August 2016
How do you share Crestone
with loved ones who visit?
Rainbow Adler
My daughter came, and she knows that I really felt like I was led here. Miss Kimberly told me that she found a place that I want to live. And the way she said it. And then she invited me to come and would drive me down here and we would check it out. So we got to town, and in the morning we looked, and here are these dogs all gathered around and schmoozing with one another – there were about 20 dogs! – and I said, “well, if this is the way the dogs are, the people must be wonderful!” So, I called my husband and said, “Bob, you need to come out here and see where we’re gonna live.” Just right away, I was definitely drawn here.
We’ve taken our friends to the Sand Dunes, and don’t forget to take people to the UFO Watchtower. And there’s Hooper Pool, and for those who like to go swimming nude, we have that wonderful Valley View. Joyful Journey’s pools are great because they can pick the temperature of where they want to be. Basically, it’s just to walk them around and introduce them to all my friends because everyone’s just so friendly and loving. So, the people who come feel extremely welcome.
Noah Baen
Well, when I lived in New York, the only times you’d ever get to the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building or the Staten Island Fairy. In Crestone, our equivalent is like the Stupa and the Ashram, the hot springs, and almost everyone loves going to the big Stupa because the view is so fantastic. There’s people who I’ve hosted here who really only know about the Sand Dunes, and that’s what they come for. And I’m trying to open their eyes a little bit, like “hey, there’s 23 Spiritual Centers; hey, there’s a vortex,” ya know? “Pick up on the vibe here!” And most people get into that. I had some in-laws who wanted to go to the hot springs, and wanted to go to the Sand Dunes, and hang out, and that’s cool. You can take people out at night and have them look at the stars, which is a real Crestone experience. Oh, and the Ziggurat! And if you’re here on a full moon day, there’s the drumming circle up by the campground. And now I also tell ‘em to make sure and check out the sidewalks, because they’re so new. And I helped Beatris paint the mural, so I tell them, “Go look at the mural I painted!”
Scott Norris
When people come to visit here, which is rare for me (laughing), I usually like to get ‘em outside and go hiking or climbing. It seems like most of my friends are also climbers, so when they show up we usually go out and throw a rope out and do a little climbing and just experience the days here. Hopefully that’s in some of those nicer months – September, October and March are when I tell people to come – my 3 favorite months here.
When my mom came out to visit, she really enjoyed just going up to North Crestone campground, and she didn’t really have to go through a lot of effort or anything, but she got to experience the beauty of it and the sounds of the nature, and that whole feeling.
I like just sharing the natural beauty that exists here and I find that people really appreciate and see the beauty of what we have here in the absence of everything that’s out in the “real world,” so I think that’s really what I like to share with people when they come here is being able to shed all of the hustle and bustle and the phonetic energy that exists out there and kinda get here and be able to slow down and just listen to the water in the streams or watch the sunset and hike in the mountains and do some climbin’!
Kyle Gardner
I think it’s a really hard place to share with people in a small amount of time. My lessons here have always been over a long period of time, so to bottle that up into a short period of time is very difficult. So when people come, you take them hiking, you take them to do the fun things. There’s a concert happening, you go see the concert. You go see the springs – Valley View and Joyful Journey. You enjoy the outdoors – if they like to fish, you go fishing.
I’ve asked myself the same question. Just today I was wondering, if I had family come here, how would I entertain them? Because half the time you spend here, you’re working. You’re working on your land, or on someone else’s land. And it’s so communal based that to come from outside the community, it’s kind of difficult to share that bond, ya know, cuz it is a tight community. So I guess ya cook food, and ya share time outdoors around the fire, or something like that. But yeah, it’s a difficult question to answer I suppose.
Christine Canaly
I think there’s something for everybody here, and ya kind of have to tailor it to who comes. My brother, the first time he came into the valley, said it the best: “Your eyes can rest here.” So, I think that’s what this place offers more than anything is the opportunity to have some space.
Here in Crestone and for people who are interested in Buddhism and practice, there’s a space at the Zen Center that’s really beautiful where people love to go – it’s a woven wood basket and it’s non-denominational, and anyone can go there and just sit. It’s also great to take them to explore the Ashram because those are such unusual buildings there.
If there are people that love outdoors and love walking, then there’s trails, and camping and just taking them up. And my mom loved music, so I used to take her dancing – it was great! The music and that vitality have always been here, so if the timing is just right, you can do that.
What Crestone offers is a place to relax and be able to listen to your own thoughts and find a lot of people who are also here pursuing that as well. And the conversations can become extraordinary and you can meet and have the most incredible conversations here where you think you’re going to have this casual conversation and then it ends up becoming this really extraordinary moment, and you just get this insight that you’ve never had before. And it just makes it so worthwhile to have struck up a conversation with somebody – strangers for sure, though those strangers can become very good friends!
Adam Kinney
When my friends and family come to Crestone, one of my favorite things to do is just absorb them and take a break from my daily grind and connect with the people that I love and the people that I come from. And I also really appreciate being able to vicariously see Crestone through fresh eyes and kind of get a fresh perspective on how beautiful this place is – I become accustomed to it because I see it every day, so when they show up, their awe of how beautiful this place is often inspiring and invigorating for me to see Crestone and how beautiful it is. And I really appreciate being able to share with them the things that my family and I are up to – the art we’re making and the business that we’re running. So, when loved ones visit, I really like to stay around my house and play cards and cook food and connect.