New podcast explores how the smallest things can turn big in the backcountry by Molly Marcello/ Writers on the Range 10 Times like these Elder Grown, The Drifters and A Hundred Drums to forget the world by Stephen Sellers
The pen is mightier than the sword, but the fountain pen is even mightier by Zach Hively 8 Getting down
Durango Outdoor Exchange brings feather recycling to town by Missy Votel
jennaye@durangotelegraph.com STAFF
The Durango Telegraph publishes every Thursday, come hell, high water, tacky singletrack or mon-
ster powder days. We are wholly independently owned and operated by the Durango Telegraph LLC and dis-
Ear to the ground
“I’ve got some pudding, some microwave bacon and a can of Diet Pepsi. I’m good.”
– Vacation reentry is not always pretty
A new perspective
After taking a hiatus for a few years, Arts Perspective magazine is back on the scene, this time in digital form.
Started in 2004 by Heather Martinez, the quarterly print magazine was bought by Denise Leslie, local storyteller, ukulele strummer and arts cheerleader (and beloved former Telegraph helper-outer), in 2010. However, it ceased publication a few years later. But, with Leslie’s continued dedication and enthusiasm, it has now risen from the ashes, with its inaugural digital relaunch going live this week at ArtsPerspectiveMag.com.
On the cover In case you’ve forgotten what a spectacular fall we’re having, here’s a recap of the cottonwoods along the Animas River recently./ Photo by Missy Votel
tributed
Leslie describes it as an independent, digital-first magazine that connects readers with artists, venues and creative stories from across Southwest Colorado. The debut issue, “Beginnings & First Inspirations,” explores how creative lives take shape – from painters and musicians to writers, theatre makers and community visionaries. It includes stories on late local photographer Ray Martinez, husband of Heather who died last April after suffering a stroke, as well as fine artist Tad Smith, water colorist Jan Wright, and writer and gallery curator Bekah Kolbe.
“This relaunch celebrates the people and places that make our region’s creative life so inspiring,” said Leslie in a news release. “It’s about connection, curiosity and honoring the stories that spark imagination.”
New features include:
• Eye on the Arts - A weekly Monday newsletter highlighting events, new work and stories across the region.
• Creative Voices - A video interview series debuting later this month, featuring artists, authors and musicians.
• Annual Print Edition - A spring 2026 release celebrating the year’s standout stories.
Leslie said Arts Perspective welcomes community collaboration and reader support through sponsorship opportunities and the “Buy Me a Coffee” arts patronage platform.
Leslie, left, and Martinez circa 2010
LaVidaLocal opinion
The Pen II Club
I’ve struggled for years with figuring out when, exactly, I can call myself a writer.
Sure, I’ve been published, sometimes even on a recurring basis in actual alternative weekly firestarters, and I have written actual books, which have been enthusiastically accepted by more than one Little Free Library. I was once introduced at a social function as a writer. My father worries about my career choices.
Yet these things seldom feel like Enough. Even writing doesn’t feel like Enough.
There’s something more to earning the title of Writer. Something the French call je ne sais quoi and I call “elbow patches.”
I tried those. I did! I have a jacket – a tweed one, even! –with elbow patches. But sometimes wearing tweed is just too hot. And I have to take the jacket to the dry cleaner. That’s just more busy work that detracts from the real work of trying to appear like an official writer.
The ideas were running out. I’ve set myself up in coffee shops so people can witness me in the act of writing. I’ve used a typewriter for the audibility factor. I’ve gone to grad school. Nothing stuck.
I finally hit on what I needed, what had always been missing from my repertoire, when I was gifted my very first fountain pen.
Oh, this pen is magic! You really feel like a writer when you get ink on your fingers! I clip this pen to my breast pocket every chance I get so everyone can understand my specific flavor of pretension. And I now have an inkwell on my desk. I don’t write at my desk. It’s more of a paper storage unit. But I have these physical objects now that make it look like inspiration could strike at any moment. Or, that ink could spill out of this pen and ruin a perfectly serviceable shirt.
estimate it to be worth in the ballpark of 10,000 U.S. dollars. It is a Pelikan, with a K. I generally despise identifying with brand names, but the names of these fountain pen companies evoke for me a time when all a man had to do to become a writer was to publish in the New Yorker and all a woman had to do was pretend to be a man.
So I, as a writer, am now writing with a Pelikan, with all the ackordant respekt.
Jona showed me how to draw ink up from the well through the nib, thus filling both my pen and a significant void in my public school education. She then welcomed me to the Pen Club, a club that also includes another mutual dear friend and mentor, a man we will simply call B, because he is ours, and we’d rather not share him.
But who cares! I’m a writer now! I’m writing this very piece with one of my fountain pens, and only twice so far have I lost the cap in the couch cushions!
That’s right: I said one of my fountain pens, plural.
The first one came from a dear friend and fellow writer – let’s call her Jona because that is her name. She is very good at making me realize that I didn’t even think to get her a gift.
This iridescent teal pen came from her in a little gray pen-box, so I therefore
Thumbin’It
Local organizations and residents stepping in to fill the SNAP void with offers of free food and meals to those in need.
This week’s election bringing the first ray of hope we’ve seen in about, oh, 10 months. Could it be the political pendulum is starting to swing back from the outer limits of MAGA land?
Good news for all those old puffies and sleeping bags in the closet – you can now recycle them at the Durango Outdoor Exchange. The waterfowl thank you.
