Life on the Farm

I hope you have a BFF.  A best friend who has been in your life and by your side for a good long time.  There is a saying that we meet people for a reason, a season or a lifetime.  In many ways this is a truism.  People have come into my circle for a short stint, a few years, and even eons.  I have a few gal pals that I have known a while, but my friend Lily is my BFF - FOREVER!  (redundant, I know...)

Lily and I met in 1979 in Denver.  We may not agree if that fateful meeting took place at The Breakfast Inn on Evans, or Bob's Big Boy on Hampden, but we do concur it was over a morning meal.  I met Lily before I met my now former husband.  I'm pretty sure it was before she knew her lifelong partner, Bob.  But I'll have to ask her.  Some mysteries in relationships are good.

We started hanging out when SE Denver was a long way from downtown, the Tech Center was in its infancy and a trip to Shepler's required a companion because it was a trek. There were a few haunts on Evans that served Coors and Jack Daniels, but our favorite by far was The Pelican Inn.  It had a sign that boasted "Warm Beer & Lousy Food" and it didn't have to try hard to live up to its slogan.  This is when porcelain ashtrays were still made in Golden and we freely smoked Marlboros indoors.  This joint served peanuts in little silver buckets and when you asked the waitress to empty your shells so you could eat more, she gladly complied by tossing the peanut shells over her shoulder, onto the floor.  North Denver was  - well - North Denver.  Anywhere north or west of downtown was considered North Denver. And neighborhoods had steadfast names like Globeville or Swansea.  RiNo wasn't even a seed in a hipsters marketing brain.  But I digress.

Lily has always been straightforward and honest.  She has an entrepreneurial spirit that I've never seen in another human being.  She is a doer, an innovator.  I love talking business with her and we thrive on long brainstorming sessions.  Her newest project is an agri-tourist destination in Keenesburg, Co.  These eighty acres of organic farmland will grow the botanicals needed for her amazing skin care line Lily Farm Fresh Skin Care.  Now the farm center is new, but Lily is the pioneer of organic skin care in Colorado.  Since 1986 Lily has been handcrafting a skin care line that is beneficial to our complexions and the planet.  I could go on and on about how great her products are because I use them!

In addition to being able to see how the herbs and oils are transformed into high quality skin care, this great big barn of a building will be a wedding and event venue.  It is so Colorado to host a farm wedding.  Brides in boots, grooms in cowboy hats, photos ops in front of tractors.  The views from the veranda are sweeping; Pikes Peak to the south and Longs Peak to the north.  The east side of the center faces The Wild Animal Sanctuary.  I can only imagine I Do's being followed by a lions roar.  This place is destined to be a top wedding spot on the Front Range.

The excitement of this project is personal to me.  I am a former event planner and might have had a slight hand in encouraging Lily to expand this farm center to include an event space.  I love consulting with her on table sizes, a catering kitchen, preferred vendors and all the other minutia that are the ingredients for a bride's special day.  The 80% finished tour I had earlier this week gives me much promise that this endeavor will be warmly appreciated by those looking for an event on a farm.  A real farm.  An organic farm.  Did I mention that Lily is keeping over 220 acres of Colorado farmland organic?  Just so you know!

In the lottery of friends, I hit the jackpot.  We have disagreed on hot topic issues, but have never argued.  We have different visions of the perfect place to live and that is just fine.  I like the suburban life where everything I enjoy is close at hand.  Lily likes to live where she can hear the grass rustle, see the cattle roam, experience the expansive earth.  Lots of friends allow differences to pull them apart over the years.  Not so for us.  I embrace Lily's connection to the earth.  Her commitment shows both in her lifestyle and in her business model.  I am so honored to know this lady for 39 years and counting,  But not too much counting, 'cause that is getting to be a BIG number!!

Who is your best friend?  Have you ever taken the time to evaluate why this person is special to you?  This blog post may seem like an homage to Lily, but it was more of a way for me to reflect on this unique lady and my fortune to call her my friend.  I imagine sitting on the porch of The Lily Farm Fresh Event Center with my BFF and reminiscing about Denver in the good old days, our grandkids (only one now, but more on the way), our beaus...  everything!  She is still the only person who can get me to stay up till 2am chatting!  We can talk forever and never run out of topics to tackle.

Time to Write,

Jane