Colorado

Last Monday, I flew to the States to spend two weeks in Colorado.

I’ll admit, I was a little worried.

My mom even wrote to me, “Cancel your trip” (but she worries wherever I go).

Someone replied to my Instagram story saying they were “worried people keep going to the United States during this period.”

Well. I am traveling to our southern neighbor.

Customs was the smoothest I’ve ever experienced.

Flying over Minneapolis, I couldn’t help but feel into the movement happening there.

We’re living in a very interesting era.

“You shouldn’t travel to the States.”

And I wonder — why shouldn’t I?

Over the past few years, I’ve made many friends south of the border.

I’ve attended multiple trainings with a majority of American participants — including the one I’m about to assist with here in Colorado.

I’ve also traveled to Europe for trainings, when I’ve had the capacity to pay in euros and absorb the jet lag.

I love observing how group dynamics shift depending on where a training happens.

The content may be similar, but the field is shaped by the people, the place, and the moment in time.

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I believe there is no better way to understand a culture than by being there.

Feeling the land, the places, the cities, the food.

Meeting real people — those you don’t see in movies or as tourists elsewhere.

I first visited the U.S. at 15, on a road trip through Arizona, Nevada, and California. I was struck by how huge everything felt.

How do you relate to the rest of the world when your country is the size of a continent?

Driving through Colorado these past days, I felt something similar — majestic landscapes, endless roads, deep contrasts, infinite blue sky.

As I’m about to enter a week-long container with mostly American participants, and as some team members share their grief around current events, I find myself quiet and still — a witness, an insider-outsider.

I feel grateful to be here.

To support this work.

To bring an outside perspective into the field.

And to be inspired.

In these troubled times, I believe it’s even more important to keep these connections alive and to hold multiple perspectives.

And for us non-Americans to remember: they are humans living through these events — people who are aching, fighting, and hoping.