Juggling Roles Requires Balance And Perspective

In my life, I play many roles—wife, sister, mother, nana, mayor and more. Every role has specific responsibilities. Each one provides special rewards and has unique challenges. All require time, thought and energy. Usually, I don’t play more one role at a time. The past week was an exception.

The juggling of roles began in Cortez, Colorado. Husband Roger and I had traveled there to care for grandson Daxton while supporting daughter Kristin and her husband Chris as they participated in a bike race that lasted nearly nine hours. Each lap around the mesas above the Montezuma County Fairgrounds was 16miles. Kristin was part of a three-person relay team, Chris, a team of two. I juggled two roles while hanging out in the exchange area with Roger and Daxton. Then juggled another couple of roles each time Kristin and Chris came and went. And juggled yet another role, while watching how some racers responded to the unforgiving loop, I let my mind wander and it began reflecting about how as mayor I must remember when working people, that each person, like the racers I was watching, process the events and information differently.

Midday, with the big race still going on, Daxton entered a bike race for kids. He had to choose to either bike in a circle around a barn at the fairgrounds or do a mountain loop. He chose the mountain loop, then told me that as a five-year-old he could have a pusher help him up the hills. At that moment, nana, his pusher of choice, enlisted his two teenage brothers to hand that role off to. I explained nanas are better cheerer’s than pushers. Thanks to some role juggling by his nana the cheerer and his brothers the pushers, Daxton got up the hills and barreled across the finish line in fifth place… and kept going for another lap as we all yelled for Daxton to stop! As the busy day came to a close with a 9:30 p.m. fifth birthday party for Daxton, this pooped-out wife, mother, nana and cheerer was grateful her grandson has lots of enthusiasm and great older brothers and parents he wants to emulate.

The next day, Roger and I drove to Las Vegas. There, two days later we’d celebrate sister Debbie’s and my birthdays by attending the Beatles Love show by Cirque de Solei. In the meantime, while we waited for the show, when not doing sister stuff with Debbie, we did some sightseeing. One place we went was Hoover Dam. Standing on the massive dam and its 6.6 million tons of concrete, I shifted from sister to mayor role. Seeing the low water line etched on the cliffs of the channel that leads to the dam, I thought about the difficulties population and climate change are having on the water supply of the area. I then thought about the dam at Lake Estes, its clean and abundant water source, the water department and sanitation districts that protect and sustain it and the good fortune of the townspeople of Estes Park and the people in the valley below.

On the way home, I spent lots of time reflecting on the experiences of the trip. As I did, I came to clearly see that recent events and places had helped me gain a deeper understanding of the people in my life, the uniqueness of Estes Park, and the roles I play with both. Sometimes, in order to benefit each I must do some juggling, and that requires some balance and perspective.

Please read, heed, and weed responsibly!

The Estes Land Stewardship Association (ELSA) has been serving the Estes Valley for over 16 years in promoting good land stewardship, weed identification and education, and free educational materials including the most popular Twenty Ob-Noxious Weeds in the Estes Valley Identification and Management Guide. Now is the time to remove mature noxious weeds that contain seeds that will be next year’s -- and many more years -- weeds. The first Monitored Weed Drop-off will be held Saturday, June 17 from 9:00 a.m. to noon located north of the Waste Management transfer station at 666 Elm Road. No early birds or illegal drop-offs; the gate will be closed until the 9:00 a.m start. Do not block the driveway entrance shared with recycling. The line will form up-thehill/north of the entrance on the eastside of Elm Road. Estes Land Stewardship Association (ELSA) volunteers will be on hand to answer weed questions ata-distance and direct traffic flow. You will unload your paper yard bags into the dumpster or truck. We have limited dumpster capacity, so a maximum ten paper yard bag limit will be imposed –no plastic bags. When we are at full capacity, the drop-off will end. Noxious weeds only, not native plants! No slash, pine needles, pine cones, trash, yard waste or dirt! Please remove/shake off dirt from plant roots. Excessive weight of wet weeds and dirt is a safety hazard for our volunteers. Bag flowers and seed heads rather than entire plants. Read our weekly Estes Valley’s Weed Alert articles (published April through September) to help identify invasive plants and manage seed producing plant parts for disposal. Unauthorized drop-offs at this location (w/video surveillance) are considered theft of services. No bags of non-noxious weed materials and general yard waste