B and I had a writers’ breakfast – another thing we writers do – and I, of course, made certain to take notes with my Pelikan where he could see it and admire it. Which he did! So much so, in fact, that after breakfast he took me to his writer’s den and his own fountain pen collection, amassed over decades of being, quite frankly, too good for the likes of the New Yorker
I crumpled into an armchair in awe. For a newly minted writer, this – this assembly of pens – was akin to Wonka’s chocolate factory, or Smaug’s bed of gold in the Lonely Mountain, or any other literary reference you care to make for something you cherished your whole entire life once you learned about it for the first time.
“Would you like to have one?” B asked me.
Of course, I had to deflect my eagerness with a muted “Yes! Yes! Holy inkwell of eternal glory, yes!” But in the end, B wore me down, and he graced my writerliness with an elegant blue Esterbrook with a silver nib and this pump-action ink-filling lever in the shaft.
He will hardly miss it, one pen among untold thousands. But I – I am now an Esterbrook man, seeing as the Pelikan ran out of ink two paragraphs ago. And now I am temporarily a Bic man again, seeing as the Esterbrook appears to have popped a leak in the previous sentence. Doesn’t bother me! I probably didn’t screw the nib on tightly enough. What do you expect? I’m new to being a real writer.
Speaking of which, I must go. I have to be seen in public before washing this fresh ink spill off my fingers.
– Zach Hively
SignoftheDownfall:
Whoopsie. ICE is now saying the family they detained last week in Durango, setting off a protest that turned violent and made headlines around the country, was a case of “mistaken identity.”
And speaking of MAGA, they really outdid themselves for Halloween, with Trump hosting a “Make America Great Gatsby Again” party and Boebert and date dressing as a Mexican immigrant and ICE agent, respectively. We think they all should’ve gone as clowns, but maybe that’s too close to reality.
Turns out this whole insurance premium stuff is for real, with prices going up more than 150% on local plans. Meh, who needs insurance?
Hare-Framed Idea
Throughout the 1800s, women would collect hair from deceased relatives, weave it into wreaths and frame it to make memorial art. The practice fell out of favor in the 1900s when photography took over, but then in 1956, Leila Cohoon saw some framed hair at an antique store and became obsessed. Leila dedicated the rest of her life to collecting human hair memorials, and it’s estimated she spent seven figures on her fixation. It was all displayed at Leila’s Hair Museum in Missouri up until her death last November. And then last month, the collection, which was purported to include hair from Ozzy, Marilyn Monroe and Jesus, was distributed amongst the nation’s top museums. I’m just glad Kim Kardashian hasn’t heard about this, because haunted merkins would ruin everything.
WritersontheRange
Back from beyond
by Molly Marcello
Iwas high up on a cliff above Moab as night was falling, and I couldn’t find my way back down. I became painfully aware that I didn’t have a headlamp, an extra layer as it got colder and cell service to call for help.
Hours earlier, I scrambled up to watch the sunset. A lot of people take in the play of light over the red rocks every evening. But the route up a boulder wall that seemed so clear in the daylight was no longer obvious in the twilight. I was stuck.
Count me as one of the many hikers who’ve found themselves in a pickle. I was lucky, though, and finally found my own way down to the trailhead below.
These days, I’ve been researching how the busiest search and rescue team in Utah, based in Moab, responds to an average of 130 calls per year from people who are not so lucky. This team has to be ready for urgent calls from climbers, mountain bikers, off-roaders, backcountry skiers, hikers, BASE jumpers and river rafters. The team handles it all.
Mountains; and an off-roader who flipping their vehicle off a 150-foot cliff. All the stories in this first season of “Back From Beyond” serve to remind people how quickly things can go south, and how much we depend on somebody helping when they do.
“Outdoor recreation is a community,” Rachelle Brinkman, recounting her mountain biking accident in the episode, “The Whole Enchilada,” said. Brinkman suffered injuries after crashing her bike in technical, rocky terrain around Moab. A lot of people came to her aid that day, she said, and she now makes sure to check on any rider who might need a hand.
“We look out for each other,” she said, “and we help each other, whether you’re in search and rescue or not.”
“A lot of emergency situations are like improv because you don’t get to say no,” Grand County Search and Rescue member Jordan Lister said. “It’s just ‘Yes, and…we will get through this together.’”
Lister is one of the dozens of first responders who share their personal stories in a new podcast series that I’m producing, called “Back From Beyond.” The 60- to 90-minute episodes are a collaboration between the search and rescue team, Grand County tourism and trails staff, and Moab-based KZMU community radio.
In the episode “Hiking Behind the
Rocks,” Jason Goldsmith talked about how he got turned around in the mazelike terrain above Moab’s rim. With a fast-moving winter storm approaching, he said he had no choice but to find shelter.
“It was a huge emotional roller coaster,” he recalled, “and I don’t recommend it to anybody.”
Like most people who call Moab’s search and rescue for help, he didn’t get in trouble by pushing a sport to the limit. Instead, as happens to many, something unexpected happened and he was unprepared. Perhaps a route takes longer than anticipated, someone twists an ankle a few miles in or gets
turned around and lost, their climbing rope gets stuck, or they didn’t pack enough water.
“When I was younger,” Grand County Search and Rescue member Michelle Leber said, “I would hear about accidents and think, ‘Oh, that would never happen to me.’ But small decisions can add up to a miserable day outdoors. I mean, how many things have we all gotten away with, and we didn’t even know it?”
The podcast has covered climbers stuck on Castleton Tower, one of the most challenging desert monoliths in the world; a backcountry skier coping with an injury in the remote La Sal
By now I’ve talked to many people about their trips in the backcountry, and it still amazes me how many times they recall saying to themselves before setting out: “Better grab an extra layer, this battery charger, a headlamp and also tell someone where I’m going.” They realize that one small, smart decision before heading outdoors can save the day.
