November 2018
What are you grateful for?
Therese Peloquin
First of all, I'm grateful for my healthy family. I'm very grateful for my two sons, Nathan and Nicholas, who are good, kind man and they're smart and creative and I'm very, very grateful for their lives. I'm grateful for my life partner, Armand, 31 years, that he has put up with me all this time. He makes me laugh. He energizes me. I'm grateful for the work I do as a mental health therapist. I feel like it's a calling. It's important to me and helps me to grow. I learn so much from my clients - more than they would ever know. I'm grateful for the mountains. They call me. They speak to me. They embrace me. I feel protected and like I belong, here in Crestone with the mountains.
Phylesha (Phlea) Mirelez
I'm grateful for all of my friends that I've made in the past couple years. They're greater friendships than I could have ever asked for. I'm grateful for finding such a beautiful place to grow roots and experience personal expansion. I'm grateful for all of the animals and for my beautiful experience: to exist in the most beautiful place, here and now. I love being here in Crestone. I’ve learned so much about myself; how to be my truest self. I’m learning every day how not to sweat the small stuff. I’ve never felt more accepted for who I am than when I entered the vortex. For that, I feel blessed and loved and so lucky to be alive. I recently had 2 surgeries, back to back, which really helped me reflect on everything that’s important to me, my wonderful friends and family who support me. I also have gratitude for the mountains. Anytime I’m feeling overwhelmed by life or just feeling really low, I take my gaze outwards and upwards and breathe it all in. That brings me back and then I can smile again!
Tim Brenner
First, I want to say that why I'm grateful is because I have experienced the opposite of grateful and it's terrible, it's miserable, and it makes life hard to live. I'm grateful for so much I have in my life, all the things that I've been given. But the thing that I am absolutely the most grateful for in my life is my relationship with Jesus Christ. That's made all the difference in so many areas of my life where I used to feel empty or meaningless or directionless and even with all the opportunities and things to do, nothing meant anything. And that relationship with Him is the one thing that I'd have to say is the most important, and the thing I am most grateful for in my life. Relating to that, sometimes when I lose sight of gratitude, I'm thinking, oh, there's just not enough, this isn't good enough, I work too hard, I should have more. And that's that miserable place where you realize that gratitude is one of the things you have to maintain. You have to want it. And it's not even about what you get, how much you have, where it comes from, but just the fact that you're grateful for it is like a prayer of thanks. It's realizing that I am grateful for everything that's given to me. I don't have to look very far to see there are people throughout the world who are doing far worse, who have nothing. There are victims of all sorts of tragedies, hurricanes, etc., and I'm going, "wow! If I had that challenge and still had to pull through some gratitude I'd have some hard work to do!"
Dan Frelka
Well, I'll tell you the thing that I'm most grateful for is where I live. This is the epitome of where I've always wanted to be. I go out to my back door, look at the mountain, the woods, the trees, and I've got the dogs who don't have to have leashes or fences. Neither do I. I'm grateful to live here with my daughter, Liz. The two of us get along extremely well. We have our own lives but share the house. It's really great to be here with her. I'm really grateful for my puppy because we had a kind of a tough year. I buried two dogs this year. And I didn't know if I was going to get another one and Liz had a dog, returned to her, which left me with feeling to get another dog for myself, then the puppies showed up! So now I have this puppy who’s just fantastic. I'm just grateful for the place I am, my girl and my dogs. And Crestone is so great because I've never really been part of a community, as such. I've lived in small mountain towns, but never really been part of a community. It's just home, and I just organically get involved with things that feel good and contribute to the town. That's what I'm grateful for!
Cindy Hefty
I am grateful for my family, both my immediate family and my extended family; and my friends. I'm grateful for where I live and where I've always lived and how I live. I have fulfilled my bucket list, so I'm grateful for that. I have to start a new one. (laughing) I am grateful for my excellent health and being physically fit and I am grateful that I've been able to live the lifestyle that I choose to and to live it well, so far. I'm grateful that Pam Gripp recruited me when I moved to Crestone and that I already had my EMT license and I was able to serve this community for six years and I got to know a lot of people that way. And I feel like I helped some and made some friends that way too. I'm grateful that I have a horse and I got to meet the horse community that way. And he lives with me, he's my buddy, and my kids are jealous! I have a lovely house to live in with a great view of the Sangres. And I am grateful that my husband has supported me throughout 40 years in a lifestyle that we both enjoy together.
Nick Carpenter
I'm grateful to live in a place that is so connected to nature. I enjoy just being able to go out every day and walk a trail or go bone hunting with my son and things like that, where in a normal big city, you wouldn't have that opportunity. You'd have to come to a place like this on the weekends. So it's cool to live in a place where other people go to vacation. So I'm grateful for Crestone and what we have here. Also, I'm grateful for having a business that we've created online where we get to help so many people and not to have to rely on this local economy for our business. 100% of my clients are online and just people all over the country. I'm grateful for the ripple effect that I'm able to create in me helping somebody and they are able to go help other people with what they learn and do. It's a really awesome process to be a part of. I'm also grateful for our health. My wife, Jessika, has struggled with some health issues, so it's been great to watch her progress. And for just the fact that we can enjoy our time together and as a family; really just experience Crestone and all the things that are in this area. We really love that.