August 15, 2008 to August 19, 2008

Our visit to Telluride and Ophir manifested with the magic of email and the kindness of strangers. An email made the rounds and three very special people, whom we had never met, took up the cause of bringing us to town. First Frick contacted us offering his home. Then Robyn and Elisabeth offered to organize our events. The three of them came together and created a very special visit for us and the people of Telluride and Ophir.

Robyn and Elisabeth gave very thoughtful consideration to choosing the most benefitial events for their communities and filled the four days for us. From the moment we pulled into town knew we were in good hands. Robyn met us with a great smile, a canopy, table, flowers, event schedules, and our own booth space the Farmer’s Market. The Farmer’s Market was a great place to meet people and spread the word of our events. Interestingly we wound up right next to a booth selling yak meat and dri (female yak) milk. He was great to us and gave some milk to take home.

Frick came down to the market and a few of us went up to his amazing home up on top the mountain to drop off our things. He has an amazing place with incredible views (I included some pics with views from his back yard). More importantly, was Frick’s kindness and concern for making sure everyone was well taken care of.

Our days and nights were filled with events. Most of our teachings were at the Telluride Yoga Center. It was the perfect space to give teachings and they were kind enough to allow us to us their space. We would also like to thank the Ah Haa School for the Arts. They hosted our Chenrezig Empowerment on the last night. That was a wonderful event – no one wanted to leave! After the empowerment everyone just went back to their seats and sat down. So we pulled some chairs and kept visiting for over another hour. As a matter of fact, it seems that was also the case at our other events. We always wound up sitting around talking Dharma long after our program was finished. Everyone was so interested and inspired.

One big highlight for us was our trip up to Ophir to do a Tara Puja. Ophir is a magical place located at about 9,700 feet above sea level (be sure to look at some pictures). I located in a beautiful valley surrounded by incredible peeks and well know waterfall. It takes a very special person to live here, they very in tune with nature and tough. This is not a place for the meek. Michael (a resident) told me last winter he was snowed in for 14 days and could not leave his house. The whole town (including children and dogs) came out for the puja and we even had some people driving as far away as Rifle (not to mention our good friends from Grand Junction).

We also were able to sneak in a little visit to Bridal Veil Falls above Telluride (I also posted a few pictures of this – see below). This included a rather exciting drive up a narrow, steep road more suited for four wheel drives. However our van was up to the challenge and we made it (probably helped by many mantras).

All and all it was a great trip and we met all kinds of wonderful people. Telluride has a growing Dharma community filled with inspiration. We hope to return soon.

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