And, if you’re exploring the rugged outback of Moab someday and need to make an emergency call for help, you’re in luck. A team of seasoned professionals with Grand County Search and Rescue will work hard to get you home safe.
Molly Marcello is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. She directed KZMU News in Moab for more than six years and is the producer of the new documentary podcast series, Back From Beyond. ■
Grand County Search and Rescue members rig a technical rope rescue on the top of Castleton Tower near Moab. / Photo courtesy Grand County Search and Rescue.
SoapBox
Is anyone safe from ICE?
Outrageous criminal assaults by ICE against community members protesting ICE’s most recent illegal abductions of people in Durango are appalling and ominous. Concerned citizens are seeking the release of three local residents –two of them under the age of 16 – who were grabbed and detained by ICE thugs with no warrant or due process. The protests were peaceful except for the actions of ICE.
Imagine the pain of these children, their parents and loved ones! This reality in our country is SO deeply wrong! By seizing hard-working and law-abiding people, ICE sends the clear message that no one is safe. Instead of targeting criminal gang members, ICE itself is a violent criminal gang. Who has the legal authority to change this? How will these valued community members be returned safely to their family in Durango? Thanks to Telegraph for covering these important events.
To those supporting ICE: What if your children were seized on their way to school and taken far away? Or adult members of your family, for no reason
other than the color of their skin? Let’s ramp up the compassion, kindness and care for one another, rather than being divided by these Gestapo tactics.
Thanks to the large numbers of people who turned out to protest and attend the special City Council meeting. That was thoughtful, but not reassuring, if police won’t intervene when peaceful demonstrators are attacked! That doesn’t seem at all adequate to meet the need. How about if someone is being seriously injured, or killed? Don’t local police have a duty to step forward and prevent that violence? Clearly there’s a lot of work ahead to ensure our, and all our neighbors’, safety.
– Mary Ellen Garrett, Bayfield
To the community
Weeks after my sudden termination from teaching math at Bayfield High School, I still don’t know why I was fired. There was no disruption in my classroom. My last day was a normal day, and my students took their tests without incident. My words – both in class and online – were facts, not opinions. Yet my
by Rob Pudim
employment ended overnight without any meaningful explanation. Since that day, I’ve received no contact from school administration. With-
out any dialogue, I’m left to assume the worst: that those entrusted to lead our schools have sided with partiality and prejudice rather than confront it. I have
to now distance my family from these leaders that would silence the truth rather than defend it.
When I was questioned after school on Thurs., Sept. 11, I was asked by principal Jason Wayman, incredibly, “Do you think Charlie Kirk deserved to die?” I’m still trying to understand what possible purpose that question served – or what difference it would make how I answered it.
The people who called for my firing were not acting in defense of any child. They claimed Christianity as justification for their outrage, their harassment and their hate. It’s ironic, and tragic, to see Christianity used as a weapon against a stranger, while ignoring the words of Charlie Kirk himself – words filled with scorn, dishonesty and division.
I shouldn’t need to explain what Christianity truly is.
If this district’s leadership will yield so easily to political pressure and bias, it will soon face even greater moral questions. What happens when federal agents arrive at our schools to detain so-called “illegal” students? Will the same leaders stand up for the children in their care?
Through all of this, I remained focused on what I was hired to do: teach math at the highest level possible, to all students equally, without regard for their beliefs or opinions about me. My classroom was about learning, opportunity and growth. I cared about every student the same.
My grandfather, a paratrooper in World War II, earned two Purple Hearts in Sicily and Normandy fighting fascists who disguised hate as Christianity. The people behind my dismissal will never succeed in driving out every good teacher. I’m grateful to be free
of the burden of teaching, even as I mourn what was lost: trust, respect and the chance to build something great in Bayfield.
Whenever intolerance arose among students in my classroom, I always told them that labels like “left” and “right,” “conservative” and “liberal,” “Democrat” and “Republican” are misnomers – that no human being fits neatly into a box. We are all more complex than our politics, more capable than our biases and more connected than we realize. This principle guided every decision I made as a teacher.
When I came to pack up my classroom, I told superintendent Dylan Connell that the plastic crate holding my students’ folders was mine, but that I wished to leave it, as it was organizing their assignments. After I had left the room, he removed the students’ work from the crate and returned the empty crate to me. This gesture said everything: that the work of students and continuity of education are not priorities. Many in the community immediately recognized this pattern when they learned of my dismissal, noting that an uneducated populace is easier to steer, whether toward polls or into wars.
I share this out of hope that the truth still matters. If our schools cannot model honesty, courage and open conversation, then we cannot expect our students to learn them.
– Chris Ricci, Bayfield
Police are complicit with ICE
Instead of protecting our fellow community members from extrajudicial detainment and abuse,
Chief Current and Durango PD are legitimizing ICE behavior because of their fealty to chain of command. People’s rights are allowed to be violated because Chief Current chooses to uphold the law, a fact that should move an empathetic person to rethink some things.
A city resolution to protect our immigrant community is hard to take seriously when the local police chief insists on allowing ICE to kidnap and assault people of all statuses.
– Jeff Dunn, Durango
Totally sick, in a bad way
Did you vote for the fool’s gold pedophile and his oligarch influencers? Did you vote for ICE violence, pricey groceries and high premiums? How about murder on the seas? We all got what you voted for. Sick, sicker and sickest.
– Stephanie Johnson, Hesperus
Buddha warned us about Trump
The Buddha spoke of three poisons: greed; anger; and ignorance. Donald Trump embodies all three. He does not do good; he causes harm. And he is not kind to others.
– Frances Hecht, Durango
LocalNews
Down with it
Durango Outdoor Exchange brings feather recycling to Durango
by Missy Votel
Let’s face it: sometimes, our chosen forms of outdoor recreation aren’t exactly easy on the environment, particularly our winter ones. But the Durango Outdoor Exchange wants to help lessen the impact.
