“Time is the longest distance between two places.”
— Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie
“There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.”
— Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes
“To live is so startling, it leaves but little room for other occupations though Friends are if possible an event more fair.”
— Emily Dickinson
It seems like such a short time ago that I was sharing my thoughts with you all as the calendar year changed, yet it has been nearly twelve months.
Time is such a strange thing, passing so slowly on some days, yet gone before we realize it when we look back over the minutes, days, weeks, months, years...
This holiday season was, once again, a busy one for the Narrow Gauge, and for that we are truly grateful to our community! Your ongoing support enables us to keep our doors open, and allows us to continue doing what we love: connecting with our community through the shared love of the written word.
As we shift into the slower season of the year, I sigh some relief as I feel myself drawing inward, wanting more time in quiet reflection. I feel myself longing for the quiet connection of talks over coffee, or long walks on chill afternoons in place of large gatherings and parties. I revel in a day alone with my cat, listening to her purrs and meows and watching her body language to communicate in a way that doesn't need words. I smile when I think of the friends I have with whom I can sit in silence and feel at ease.
I resist the exterior pressure that tells me I am running out of time, that I must rush, that I must hurry, that I must work to change my body, my habits, and then, then, only then, will I be happy.
I would rather move slowly. I would rather pause and feel how these choices, these demands, resonate in my body. When the anxiety and fear of the world rises up to meet me, instead of rushing to dispel these uncomfortable emotions, I try to meet them and ask them what they need from me. I try to reflect on what I can do, here, now, to aid the suffering in the world. Instead of rushing to find my happiness, I would move a little longer in my melancholy and listen to what my heart needs not for instant gratification, but for deeper peace and joy.
As the days lengthen, and as we move into a year that is uncertain and frightening for many, I urge you, please, to reflect on how you can use your time to love, to connect, and to help.
With warm wishes in this new year, Jean. A
Non-Profit of the Month:
Food Bank Network of the San Luis Valley
Each month, the Narrow Gauge Book Cooperative features a local nonprofit that serves the San Luis Valley. This month and in February, you can support the Food Bank Network of the San Luis Valley.
From their website: “The Food Bank Network addresses the immediacy of hunger and malnutrition in the San Luis Valley by providing nutritious food to individuals and families in need. Through a network of 15 food banks spread across 8,000 square miles, the Food Bank Network provides nutritious emergency food to help ensure no one must go to bed hungry in the SLV. More than just a box of food, the Food Bank Network seeks to offer fresh produce and healthy options so individuals and families can make their own choices while getting the most abundant and nutritious options for their budgets.”
When you shop at the NGBC this month, you'll be asked if you want to round up and donate your change. It's a simple and easy way to support local organizations that help make the Valley what it is!
If you would like to learn more about the Food Bank Network, you can visit their website.
If you would like to learn more about food insecurity, check out these titles:
Feeding Each Other: Shaping Change in Food Systems Through Relationship by Nicole Civita and Michelle Auerbach
Reinventing Food Banks and Pantries: New Tools to End Hunger by Katie S. Martin
Translating Food Sovereignty: Cultivating Justice in an Age of Transnational Governance by Matthew C. Canfield
January Artist: Susan Reycroft
Susan Reycroft lives in the San Luis Valley, surrounded by our majestic mountains and breathtaking scenery. She grew up traveling the world, living in different cultures and experiencing spectacular views in Japan, England, the island of Nevis, and many places in the United States.
She graduated from Syracuse University in New York with a bachelor's degree in Fine Art and studied glass blowing after graduation at San Jose State in California. She has been a kitchen and bath designer, an art therapist, and a special education teacher.
Art has always been extremely important in Susan’s life. Even when her life changed directions as she shifted focus to having a family, art remained an important part of her life as she took great joy in introducing her children to many different art mediums as they grew up.
After retirement, Susan moved to Crestone and began traveling and sightseeing in her campervan “lillyVan”. In Crestone, she designed and built her own home and art gallery. She is able, once again, to focus her attention on creating and recreating her interpretations of the beauty she has experienced and lived within. Her main focus is painting on silk and canvas with photography, stone, and clay work mixed in to keep things exciting.
