November 2019
What are you thankful for?
Jose Villa
Oh my goodness, so many cliché answers are possible! But the thing I'm most thankful about is having had so many opportunities to do interesting and engaging things. In my career, it was one after another of these projects that were cutting edge and really interesting and fun to work on. And the opportunity to move up here to Crestone! Oh my gosh, it's such a beautiful place and the connections of all the components of nature are so obvious. It's really cool to observe and be involved in it.
In my Latin American family, I've been so blessed to have, in all generations, really cool people: my parents, my grandparents, my wife, my sons - they're all really very special people. So that is really something to be thankful for. And I grew up in the Andes of Colombia, in the coffee growing area, and the conditions I grew up in were like a little fairy tale. My parents had this kind of play farm that was 10 acres right on the edge of the city. So we had access to all the city things but were also in a really rural area. And the climate there was so incredible because it's on the equator so temperatures don't change much. If it got below 60 you would say, "It's too cold," or if it got about 75, you would say, "Oh, it's so hot." And it was like that year round. And this place had all kinds of fruit trees so we would be able to climb trees and harvest mangoes and oranges and all kinds of exotic fruit. We had no worries when we were growing up so that was really cool. I'm really thankful for that, too.
Cindy Reinhardt
I am most thankful for living here, for being able to walk out my front or back door into the quiet of nature's beauty and walk my labyrinth. I'm grateful for life in general and my health. I'm grateful for the teachers and coaches and people who have been or are a part of my journey and help me maintain my curiosity. I'm grateful for knowing I always have choices even when I think I don't. I'm deeply grateful for all the people who just contribute to life, like the farmers, the truck drivers, the guys who grate the roads and take care of our water system and all those things we take for granted. And I'm grateful for Cool Hand Luke, my canine companion for almost nine years who I lost this year, but I'm still grateful for him. And I'm grateful to be curious. And, I'm just grateful. I try to live in gratitude, because it seems like that's a good way to live!
Tim Matz
I'm thankful for my family, these mountain ranges, wild places, my dog, clean food, clean water, big animals to track... and wool.
Paul McElaney
I'm thankful to be in Crestone. I'm thankful for that opportunity and for the people I've met here who are wonderful, far different than any people I've ever encountered anywhere. And I'm thankful for Michele and the fact that we've shared 52 years together. I'm thankful for the fact that I have healthy children and grandchildren, and that I'm still alive!
Jennifer Blooms
I'm grateful for earth, the mother, and all the animals, plants and especially the water that gives us life for our blood cells. I'm grateful for my daughter, Indigo. I'm grateful for all of my wonderful, wonderful friendships, including both my closest and new friendships. I'm grateful I'm alive, healthy and happy, and that it's my 44th birthday today! I'm grateful for the blue skies, the fall weather and for watching the seasons change from a really beautiful vantage point in the mountains. I'm grateful we landed in Crestone, which is a really cool town. I'm grateful for my city I just moved from, New Orleans, too. And I'm grateful it's still above ground and not underwater yet, along with the rest of the Louisiana coast I left and love. I'm grateful for all my partnerships - my love/romantic relationships and my business relationships. I'm very grateful for all of the respect and communication that goes along with those relationships. I'm grateful for my family of origin and I'm grateful for my family of choice, all of the wonderful friends that I have. And I'm grateful for other really good mamas that take good care of and love their children, and are raising them to be conscious and respectful of our mother the earth.
Mary Helgeson Windwalker
I'd like to begin by saying I'm super thankful for my parents and for the spark of love that brought me to this planet and for their teachings of blessings and recognition of how blessed I am to be here. Those teachings started when I was young, counting those blessings. Moving on to my children and my marriage, they’re the greatest gifts I have. The sense of community in my snowflake home and my home here in Crestone is super valuable and blessed. My practice is to wake up every morning, right now at 64, and just give thanks, before I even get out of bed. I just look at all the blessings I have, that I woke up, that I offer to the sun or the sun offers to me. Tim and my marriage brings me great gladness. Our business is huge and flourishing, and so I'm super grateful for the teacher who taught me this and sent me on this journey. The babies that have come through my hands as a midwife. I don't know even where that huge gratitude even comes from. And gratitude is just such a feeling, it's so hard to put into words. It's not easy as Lori has told me! My final thought on gratitude is Gracias por la vida – “Thank you for life.”