Crestone #3: Arrival at Nada

We are now into our second afternoon in Crestone at the Nada Hermitage. We were welcomed yesterday and went about the task of moving our two weeks of stuff into our place, making it a little bit more our own. We now reside in the morning shadow of the Sangre de Cristo range. It is certainly a site to behold.

Though this place is considered a desert and languishes through a long drought, we had a lovely hard fifteen minute rain just a couple hours after our arrival. Clouds thickened over the late, hot, post-noon hours, then blew in the short driving storm from the west. Air temperature cooled immediately. We had a great view of everything from our south window wall -- after we rushed to close the western windows.

Earlier today we had an orientation with Suzy, a member of the community here. She explained how the library check-out procedure worked and showed us where to put compost, recycling, and trash. We ended our session with a brief visit to Nada’s chapel. While there she explained the symbolism in the two windows and the significance of the black granite altar. We told her a little of our story, especially the recent parts involving the burial of Cindy’s dad just a month or so ago. The discussion then turned to issues of darkness and light that we experience in our lives. Back when I was in graduate school, I was energized by the idea of living at peak experience. Since that time, I have had more than a few heart-to-hearts about how such wasn’t possible. Life is composed of both light and dark, good and bad. Cindy observed how so many people want to see life as an ‘either/or’ thing, when it makes more sense to accept it as ‘both/and.’ We have much to learn from such a varied pallet of life experiences.

Yesterday afternoon in our hermitage was almost magical. We had completed our long 1,500+ mile pilgrimage successfully and were embarking on a ‘quiet’ fourteen day ‘retreat.‘ We shared a bottle of wine while Cindy knitted and sat at our window watching the mountains change with the cloud patterns. I took a couple of brief walks, taking pictures and fighting off a well armed mosquito population. Still, we both felt great and were glad we were finally here. We made reservations back in January!

Waking this morning found us with a bit of an unexpected let-down, but here we were in a secluded cabin with life’s essentials -- and each other. I expected to nap often, write this blog entry, and just be still in this space with the wind audible in the grasses and piñon pines.

Only the library on the Nada campus has wi-fi connection, so after our orientation, Cindy fired up her computer to check email. I was already heading out the door on my way back to our hermitage to write this when she called across the room, shock in her voice, relaying the message that one of our retired colleagues from Wayne High School, Bob Sterling, had died yesterday. We were both stopped in our tracks.

Light and dark, indeed, even in this place of beautiful retreat.

Today’s elder idea: It wasn’t ‘either/or’ for Ansel Adams. He printed images from his photographic negatives with the full range of tones from complete black to absolute white in every exposure. He became a master of embracing the extremes.