Taken by the Wind

article & images by Megan Crawford

It was a Sunday. A man walked into The Shops at Station 8 in Columbia Falls, and Stephanie Evans immediately had a gut feeling. “I just had this buzzy feeling on my body, so I knew that was sort of a warning of ‘just be open.’” She didn’t know who he was, but he seemed lost. Evans had flashes in her vision of death, fear, and sadness. She looked at him, touched his arm, and got him a glass of water.

“You need to call your family, you need to tell them you’re okay, you need some food, you need to rest.”

He didn’t know why he was in the shop, why he drove there. He was on his way to Glacier National Park. As he drove away, Evans felt a release of panic. “I was shaking, I was freezing cold, I was crying.” That Monday, the shop got a phone call. Someone left that man’s phone number for Evans to call, and she did. He planned on driving his car off of a cliff on Going to the Sun Road, yet after meeting Stephanie, he drove back to his family in Oklahoma. She still stays in touch with him.

Every so often, there are those magic people that just get it. Whatever it is, they know it. Evans is one of those people: sage, effervescent, grounded but floating among the stars at the same time.

Hailing from the Bitterroots of southwestern Montana, Evans has long been drawn to the stories of strangers. On a trip to Salmon, Idaho for the eclipse, she met a woman on a motorcycle. They started up a conversation as strangers, and both left with a sense of lightness. “I don’t even know her name,” Evans recalls.

Megan Crawford

Evans began teaching classes at Yoga Hive in Kalispell and Whitefish in June of this year, and now she’s starting her own business: Mountain Moon Spirits.

Yoga isn’t new to Evans, though. She started doing yoga about 24 years ago with her kids. That version of yoga was lovingly called “yogurt,” and it was all intuitive. Now, with Mountain Moon Spirits, Evans is building a trifecta: yoga, retreats, and officiating weddings with Elope Montana. From someone on the outside, it may seem like an unusual mix of services, but for anyone who’s met Stephanie, it makes perfect sense. She understands people in a way that most people don’t even understand themselves.

About six years ago, Evans had a vision for a business. It involved retreats that would offer healing and wellness to those who needed it. Today, that vision has evolved into Mountain Moon Spirits. The new venture comes along with a mix of emotions: excitement, anticipation, fear. “I keep visualizing this great, big protective bubble that’s just allowing people to come in. It just feels right. It feels like a family reunion, and everyone’s happy.”

Growing up in the Bitterroots, Stephanie was always outside. “I felt like I could transport myself to a make-believe land whenever I wanted— I needed to, actually.” Her grandparents had a ranch in Hamilton, and that was her peaceful, content spot. She felt safe in the mountains. Evans would walk around the house with a round mirror when things felt unsettled. “I felt like I lived on the ceiling. It’s a trick if you feel overwhelmed— live on the ceiling for a little bit,” she laughs.

Megan Crawford

Moving to the Flathead Valley was a fresh start and escape from the Bitterroots. She and her husband headed north to the valley with their three kids after receiving a job opportunity in Somers. For Evans, it’s a place of peace and healing, of beauty and tenderness. Whitefish, though, was the beacon— that was the magnetic place. Evans now resides outside of town, in between the Kootenai and Flathead National Forests. She has two birdhouses for nesting swallows in the yard. A small prism dances in a window projects bits of rainbows in the entryway. The bathroom door sometimes slides open on its own— it’s a perfect spot. “Since I’m finally in Whitefish— which I was [always] drawn to— [I’ve realized] that it was part of the bigger picture. I just didn’t have all of the details yet.”

Evans is still just as imaginative as she was as a child, but now she doesn’t feel so alone. “It’s like a second childhood right now. A not so scary one.”

She recalls her own four children, and that each birth was a reminder that she needed to be alive. “Growing up, I was suicidal… I’m surprised I’m alive.” Each child brought a new perspective and a gentle reminder that she was needed. Starting her job at The Shops at Station 8 while being a mom was a reminder to put herself out into the world. Each new job, each step, each leap was a reminder to stretch out and find her true self.

Megan Crawford

Living on her own, leaving a job, and starting a new business, Evans is embarking into new territory. But while the world whirrs around, Evans is seemingly calm in knowing. “If you’re going to jump, just jump… the time is now.”

That’s the thing with coming into your own— there is no time better than now. When you have the chance to discover a piece of what you’re meant to do, you have to run with it and find the rest of the puzzle. “If you don’t do it, you’ll wonder. There’s no time for dreaming… the time is now.”

Mental health is a journey that affects 1 in 4 Americans (NAMI). You are not alone. You are heard, you are loved, and you are so wildly important.