In addition to being Durango's go-to spot for buying and selling used outdoor gear and clothing for the last 10 years, DOE will also be hosting three days of events this month to help keep gear in use longer and valuable resources out of the landfill. “Feathers and Fixes,” taking place Nov. 14-16, deals with – you guessed it – recycling and repairing everything from down jackets and sleeping bags to that Gore-tex ski jacket you snagged on a tree but is otherwise perfectly usable.
And finally, to make sure your most precious pieces of gear – your boards – are in ship shape, there will also be a DIY waxing set-up on Sun., Nov. 16, from 5-7 p.m. featuring planet friendly, plantbased waxing products.
But before we get to that, let’s start with the big one: down. As we’ve probably all learned by now, that cozy, trusty puffy (or puffies) come with a price. And we’re not just talking financially. In addition to ethical concerns over harvesting of feathers using the flocked-up (sorry) practice of “live plucking,” (which is as horrible as it sounds), there are environmental concerns with down as well. Pollution from farms, habitat destruction and greenhouse gas emissions are all downsides to that amazingly light, fluffy cloud you wrap yourself in every day before heading outside (and sometimes inside). The processing of feathers can also involve harsh chemicals, another ding in the environmental column.
With these things in mind, DOE owner Jen LaCroix wanted to find a way to recycle the massive amounts of down that come through the store. Although the store regularly donates down sleeping bags, jackets and other items to the local unhoused population, they still find themselves up to their beaks in feathers.
Then, at a Green Business roundtable, LaCroix learned about the Colorado Circular Economy Development Center, or CEDC. A program of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environ-
ment, its aim is to facilitate Colorado’s circular economy – that is, taking products at the end of their lifecycle, like down or plastic film, and recovering and reusing them to make new materials or products.
“The idea is that semitrucks are coming from the Front Range to these rural areas to deliver goods. And then they're driving home empty,” explained LaCroix. “So what the CEDC has done is create an opportunity for those semitrucks to be filled with recyclable materials that are then taken to factories on the Front Range to be recycled.”
To that end, DOE will be holding a down drive of sorts that weekend, asking folks to bring in their old down items, from comforters to coats. What can’t be
sold at the store will be loaded on the truck and brought to the Front Range. From there, it will go to Tersus Solutions, a Denver-based leader in cleaning and recycling down from the outdoor industry, including such heavy hitters as Patagonia, North Face and Arc’Teryx.
“It just makes sense for our shop. We have so much down coming our way; just in our relatively small community,” said LaCroix. “It felt exciting to have another place to take that. The thought of extending the life of those feathers just feels like the right thing to do.”
And LaCroix notes the drive is not just limited to jackets. “It can also be down comforters, down pillows, sleeping bags, things like that … anything where the feathers still have integrity.”
In addition to the down drive, DOE will offer a DIY “gear repair” station using Gearaid Tenacious Tape (like duct tape but much stronger and better looking.) And, if you happen to have something that needs fixing beyond a couple of cute patches, there’s help for you, too.
After taking a hiatus from the gear-repair world, Durango’s favorite “bro sewer,” Tae Hillyer, of San Juan Sewing, is back in business. Although he works out of a space in the Main Mall, DOE, in addition to Pine Needle Mountaineering, will serve as a drop-off spots for repairs.
“Tae recognized that there's still a demand for professional gear repair, but it was hard for him to both do his work and facilitate the drop-off and pick up. So we're offering that,” said LaCroix. “It's really streamlined. People just come in, fill out a form and drop off their item. Then, he contacts them via email once it's ready and drops it in a different bin here, and they come and pick it up. And then they pay him directly.”
And last but not least, there’s the DIY waxing event from 5-7 p.m. Sun., Nov. 16, featuring products from Mountainflow, a maker of earth-friendly, plantbased waxes. (In case you didn’t get the memo, those fluoro-carbon waxes are a complete nightmare for the environment and highly frowned upon. They are even banned by the FIS, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation. Plus, they’re so 2005.)
“Mountainflow has kind of made a big name for themselves in the last few years. They were on Shark Tank, and a lot of shops in town carry them. It's a great product, and it's plant-based rather than petroleum based,” LaCroix said. “On Sunday, we will have waxing stations set up. We are not personally doing the waxing, but people can come do it themselves, use the product and hang out.”
And while you’re there, be sure to check out DOE’s gently used down selection (which will be 20% off all weekend long). After all, now that winter’s here, couldn’t you use another puffy to go with your shorts and flip flops?
“I love recycling. It's sort of alarming how much comes our way from our one community and how much just gets tossed into landfills, because there's an excess,” said LaCroix. “So we want to do whatever we can to keep that out.” ■
Durango Outdoor Exchange employee Sarah Vader holds a sign explaining the store’s new down recycling initiative./ Courtesy photo
Local organizations work to fill SNAP gap
With the future of SNAP food benefits hanging in the balance as the government shutdown drags on, one local nonprofit is working to ensure the most vulnerable can put food on the table.
This week, the Good Food Collective launched a coordinated effort for area residents to both donate to the cause or receive food assistance via its website, www.goodfoodcollective.org.
“Community organizations, governing bodies and individuals are working together to make sure all our neighbors are able to feed their families,” Regional Relief Coordinator Rachel Landis said in a press release. “This five-county, 97-partner coalition is mobilizing emergency food resources, coordinating donations and advocating for urgent government action.”
