I was in Colorado a few weeks ago, visiting a dear friend of mine, Sophie, who was a fellow pre-schoolmate of mine at the Huguenot Pre-School in New Paltz. After 14 years of having mutual connections and friends, but not being in contact with one another specifically, we met again during our senior year in our respective high schools. We both worked at the Gilded Otter as waitstaff and Sophie approached me only to find out that I WAS the Leah Kragh that she used to glue sparkles onto construction paper with. During college we were in one anothers periphery as friends but knew that we just got along famously. With such an “abbreviated” friendship as she and I like to refer to it as, we would spend any time that lent itself to sipping hot coffees from the local shops and hiking the mountains that our hometown was outlined by. In June 2010, I moved to Martha’s Vineyard and Sophie moved to Colorado. But somehow, we just sort of knew that we would see each other soon.

Fast Forward: It is a chilly February day and I am in my office, 10 floors above the busy streets of midtown Manhattan. I am feeling city fever and I need to get out. What better way to remedy it than to hop on the computer (conveniently always in front of me- ew) and sign onto ticketmaster and buy tickets for a concert (Trevor Hall, enough said) in Denver, Colorado. That was how I locked myself into buying the plane ticket; jetBlue website was next. One way. CHECK. The way back. CHECK. And just like that: I was going to Colorado (not without talking to Sophie first, of course!) I legitimized it because it was a few days after my birthday- a gift from me to myself. Something that we should all do from time to time. 

Anyway, what I am getting to is…When I was there, we drove up to Estes Park which is a part of the Rockies. While we were up there, I think that it is fair for me to assume that a familiar feeling came over both of us; I know it wasn’t just me. The fresh air, the outside world and all that it has to offer us, the sensations that it brings on. We discussed a myriad of different topics; conversations that time never allowed us to venture to before. One of the topics was different drugs and what the onset of them brings to a person. A notable discussion was about a drug called DMT. This is the chemical that is released when you die, when you are born and when you dream. Think about it for yourself for just a minute. WHEN YOU DIE, DREAM and AT BIRTH. These are three very specific, intense and essential moments in a persons life; unlike any other moments. I think that we can all agree to that? Moreover, I cannot imagine taking a drug that attempts to duplicate any of these experiences. What would you be living through? A preemptive death? A second birth? Or just a dream session added to those that you encounter when you lay down in bed at night?So then riddle me this: WHEN YOU DREAM=WHEN YOU DIE and WHEN YOU DIE=WHEN YOU ARE BORN and WHEN YOU ARE BORN=WHEN YOU DREAM?

Picture feeling the air that is fresher than ice, mountains practically engulfing your every fiber and this idea being tossed out into the atmosphere with nothing but your mind deep in thought, trying to grasp it back from the wind whirling in spirals, big and small, around you. And you remember that you are in good company. That is how I felt up there.