January 2016
What brought you to Crestone?
Morgaine Faust
It’s my 62nd birthday today, and I’m still alive! When I came to Crestone in February of 2014, I was literally close to dying. I could hardly walk across the street between the Bliss and the Cloud. I was SO ill. I had severe adrenal exhaustion then that was very debilitating. Before I got here to Crestone, I was close to being hospitalized and they wouldn’t have been able to do ANYthing for me—how could an MD treat Yang Qi Deficiency? I had lost my housing in Denver, I had lost my job. Everything is a blessing of course, and when I had no home to pay for, I could afford to see an OMD, and I give this man credit for saving my life.
Fast forward. I got to here in a roundabout way, and Crestone has been SO healing for me. It is the first place that I have ever lived where there are SO MANY PEOPLE WAY WEIRDER THAN ME! And I feel right at home! Because I’m in the middle of the spectrum now. Ha! And I put in place the foundations for my freelance editing and social media marketing business before I got here, knowing it’s a good idea to bring your job with you to Crestone. My business is doing well, and my health is constantly improving. I’m in the process of obtaining a USDA Rural Development 502 Home Loan, and I can build or buy a house through the program here in the San Luis Valley, so I’m here to stay—Crestone hasn’t chewed me up and spit me out yet!
I feel like I am more myself here in Crestone than anyplace else I’ve ever been. I’ve lived and worked in a lot of situations where I had to put on a hat to be something that I am not naturally. I’m really good at that because I’m a Sagittarius, and we’re naturally actresses anyway, but it’s so refreshing to not have to do that! I love my new life in Crestone. The sense of community here is something to be treasured.
Shoshannah Asha
About 10 years ago, I moved to Crestone with a boyfriend I was dating at the time. He showed me this place. He was raised near Moffat. We lived in such a cute strawbale house in the Baca for a year, which was built by a local resident. I’ve maintained connections here ever since then. I had dreams about Crestone when I was living in Denver. An opportunity then opened up for me 3 ½ years ago to return to the valley to do a 6-month farming apprenticeship. I came down, and then rather than going back to Denver, I came here.
Before I got back to Crestone, I had this really powerful dream about all these Ethnic people in their regalia. Dancers and musicians from around the world.
They were dancing and drumming and singing, and I was hanging out with them. A man gave this little boy a seed and the kid ate the seed and he was translating and channeling all this information, and I was watching and listening. Then the old Eastern Indian man who had given the child the seed looked at me and said, “In a past life, you ate a hundred of these.”
So that was a really cool dream for me. And then after I had been back in Crestone for 2 weeks, I saw an old friend of mine, who walked up to me at the creek and said, “Oh my God, I just had a dream with you in it!” He hadn’t known I was here yet, but he had a dream of me where we went into this Kiva and there were all these ethnic people around, right here in Crestone. And he was telling me all about this dream, and I just knew, as soon as he said that, I knew. And he said, “Does this have any meaning to you?” That was quite the understatement.
And so for me this place is like the modern old tribe - the future ancients. I came here because I wanted to be a part of a village, meaning creating art and growing food. I really feel like this is a village.
Jesse-Re'
In November 2004, I met 2 friends, and those 2 friends and I were sitting on a hill one night in Cincinnati, overlooking the city, and they said, “Wherever you go, there you are.” They’d never left Cincinnati. I said, “Well, if wherever you go, there you are, then you guys should go out west, and at least live somewhere beautiful.” And they were like, “Whatever.” The next day, they told me, “We’re going out to Colorado to visit a friend. We’re leaving at 3 o’clock. Our car or yours?” And I said, “Well, mine, because I need my car.” So I drove them out here.
Initially, I was just coming to visit, but then when I got here, my dog of 9 years had just gotten diagnosed with cancer. And I really, really loved my dog – he was my best friend in the world – I mean, I LOVED that dog. 2 weeks after I got here, I had to put him down. It was the day after Thanksgiving. I was feeling totally hopeless. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I had no money, and then Alan and Melanie offered me a job at the bar and I started bartending, and then I just fell in love with it here. Everything just got better and better and better and I was so comfortable here.
I grew up right next to the highway, near an airport, so I had to constantly listen to the sounds of the city. When I got here, I could hear the quiet – complete silence for the first time in my life. And community for the first time in my life. And I really just appreciate everyone here – I love it here.
I had a dream before I got to Crestone. I was dancing around in a stone circle with my true love. We were in a building in Crestone, and I had never seen any architecture like Crestone before because I’m from Cincinnati, and I had no idea what the dream was about. It was the very next day when my friends called me and said, “We’re gonna go.” When I got here, I ended up in the same house as the dream that I’d had, and the architecture and everything was the same - it was so crazy. That’s when I knew I was supposed to be here.
David Steele
We were in Florida, and originally, we were looking at moving to either Asheville, North Carolina, or Crestone. While we were trying to decide, it turned out we had some friends who were coming out west, and we ended up getting a free pass all the way to Crestone. All we had to do is pay for the car dolly. The guy was coming out to Colorado and he needed someone to drive the truck, so we got out here for about $200. It took us like 4 or 5 days, but we took that left turn at Albuquerque and ended up here.
We chose Crestone because it’s a vortex, and it’s not a secret that it’s a vortex. And the place we came from in Florida was a vortex, too. We came from Sarasota, which has sand on the beaches, entirely quartz crystal. It’s a magical place, not unlike Crestone. Crestone’s notorious – it’s known all over the world. The Indians in the past knew this place was magical. It goes on and on and on. There was no question when we came here we knew we wanted to stay for a long time. I mean, I love this place – what’s not to love?