Some things feel serendipitous. While our house is being renovated, we had to find a place to stay that would allow us to write comfortably because we have deadlines. We decided that a Airbnb would be the right choice. We drew a little radius on the map to choose a place about halfway between Albuquerque and Denver (where we are visiting next).

A beautiful house in Crestone, Colorado popped up. It had a perfect set up. Two rooms if we needed privacy to write. Enough floor space to do yoga. A big table that would work for gaming. Two different areas we could set up our computers to write. A kitchen with an oven for baking bread. And best of all it was quiet and perched mostly alone in the mountains. Plus it was almost within our preferred budget. So we snapped it up.

Later I learned that the reason it was available was because the owner was leaving town for a camping trip that just happened to coincide with the dates we needed to stay. Otherwise the house wouldn’t have been available at all since this is her primary residence and she normally doesn’t airbnb it.

We expected to find a pleasant mountain town with the typical Colorado pizza and beer restaurant and not much else. We worried about finding vegan food.

It turns out that Crestone is apparently the Shangri-La of the Rockies. There are around 25 spiritual retreat centers here, mostly Tibetan Buddhist but almost every other sort of religion as well. There are stupas that can be hiked to. The town is filled with art and vegan food is easily found. (If you come here, you must try Our Food Is Art cafe. It’s incredible!) Crestone must also be the geodesic dome capital because we saw so many of them.

The most critical problem we’ve been dealing with is stress and anxiety, plus a lack of sleep. It seems that the universe has sent us a solution. While we are here we will hike, meditate, and do yoga and give the sacred mountain a chance to work on our souls.

Since we have deadlines, we’ll also write, but hopefully with a better sense of ourselves and with less stress.

Hope you are also finding your peaceful center in these chaotic times. Be well, friends!