This post is to say I'm still alive. And traveling.
Like I did two years ago, I decided to book an airbnb in Crestone for Christmas, have a little getaway for myself.
Unlike last time, I was hoping to enjoy a trip free from COVID, which had struck almost as soon as I landed last time I came to Crestone.
Crestone is a quiet town on juniper-covered slopes just where the steep Sangre de Cristo mountains meet the sage-floored San Luis Valley.
It has several opportunities for hiking, as well as an abundance of spiritual sites (you can read more about the town's interesting history with spirituality in my original blog post here).
Each day of my trip, I visited the Tashi Gomang stupa and did a little meditation.
The stupa is quite striking and beautiful, and the site has gorgeous views of the valley and the San Juan mountains on the opposite side.
And the airbnb itself was lovely, a little studio built on to the side of someone's garage. It was made of hempcrete and the walls were very thick.
Unfortunately, by the first night, I was feeling ultra exhausted. Eventually it became clear I was getting sick again, and soon, I felt pretty terrible.
Soon I was too ill to hike or go to hot springs or do much other than lie around the airbnb. It was hard to focus on the writing I'd meant to devote myself too.
But I still drove each day to go walk around the stupa in solo meditation. There were interesting sites along the way, like this little shrine(?) built on river stones.
Or this flag marking the way to the stupa.
In the end, I was pretty bummed to be sick. I felt so awful I had to wonder if I'd managed to get COVID. And I've been sick a lot this year... about a week out of each month... and am pretty tired of it. It has sucked having to cancel all my plans again and again and stay home alone for a week to two weeks at a time. It's isolating and sad.
But for now, I was still in Crestone, away from responsibilities.
The stupa has a mini stupa beside it. I don't quite get Tibetan traditions, but they certainly put a lot of effort into the stupas. The informational sign board said that inside the big stupa were, among other things, 100,000 miniature stupas over which prayers had been said. That's a lot of stupas.
Since I didn't get out much, most of my pictures are of the stupas.
A parting shot of the airbnb. It was back to Denver and a COVID test (negative), and my usual responsibilities. One of which was returning some shoes I'd ordered to try on. I was running up on the deadline for me to drop them off, which I was supposed to do at the fedex dropoff in the Walgreens near me. As I pulled up, I was surprised to see no one in the parking lot of this usually busy store.
Well. Turns out the store was being gutted. That's what happens when you go away for a few days instead of returning packages in a timely fashion.
This image of the store feels a bit like my life at this juncture. Friends are off doing holiday things with family or romantic partners—and even if they were free, I can't hang with them until this cold clears. It's a lot of silence and emptiness.
It's been a good year in many respects, and I hope 2025 will bring more good things. I just need a little patience.
What 2024 has not been a good year for is blog updates. There's a lot more to the story of my travels last year, as well as some fantastic photos, and I'd still like to get all that posted. But given that I have been prioritizing other stuff, I can't say when it will occur. For now, enjoy your stupa photos.
