Following the departure of their sons from home, Bill, and Rebecca moved on to the realization, and manifestation of a long-held dream.  A return to the land.  They purchased twenty-six acres in northern Colorado, and established, what became, and continues in its evolution as Heart Space Farms.  Long ago when asked “Who am I?” a Shaman replied, “I dreamt you up.”  Heart Space Farms is grounded in the concept Universal Responsibility.  Do not imagine, rather image, and allow all who would, to enter, and guide you.  As such, Heart Space Farms is residence to a multitude of rescued, rehomed, and adopted spirits of the Animal World, including a retired thoroughbred (Patrick), three donkeys (Skittles, Bebes, and Otto), thirteen goats (Adams, Jackson, Sundance, Bruno, Owen, Atticus, Zelda, Chet, Ace, John W., Bessie, Amelia, and Neil), eleven chickens (all named), two dogs (Max, and Lloyd, and Preu), three cats (Eddie, Maude, and Itzchel), and two colonies of honey bees.  There is also a 375 SF greenhouse, abundant with tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, beets, cucumbers, dill, basil, cilantro, eggplant, carrots, and marigolds the size of lemons.  There are walking meditation paths.  And a Medicine Wheel.

So, if the decision is made to work together, you will be asked to enter the farm, and its teachings, as the journey towards recovery is undertaken.  You will be asked to engage in chores, and confront those things out of your comfort zone.  A nineteen hand horse, donkeys whose eyes are windows to your soul, and goats whose sideways eyes ask you to view things from the different perspective, and also to share in its bounties of eggs, produce, and honey.

The law provides legal solutions, but the problems which make the law’s intervention necessary are fundamentally human, and addressing one, without invitation to explore the other renders resolution meaningless as:

“In all the creation and all the life, you will go through, know that the beauty is ahead of you.  As you walk the beauty is behind you, below you, and above you.  That’s the way you should think about yourself.  Entering the beauty is realizing that you’re in the beauty.  You must fully appreciate the life that has (been) given you and take care of it.”

* Connor, Nancy, ed. “Walking Thunder: Dine Medicine Woman.” Essay. In Shamans of the World: Extraordinary First-Person Accounts of Healings, Mysteries, and Miracles, 44. Sounds True, 2008.

Bill was born in Denver, Colorado, but grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He received his B.A. from the University of Michigan, with a major in Political Science, and a minor in Economics.

He attended the Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon where he received his J.D. in 1982, but even more importantly met his wife Rebecca.  Bill has been admitted to practice law in New Mexico, Washington, Colorado, the United States Districts of New Mexico, Colorado, and the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.  His father was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.  Initially, Bill was a Public Defender in Roswell (never encountered a UFO), and Albuquerque, New Mexico.  In 1989 Bill, and his wife, Rebecca returned to Colorado, and settled in Fort Collins where they raised their family of two sons.  Their oldest, Davin, is a United States Army veteran of seven years, having been deployed for two tours of duty in Iraq as a Cavalry Scout.  He then returned to El Paso, Texas where he worked for Untied States Congressman, and 2020 presidential candidate, Beto O’Rourke.  When Congressman O’Rourke asked Davin to join his office in Washington D.C., he completed his undergraduate degree in Public Health at The George Washington University.  Davin is now a M.D. Candidate, Class of 2023, at Virginia Tech Carillion School of Medicine, in Roanoke, Virginia, where he is an aspiring trauma surgeon.  He lives with his wife Erika, and their two sons, Aedan, and Caleb.  Their younger son, Evan graduated from The University of Montana with a degree in Environmental Studies/Justice after which he spent three years in New Orleans, Louisiana as an AmeriCorps Volunteer in the New Orleans Public Schools.  While in New Orleans Evan obtained his Educator’s Certification.  Evan also holds a M.Ed. Summa Cum Laude from Johns Hopkins University, and is now an Elementary Education Teacher (5th grade) in Tacoma, Washington, where he lives with his long-time girlfriend Leah, and their dog General Patton.  Bill’s wife, Rebecca, has a B.A. in History from Lewis & Clark College, a M.Ed. from The University of New Mexico, and an M.F.A. in Short Fiction from Warren Wilson College, and is currently an English Language Development coordinator/teacher.  In addition to his legal credentials Bill has completed the Colorado Bar Association 40 Hour Mediation Training, and Compassion Cultivation Training as offered by The Center For Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, Stanford University of Medicine.  He has been specially admitted to The University of Iowa Graduate Writer’s Workshop (poetry), and has studied with two Poetry Pulitzer Prize winners, Jorie Graham, and Frank Bidart.  He holds a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from the University of Colorado Denver where he was the recipient of the school’s Career Landscape Architecture Graphic Communications Award.  His volunteer activities are continuous, and numerous.

It’s complicated.