You can see Susan’s work at The Tiny Gallery in downtown Crestone, and by appointment at the LillyRey Gallery at 2826 Carefree Way, Crestone, CO. See her website or text her (719) 937-3008 to set up an appointment!
All of you Fourth Wing fans, have you put in your order for Onyx Storm? We have a limited number of this gorgeous Deluxe Edition on their way for the January 21 release date!
As a bonus, for every preorder, you’ll get one of these gorgeous stickers designed by local artist, Sarah Householder of The Witty Ladybug! These stickers won’t be available for purchase until the end of February, so be the first to get yours with a preorder!
January Events at the Narrow Gauge
January 18th, 6pm
Each month, we host the Spadefoot Story Slam community, sharing stories based on a theme, selected at the previous month’s Slam. While inspired by the Moth Story Hour, our monthly meetings are not a contest, but instead are a way to come together and practice sharing, and deep listening.
Join us for the FIRST story slam of the year with our theme, DIGGING DEEP. It’s January, and even though the earth is frozen solid, we’re digging deep this month! What does this phrase meant to you? We can dig deep for strength and resolve, to find our creativity, to dig into our vulnerability. We can dig deep to look for new ways to solve problems, dig into our courage and learn a new skill or revisit a forgotten passion. We can dig deep in the library to research our favorite topic or dig up forgotten secrets and memories. Maybe we’re just digging deep in soil to repot our plants. This topic is big and deep and you can take it anyway your imagination dares.
Stories should be true as remembered by you, and spoken from the heart, instead of read from the page. We look forward to seeing you!
Indie Press Book Club
Throughout the year, the Narrow Gauge Book Cooperative features different independent presses as part of our Indie Press Book Club. Our featured press for January and February is Torrey House Press, and our featured book is Playing with (Wild)fire by Laura Pritchett. We’ll discuss this book on March 5th at 6pm! You can get this book in store for 10% off up until our book club meeting!
Indie Press Book Club meets on the first Wednesday of the month, every other month. Check our website for dates! We announce the upcoming book at each book club meeting, and explore fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, all from independent presses.
About the Book:
When a wildfire bears down on a mountain community, residents are forced to gather for safety—resulting in a tangle of love and lust that pulls people from their isolation, friendships that form across political divides, and a new hope for rethinking the ways humans inhabit the burning planet. Playing with (Wild)fire is a literary landscape that is an experiment in form: an astrology report; a grant application-turned-love-story; a phone call from Mother Earth; an obituary for a wildfire; a burned mountain’s conversation with a lone woman and an injured bear.
Every story captures how fire affects the human psyche and life, and how destruction can lead to renewal.
About the Press:
Founded in 2010 and a nonprofit since 2015, Torrey House Press is the only nonprofit publishing house in the Intermountain West. With more than 70 titles to date, THP seeks to inform, expand, and reshape the dialogue on environmental justice and stewardship for the natural world by elevating diverse perspectives through the literary arts.
Torrey House Press publishes books at the intersection of the literary arts and environmental advocacy. THP authors explore the diversity of human experiences and relationships with place. THP books create conversations about issues that concern the American West, landscape, literature, and the future of our ever-changing planet, inspiring action toward a more just world.
THP believes that lively, contemporary literature is at the cutting edge of social change. They seek to inform, expand, and reshape the dialogue on environmental justice and stewardship for the natural world by elevating literary excellence from diverse voices.
We are looking for artists for the 2025 calendar year. We feature a different artist from the San Luis Valley each month. We have some months for next year filled already, but are looking for more. (We especially need an artist for March!)
Our most common features are painting and photography, though we have also had fiber arts, glass art, and ceramics.
Featured artists have a show for one month. We'll promote your art on our social media accounts, feature you in our monthly newsletter, send a press-release to the newspaper, and schedule an artist reception if you want to have one.
We try to feature new artists each year; if you were featured in 2024, please wait to apply again until we put out a call for 2026.
If you would like to be a featured, please fill out the application by clicking here. You'll be asked to upload photo samples of your work, to provide a bio and artist statement, and to provide months when you are not available. If you have questions about any part of the application, please email us at narrowgauge.coop@gmail.com.
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