SNAP benefits were shut off across the country starting Nov. 1, effectively withholding $120 million of SNAP benefits across the state. Across the five counties that make up Southwest Colorado – San Juan, La Plata, Montezuma, Dolores and Archuleta counties – as well as the Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute Indian tribes, SNAP issues an average of $2.19 million in benefits to 12,000 people monthly.
Although two federal judges ordered the Trump Administration to release SNAP funds, the disbursements have yet to happen, and it could take weeks for them to make their way to consumers.
Landis said the biggest way for people to help right now is to donate cash to the effort, with every $1 enabling local food assistance organizations to buy $7 worth of food. Donations will go directly to local food assistance providers, including the 27 food pantries in our region, with those with the greatest need being served first.
“We’re expecting that our local emergency food assistance programs, like food pantries and soup kitchens, are about to see a considerable increase in demand,” said Landis. “We’ll need significant resources to meet these needs … and your donation will be equitably distributed where the need is greatest across our region.”
Landis said local, small independent grocery stores are also likely to feel the SNAP pinch and urged locals to help support these stores in the weeks ahead. “These pillars are essential in feeding rural communities, and we’re working to make sure they stay open, resourced and supported,” she said.
For up-to-date information, a list of food resources and ways to support this effort, visit www.goodfoodcollective.org/snap-relief. To get involved with the relief effort, contact Landis at rachel@goodfoodcollective.org.
Exhibition celebrates sovereign superheroes
The Durango Creative District is helping to put the spotlight on a different spin on the basic comic book. From Nov. 7-28, the Creative District Gallert, 1135 Main Ave., will host “Super-Powered Sovereignty: Indigenous Comic Book Art Exhibition.” There will be an opening reception for the show this Friday from 58 p.m. at the gallery in conjunction with the First Friday Art Walk.
Featuring the works of several Indigenous artists, the exhibit tells unique Indigenous stories through the medium of comic book art, exploring themes rooted in sovereignty, identity and cultural empowerment.
Exhibiting artists, who from span from Phoenix to New Jersey, include Shaun
Beyale, Shamus Beyale, Keith Jim, Kayla Shaggy, Rod Velarde and Durango’s Christian Kee. Many will be in attendance at the opening to meet attendees and sign comic books or artwork.
The exhibit is in conjunction with the City’s Native American Heritage Month Celebration, coordinated by Durango School District 9R Title VI Indigenous Liaisons and funded through the City of Durango’s Lodgers’ Tax and Durango Creative District. The events throughout November aim to honor the cultures, contributions and living traditions of Indigenous peoples in the Four Corners.
The exhibit was curated by Fort Lewis College senior Andrea Rose Descheenie, a contemporary Indigenous artist and member of the Navajo Nation from Chinle, Ariz.
This exhibition is free and open to the public.
PAR announces new HWY 160 facility
After 10 years of finding forever homes for pets, Parker’s Animal Rescue is about to embark on settling into its forever home. Not long after moving from its cramped quarters on North Main to more spacious digs near Creature Comforts, PAR revealed plans for a new permanent facility on Highway 160.
For PAR founder and Executive Director Lisa Parker, the new home is the realization more than a decade in the making.
“This milestone marks the start of our next big chapter – creating a home base that will allow us to expand our foster and adoption programs, provide safe and comfortable housing for animals in transition, and strengthen our impact across the Four Corners region,” Parker said.
PAR is partnering with local form Huff Architecture to design the space, which will include cozy recovery rooms, meetand-greet areas and spaces for education and outreach. “Every detail is being crafted with animals and people in mind,” she said. “Together, we’re not just building a facility – we’re building the future of rescue in our community.”
To help celebrate the news – as well as a banner 77 adoptions so far in 2025 –PAR is hosting an open house at its current location, 305 S. Camino Del Rio, Ste. U, on Thur., Nov. 13 from 3-6 p.m.
“While this isn’t our forever home just yet, it’s a huge step forward – a welcoming, functional space where our fosters, volunteers and community can come together as we continue working toward our permanent facility,” said Parker. “A heartfelt thank you to Creature Comforts for their ongoing support and for generously allowing us to rent this wonderful space.”
– Missy Votel
“Diné (Navajo) Wonder Woman,” a 2018 digital print by Shaun Beyale.
BetweentheBeats
Keep on dancing
A few words on recent events (and why we need art more than ever)
by Stephen Sellers
Greetings, dear readers! The bubble of Durango officially popped for many this past week after Tuesday’s events at the makeshift ICE detention center in Bodo. There’s a new kind of tension in the air as our community wrestles with the aftermath of federal immigration agents “just doing their jobs.” Truth is, they’ve been doing those jobs here for decades – not just at the whim of any one administration.
The protests that followed ICE’s detention of two children and their father on their way to school were met with one agent breaking out moves straight from a ’90s wrestling video, plus chemical irritants and pepper bullets on seated demonstrators – a sight few of us ever expected to witness a stone’s throw from Ska Headquarters and Durango’s former public enemy number one, REI. Family separations are nothing new to this land. Masked federal agents in camo fatigues confronting protestors on Shepard Drive? Yeah, that’s new.
Before the ink dried on the Emancipation Proclamation, federally run Native boarding schools sought to erase Indigenous languages and culture by removing children from their families and communities. What does it say about us that those echoes still ring today? What roughly 0.5% of our city witnessed in person – and the rest of us saw on social media or in print – feels like the latest chapter in that same story, especially for those privileged enough never to feel its reach. But now it’s spilled into the collective consciousness of our town, like the Gold King spewing toxic waste into the Animas. It’s an unprecedented moment – one that asks what kind of community we want to be, and how, amid all our good intentions and talk of “community,” we somehow ended up here.
Tina can help you bust out on your own. Call her today for ass-istance in finding a new home.
