterpart, pain.
Every day, I rode the bus into town to the festival and cried the entire way. I would walk the trails and look at the mountains and ache for my dad. One time, I even thought I saw him and it ripped my heart out. However, amongst all this pain, there was a cleansing and purifying aspect to that mountain town that I couldn't realize or even truly appreciate until I went back home. Maybe it is the way the wildflowers grow, or the still and grandeur of the Rockies, or maybe it is the feeling of being small as I watched storms form and sweep through the valleys. I found a huge part of myself and a great understanding and appreciation for my dad last year. He did come see me (spiritually speaking). I found him again, and even more of myself, this time in Aspen. The air seemed even cleaner, the flowers and mountains so much more beautiful. I found myself letting go and becoming stronger. Aspen is a place like no other that will always be a place of peace and revitalization for me.