May 2016
Tell me about your
healing journey in Crestone.
Ava Lowe
I’ve had a really amazing life in which I’ve been around the world 27 times. I used to organize tours for an author and public speaker, traveling the world doing events on consciousness. And after being with crème de la crème of consciousness, and feeling I hadn’t yet reached a place where I felt safe enough to really open my heart, I left feeling a little bit broken. I’d been with the best, so what’s wrong with me? I needed another journey. I came to Crestone to write another memoir, and worked on that quite considerably. It was the peace, the incredible quiet that attracted me so much, that helped me get into the writing. The writing helped me find what I was looking for in my heart, and delve into the place that really realized how protected I was, and how much I didn’t want to be protected. Then, I met my Beloved. I came here with the idea that I’ll die a spinster, because I won’t be dating anyone in Crestone! And I met the love of my life who has taught me immense desire to want to open up and be vulnerable. That vulnerability is what I consider spirituality because it’s the ultimate of being able to get into my heart.
Nathan Peloquin
I guess I’m pretty happy to have grown up here because it’s definitely a very diverse place in a lot of ways, and nobody’s forced to be a specific kind of person. I came back here to get off the streets, cuz I was sick of that. I was in Denver and playing music on the street and makin’ money doin’ that. It was fun, but it was like bein’ in the same routine over and over and over again. You never really realize how frickin’ awesome of a place this is until you come back here. Like, you leave for a little bit, and really realize… cuz like I grew up here and never really fully understood the beauty and power of this place until I left and came back, and there’s no other feeling like it coming here. The style, like everything – the mountains. There’s a lot more freedom here – you don’t have to deal with other people’s bs, unless you want to! There is a lot of bs that always brews up in small towns, especially here, but it’s your own choice to get involved with it. This place is beautiful and sometimes I feel like it’s driving me insane – there’s always a turn of events, it’s always different – this place is as bi-polar as I am, man.
Nathan Good
I first came here in ’95, and started a healing journey with the family – the children being the biggest part of that. In ’96, we were able to actually live here and start meeting people and learning what Crestone was about. Not just being a visitor, but being in the community depth. The children connected us through families and potlucks. I learned that I was just one piece to the puzzle of so many others’ journeys. It became a colorful collage of families, so many of whom are still here, so it’s still a steeping experience. This 20-year journey has stretched to a point of almost unimaginable, incomprehensible, understandings. I still don’t know exactly what they will end up being, but it’s calling me to continue. Now that the children are big, there’s this listening, deep listening, to find out what the growth is, what I can piece together from the past, from before I got here, up until to this moment, which is… wonderment, complete wonderment. Curiosity is still what’s keeping me moving, so, staying curious. And if you keep your house too clean, you never have time to play with children, which is what I’ve learned from them. The healing can take place by just letting go of what you thought was complicated, because kids make it simple.
Matthew Lyon-Clark
In November of 2013, I was in a major head-on collision between 2 pick-up trucks at 40-50mph on the highway. I smashed my head in, was in a slight coma, taken to the hospital in Gunnison, and airlifted – for $35,000! – to Grand Junction, where I was in the hospital for a month. A lot of major surgery happened, on my head, and on my heart. Then I lived in my parents’ basement for 2 months before moving back to the family land in Crestone because I needed to get back into my home project. Living here has helped me to better manage challenges, since Crestone is not a challenge-free place to live – it’s a place at the end of the road. Very rural. There are challenges with utilities, transportation, food, relationships, otherwise, and going through those helps our healing process, I think, of helping us be more resilient, and more dedicated to our own health, so that’s a big thing. The wilderness is essential for healing here, and I’m a wilderness guy. My Outdoor Leadership degree is all about learning to live outside. And while my healing has been up and down, the energy vortex here in Crestone, along with the people, have really made a significant difference!
Laura Karnes
The energy in Crestone is like a vortex and it’s a very sacred space. The Native Americans never lived here because it’s a place of healing and power that’s meant to be respected and treated with sacred honor. Therefore, when you move here, you need to have a certain amount of respect and honor for that energy. I moved here having experienced a lot in life and having gone through and healed a lot within myself. When I came here, I felt like the community was very loving and welcoming, and though they have never known what I’ve actually gone through, they’ve treated me with the utmost respect and honoring and kindness. With that, I’ve been able to do a deeper healing, which is connecting with people that I don’t know, that I don’t have to have shared experiences with, but that can trust me with their children in my position as the Charter School Counselor, trusting I’ll be able to meet their children with a level of kindness and humility and compassion they need in order to truly learn in a healing and nurturing environment.
Helena Wright
Well, I was dragged here by my mother when I was 16. So it wasn’t exactly a personal choice to come here, the middle of nowhere. I didn’t like it at first – I thought everyone was very hypocritical. But I didn’t understand at the time, which I understand now at 28 years of age, that the people are so humbled here – there’s so much stuff. They come here, and they see everyone else who’s just like them, and there’s this sense of acceptance here. So no matter what we’re going through, cuz we’re all going through something, we’re all figuring out something. For me, being in Crestone has been my maturation. I used to live in lots of different places, in cities, in places everywhere. Crestone has been my only constant since I was 16. For 12 years. And every time I interact with someone I heal a little bit, because I can’t help but see myself mirrored back at me. I see myself in everyone else. And in spite of all our issues, we all love each other. We can’t help it, even if we get angry at each other, we all love each other. It comes back around.