Tina Miely
Broker Associate (970) 946-2902
tina@BHHSco.com
It’s easy to think this kind of thing only happens in big cities, not tucked beneath the shadow of Smelter Mountain –but here we are. And so, alongside voting and engaging in the democratic process many of us take for granted, it feels critical to keep gathering – to sing, to dance, to listen, to remember that we still share a common humanity, even when we disagree on policy. Live music won’t solve immigration or the algorithm-driven polarization of our politics, but it can hold space for grief, hope, dialogue and connection to coexist.
From underground shows at the brand-new Swarm to big nights at the Animas City Theatre, this month offers more than entertainment – it offers a chance to reflect on and shape the kind of community we aspire to be. For those wanting to do more than dance, connect with organizations like Compañeros, which is doing meaningful local work in our community. To all the artists out there – including the ones who don’t know they are yet – write a song. Share it with your friends. It’s courageous to keep creating and sharing art with your community in times like these. It’s brave. It’s essential. See you on the dance floor.
• SHU, ORA, Moon Farmer & Acid Wrench, The Swarm at The Hive, Thurs., Nov. 6, 6:30 p.m. – Doom, psych, punk, sludge! The Hive just celebrated its grand opening at a new downtown location with an indoor skatepark and a much-needed, all-ages, sober venue. Expect grunge from SHU, heavy-mellow rock from ORA, punk chaos from Acid Wrench, and blistering doom from Moon Farmer.
• “Squid Game: The Challenge” S2 Watch Party, iNDIGO Room at iAM Music, Thurs., Nov. 6, 7-9 p.m. –Jesse Ogle and the iAM crew continue their mission to keep music in the hands of local youth. Ogle, a contestant on Season 2 of “Squid Game: The Challenge,” hosts a special screening of Episodes 1 and 2 with an open bar and music to keep the party going.
• The Drifters, Community Concert Hall at FLC, Fri., Nov. 14, 7 p.m. – Rock & Roll Hall of Famers The Drifters bring timeless harmonies, sharp suits and nostalgia that’ll have you swaying in your seat to the soulful sounds that shaped the ’50s and ’60s.
• Elder Grown & Float Like a Buffalo, Animas City Theatre, Fri., Nov. 14, 8 p.m. – Durango’s own Elder Grown teams up with Denver’s Float Like a Buffalo for a night of funked-up jam grooves. Always a party when Elder Grown comes home to Durango. Let’s show them how much we’ve missed them.
• Deca, SaveJ & Codestar, Animas City Theatre, Sat., Nov. 15, 7 p.m. – Underground hip-hop heads, this one’s for you. Denver-born, NYC-based Deca brings poetic flow and dreamlike beats, joined by locals SaveJ and one of Durango’s best, DJ Codestar.
• Western Wallflowers & Safety Meeting, Durango Arts Center, Sat., Nov. 15, 7 p.m. – Safety Meeting continues to be a force in the local scene, blending styles into one joyous racket, and now with an expanded lineup including six of Durango’s most treasured musicians. Joining them are The Western Wallflowers, a twangy indie-folk outfit sure to shine under the DAC lights.
• A Hundred Drums & Brain Spiders, Animas City Theatre, Sat., Nov. 29, 7 p.m. – Gabrielle Watson (aka A Hundred Drums) is shaking up the global bass scene as Community & Partnerships Coordinator for Beatport, championing inclusion and culture. Behind the decks, she delivers heavy, heady sets. Opening is Brain Spiders, arguably Durango’s most innovative DJ. ■
Gabrielle Watson, aka A Hundred Drums
MurderInk
A new benchmark
Despite its sleepy name, don’t sleep on “The Dentist”
by Jeffrey Mannix
Wouldn’t you like to be a rube at the editorial conference table in New York City that contributes to the naming of a novel? Some titles just appear so ill-considered and even more fatuous when they’re featured in bookstores and libraries. And advanced reading copies from publicists come with some of the damnedest titles and most ponderous narrative accompaniment and endorsements. It seems as though six or eight midlist novelists – including the omnipresent Lee Child – all effuse the genius of the author with the loathsome “unputdownable” felicitations.
Well, I apologize for the above vilification, because today I’m bringing you a genuine gem of a police procedural by the eminent Tim Sullivan with the most inane title: “The Dentist.” Sullivan has written and seven previous novels with two-word titles beginning with “The.” We’d suspect that the second word precisely sets the leitmotif of the story, but the dentist in Sullivan’s “The Dentist” is like the backboard behind a basketball hoop. The story is hardly about him, but without him, there can’t be a story to tell. And before he was dead, he was living on skid row while still owning a stately home and having ample funds in retirement from … dentistry.
If that’s not confusing enough, confusion becomes the undercurrent of Sullivan’s remarkable narrative about Detective Sgt. George Cross, of the Avon and Somerset Police in the burbs of London. It’s with Cross that everything becomes clear. And clear with Cross is crystal, unambiguous, perspicuous, logical, straightforward, lucid, indisputable, irrefutable, beyond doubt and unarguable.
You see, Cross is on the autism spectrum. And “The Dentist” is about Cross and his unflappable investigation into the death of a homeless street dweller who used to be a dentist, which none of his supervisors or fellow investigators care to look into.
To give agency to the ragged deadbeat, Cross ruffled institutional superiors by zeroing in on the forensics of the dead dentist as he would if it were the unfortunate ending of royalty. Acclaim for his investigative zeal and intuitive order of examination is withheld by his precinct stablemates. But they admire Cross’ uncanny observations and remarkable intuition.
