I step down into the brisk current of the river, wondering if I will be able to stay upright while the rushing water tries to push me downstream. I’m a year older than last season, and walking on snot-covered bowling balls against the chilling current of spring runoff is not a job for amateurs or old men. Fortunately, my dog and I make it across the river without incident. I shuffle ahead and begin casting flies upstream in pursuit of the wild brown trout that inhabits the river.

A city council chamber is a sacred place. The architecture is distinct—the wooden dais, with a raised crescent shape to both facilitate conversation and differentiate the elected council from community members, and the podium for citizens to take the stand to make public comment. What makes it sacred, is the work neighbors do to shape the future of their neighborhoods. A city council meeting is where an elected group of neighbors come together with the responsibility to care for both people and place. 

In the heart of the Sunnyside neighborhood is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the well-being of youth in Denver. Save Our Youth was founded in response to the tumultuous "summer of violence" in Denver in 1993. It provides one-to-one mentorship to young people ages 10-17 as a pathway to help them overcome adverse experiences and learn to embrace hope. To cultivate the belief that they can have something better, and they have a role to play in making it better. With over three decades of faithful presence and practice, Save Our Youth has walked alongside thousands of youths, providing mentoring relationships that nurture spiritual, emotional, and economic hope. 

The counseling office is a sacred place. It is sacred because it provides a place to uncover past pain, practice health, and reenter relationships and the world around us with increased stability and clarity. “It’s a confessional,” says Kelley Gray in our conversation about her counseling office as a sacred place. With conviction and compassion, she continues, “People say things they’ve never said out loud—things they’ve maybe been haunted by for years. I hold it with them and the unburdening I see people experience in here is sacred.”

The state capitol is a sacred place. It serves not only as a government building where hundreds of citizens work each day, but a landmark that has over 300,000 visitors each year. The official elevation of Denver at 5,280 feet is measured on the west steps outside the Colorado State Capitol