On the Shoulders Of

By Chantelle Pence Every mother has a tremendous impact on the life of her child. Besides allowing passageway to the earth, a mother’s words and actions serve to shape the next generation. I sat with local mystic Maia Chrystine Nartoomid, at her mountain home, and felt the presence of her mother. “She was my earth guardian,” Maia said. “I wouldn’t be doing this work if it hadn’t been for her.”  It’s hard to describe exactly what Maia’s work is, as it’s outside of the scope of average life. Born an only child to a mother who was 45, Maia has struggled...

By Chantelle Pence. Crestone has come to be known as a spiritual community. But is it really? What if it’s just a place. A place that people came to for practical reasons. What if spirituality is found in the simple things? Water. Food. Shelter.  It’s the simple people who seem to hold the qualities that spiritual paths seek; those who live close to the earth and use their hands. They do the work quietly. With honesty. Focus. Discipline. It’s only those who are shored up within themselves who can then lend a hand to their fellow human.  Robin Blankenship is such a...

By Chantelle Pence “That’s my land,” he said. I was traveling with my kin in the region where he was born. Where his grandparents and their grandparents were from. On paper, the land that he was referring to was “owned” by the National Park Service.  But he didn’t speak of it in the way most have been trained to think of real estate. He spoke as if he were calling his mother’s name. “That’s my land.”  Relationships can be shallow or deep, depending on our awareness and methods of relating. E3ecologic is a Crestone-based organization that is laying pathways for community connections...

By Chantelle Pence. It takes a hell of a lot of work to create heaven on earth. When Zuki Moon arrived in Crestone 25 years ago, she was under no illusions that it would be easy. She wanted to build a foundation for her young son, and raise him away from the city. She didn’t know that the mountain town she had chosen was a “spiritual vortex,” she just knew it was a place she was drawn to. She wanted to build a sustainable home, be as self-sufficient as she could be, and practice the science and art of midwifery....

By Chantelle Pence. “Define wild...” Carmin’s eyes twinkled when she asked me to go deeper into my inquiry about bison in the area. She sat near the door of her bookstore, and teased me into thinking.  I chuckled inwardly as I remembered that the animals don’t stray from their wild nature too easily. Man may have domesticated their own lives and homes, but bison live according to ancient codes, no matter the definitions we place on them. Ranches, refuges, and fence railings have no bearing on those who are tuned in to their natural instincts.  Growing up on a farm in the...

By Anya Kaats. “The vision was to call forth our students’ very best,’’ explained Dan Retuta, founder and co-steward of the Crestone Healing Arts Center. For the past 27 years, Crestone Healing Arts Center hosted a 12-Week, 630-hour Massage Certification Program, offering a unique in-residence intensive training in massage therapy and restorative arts, which included Kundalini yoga and qigong.  In Dan’s words, Crestone Healing Arts was an “immersion pressure cooker,” or what his students might call “spiritual boot camp.” Admittedly, starting a traditional massage school was never what Dan had in mind. “I take my primary directives from Spirit, and those...

By Anya Kaats. Early one morning at The Bistro, the restaurant most recently known as the Desert Sage, Christine Canaly was baking loaves of sourdough bread to distribute to retailers throughout the San Luis Valley. It was 1989, and Christine, better known as Chris, was in her early 30s, having recently moved to Crestone and taken over her friend Margot Williams’s bread business.  On this particular morning, a young man walked in whom Chris didn’t recognize, and they got to talking. “I’m Alex Crutchfield,” he said. “I’m the vice president of American Water Development and we just applied in water court...

By Chantelle Pence. It’s about the land. The rocks. The trees that stand tall and straight beneath the towering cliffside. I felt the sacred quality of the place that sits at the base of the mountains, beyond the town of Crestone. The steady hum of North Crestone Creek was audible. I paused for a moment, not sure if I was hearing water or wind. My senses knew it was the stream talking, because of the feel of the air around me. Cool. Sweet. But it took a second for my mind to label it.  The Sacred Land Sanctuary is a sensory...