“The Dentist” is the nonpareil crime fiction book of the year as far as I’m concerned. Sullivan cap tures the intellect and Cross while giving the reader an education on autism spectrum disorder with every logical obsession Cross brings to everything he does. Cross’ superiors hate him be cause he won’t take their ad vice about how to conduct investigations unless it con forms to his exact perception of logic.
One of Cross’ quiet ob servations, for instance, is that the dentist was wearing contact lenses – unusual for skid row, and moreover, the lenses were scleral lenses. (The atten tion Cross gets from his fellow coppers when his notes remarked about the scleral lenses sent me scurrying off to learn just what the hell scleral contact lenses are.)
know he’s nobody’s fool. He solves all his cases, even if they’ve been cold for years. And you now have the unique opportunity to learn to love somebody you can’t stand to be around.
So here we are with a dead bum who’s been living on skid row. He has impeccable dental work, owns books, writes notes about investigating his wife’s suspicious death 15 years ago, has money in his pocket, and the hook was set with the scleral contact lenses.
Cross’ perspicuity is infectious, and that’s the rea son he continues to investigate crime. Everyone who knows Cross doesn’t like him, including his female partner – always a rookie and always a woman – who hates the ground he walks on. Nonetheless, we all
All the cops, detectives, sergeants, captains and division chiefs want to dispose of the soiled corpse and won’t even bother to investigate. Cross, on the other hand, has a mote of overlooked evidence and none of his superiors have the temerity to discharge the infuriating tracker of hardly measurable clues and unexplored forensic evidence. He gets results; they get promotions. There’s not much more I care to tell you about this book. It’s very different, and you won’t realize that until it has planted the hook deep in your psyche, and you can’t shake it loose. Even when you come to the last page of “The Dentist,” you will never get it out of your mind. You’ll compare it to the next “Murder Ink” gem as a benchmark for the pure logic of forensic morphology.
See where Sullivan’s Cross takes you. “The Dentist” dropped two weeks ago. Ask Maria’s Bookshop for their generous 15% “Murder Ink” discount. My advance reader’s copy has “The Dentist” coming out in original paperback at a price of $17. It will be a mistake to overlook this gem for a measly $14.45. ■
Thursday06
Craft and Connect, 3-5 p.m., Fort Lewis Mesa Library, 11274 HWY 140
Tools for Cancer Caregivers, 4:30-6 p.m., Cancer Support Community SW Colorado, 1701 Main Ave., Ste. C
“Treading Water: Climate Resiliency in Our Community” 6th Annual Water Connections Event, 5 p.m., FLC Ballroom
Spanish Conversation Hour, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Durango Public Library, 1900 E. 3rd Ave.
Gary Watkins plays, 5:30-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Open Mic Night, 6 p.m., Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Dr.
Bluegrass Jam, 6-9 p.m., Durango Beer and Ice Co., 3000 Main Ave.
A Night of Psych Rock, Doom, Grunge and Punk featuring Shu, Ora, Moon Farmer and Acid Wrench, 6:30 p.m., The Swarm venue at The Hive, 1175 Camino Del Rio
Sound & Environment: An Interactive Music Workshop, 6:30-8 p.m., Center of Southwest Studies, FLC
Powerhouse Trivia Night, 6:30-8:30 p.m., The Powerhouse, 1333 Camino Del Rio
Kirtan Chanting with GaiaShakti, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Unitarian Universalist Church, 419 San Juan Dr.
Durango Independent Film Festival Best of Fest 2025, 7 p.m., Durango Arts Center, 802 E. 2nd Ave.
Trivia Night hosted by Aria PettyOne, 7:30-9:30 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.
Friday07
Friends of the Library Fall Book Sale, 10 a.m.4 p.m., Durango Public Library, 1900 E. 3rd Ave.
Durango First Friday art walk, 4-7 p.m., various locations Downtown Durango
“Unhoused in Durango” forum, 5 p.m., VFW Post 4031, 1550 Main Ave.
“Fragments” works by Andrea Martens, opening reception, 5-8 p.m., The Recess Gallery, 1027 Main Ave.
“Super-Powered Sovereignty,” Indigenous comic book art exhibition, opening reception, 5-8 p.m., Durango Creative District Community Gallery, 1135 Main Ave. Exhibit runs thru Nov. 28.
“Southwest Remix,” an invitational exhibition, artist reception, 5-8 p.m., Blue Rain Gallery, 934 Main Ave., Unit B
The ArtRoom Collective First Friday Artist Social, 5:30 p.m., The Smiley Building ArtRoom Collective, 1309 E. 3rd Ave.
Hoop Dancers and open museum, 5:30-7:30 p.m., The Powerhouse, 1333 Camino Del Rio
Galen Clark plays, 5:30-8:30 p.m., Barons Creek Vineyards, 901 Main Ave.
Irish Music with Tom Ward’s Downfall, 6-8 p.m., Durango Winery, 900 Main Ave.
The Black Velvet Duo, with Nina Sasaki & Larry Carver plays, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Dustin Burley plays, 6-9 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Civic Winds Jazz Collective, 7 p.m., Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 419 San Juan Drive
Open Mic Comedy, 7-9 p.m., EsoTerra, 558 Main Ave.
A Night of Improv with special guest Evan Mills, 7-9 p.m., Durango Arts Center, 802 E. 2nd Ave.
“Once Upon a Mattress” musical, 7-9:30 p.m., Durango High School Auditorium, 2390 Main Ave.
Jazz Church open jam, 7:30-9:30 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.
Saturday08
Ski Swap presented by Hesperus Ski Patrol, 8 a.m.4 p.m., La Plata County Fairgrounds
Groundbreaking at The Carlton Building, 9:30-11 a.m., Powerhouse, 1295 Camino Del Rio
Hoop Dancer Youth Workshop, 10-11:30 a.m., The Hive, 1175 Camino Del Rio
Friends of the Library Fall Book Sale, 10 a.m.4 p.m., Durango Public Library, 1900 E. 3rd Ave.
Darryl Kuntz plays, 5:30 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Ska/Venture Season Kickoff Party, 6 p.m., Ska Brewing, 225 Girard St.
High Altitude Blues plays, 6 p.m., Weminuche Grill, 18044 Co Rd 501, Bayfield
Matt Rupnow plays, 6-9 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
“Once Upon a Mattress” musical, 7-9:30 p.m., Durango High School Auditorium, 2390 Main Ave.
“We Are the Music Makers,” with Durango Choral Society & Farmington Caliente Choir, presented by The San Juan Symphony, 7:30 p.m., Community Concert Hall, FLC
Adult Swim Stand-Up Comedy 18+, 8 p.m., The Subterrain, 900 Main Ave., Ste. F
Irish Jam, 12 noon-3 p.m., Durango Beer and Ice Co., 3000 Main Ave.
Weekly Peace Vigil & Rally for Gaza & Palestine, every Sunday, 4 p.m., Buckley Park
Funk Jam Sessions presented by Jimmy’s Music & Supply, 5-7 p.m., 11th St. Station, 1101 Main Ave.
Blue Moon Ramblers play, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Ben Gibson plays, 6-9 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Monday10
Climate Café, 4:30-5:30 p.m., Durango Public Library, 1900 E. 3rd Ave.
Happy Hour Yoga, 5:30 p.m., Ska Brewing, 225 Girard St.
Meditation and Dharma Talk, 5:30 p.m., The Durango Dharma Center, 1800 E. 3rd Ave., Ste. 109, online at durangodharmacenter.org
Randy Crumbaugh plays, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Chuck Hank plays, 6-9 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
AskRachel Ironic parties, inconvenienced and living outside the box
Interesting fact: Approximately 100 billion cardboard boxes are produced in the U.S. each year. So go ahead and scrap the ones you’ve been clinging to.
Dear Rachel,
Everyone is griping about the Great Gatsby party being tone deaf to the plights of millions of Americans. And rightly so. What good is such horrible irony if we can’t continue to skewer it? Are there other literary-themed parties we should hold, strictly to illustrate how out of touch those in power are? (Even more than people in power normally are.)
– Nom de Plume
Dear Name of Feather, Oh, how about literally any politically guided novel written in the last 500 years? Very rarely are the good artists aligned with the powerful, particularly the powerful-and-willing-to-starve-people. Perhaps even better than a themed party would be a reading group or a
Tuesday11
Nathan Schmidt plays, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Randy Crumbaugh plays, 6-9 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Rotary Club of Durango presents Roger Ptolemy and Suzi Loether sharing summer adventures in the Canadian Rockies., 6-7 p.m., Strater Hotel, 699 Main
Barbershop tryouts, every Tues., 6:30 p.m., Christ the King Church, 495 Florida Rd.
Open Mic, 7 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.
Wednesday12
Diné Poetics Student Readings, 3:30-4:30 p.m., Center of Southwest Studies, FLC
Empty Chair Town Hall CD3 forum, 5-7 p.m., La Plata County Fairgrounds, 2500 Main Ave.
Money Talks personal finance discussion, 5:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m., 11st St.
volunteer group. Not another party. Unless it’s an art party where we all get drunk and paint gourds. I could be a party to that.
– Party on, Rachel
Dear Rachel,
We patronized a business the other day with a notice that “FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE we only accept credit cards; no cash, thank you!” Who are they to decide what is convenient for us? What if we get paid in cash tips and don’t have good enough credit for a card? What if it’s convenient for us to deal in bills because we’re evading taxes? Convenience is paying however we like. We’re mad that they’re trying to spin their own preferences as our own.
- N. Debt & N. Convenienced Dear N. Sensed, The best book title the world has ever known might be “In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash.” Cash was king! But we decided we’re done with kings. Instead, we now like fees. You
Station, 1101 Main Ave.
Guys Who Give Quarterly Impact Event, 6-7 p.m., Steamworks Brewing, 801 E. 2nd Ave.
Writers & Scribblers Writing Group, 6-8 p.m., Durango Public Library, 1900 E. 3rd Ave.
Donny Johnson plays, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Terry Rickard plays, 6-9 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
San Juan Basin Archaeological Society presents Thatcher SeltzerRogers, 7-8:30 p.m., FLC Lyceum
“Anais,” performed by FLC Theatre, 7:30 p.m., FLC Mainstage Theatre
“Men Next Door: Uncovered A Magic Mike Experience,” 8-11 p.m., American Legion, 878 E .2nd Ave.
Ongoing
“From the Fringes: Dine Textiles that Disrupt” exhibit, thru Nov. 13,
think we’re not all paying for those credit card percentages, even when we pay with cash? I think we should return to a cash-only ecosystem. Coin only! Just once, I’d like to drop a sack of change on a counter. But to, like, buy a car.
– Under the table, Rachel
Dear Rachel, I haven’t figured out the allure of a good cardboard box, but it’s undeniable. Even better? The joy of finding the perfect use for a long-kept box. I just stuck a shoebox in a nightstand, hoping to contain my various bedside salves and balms, and it fit like a dream. That justified every box I’ve ever kept. But my partner thinks I’m hoarding and taking up space. You want to have my back on this?
– The Boxer
Dear Boxed In, It all depends on how much you anticipate moving in the next six to 12 months. If you have a moving day on
Center of Southwest Studies, FLC
Public viewing of Sand Mandala creation, Nov. 14-21, Dreams of Tibet, 988 Main Ave.
“Stay Tuned,” mixed media by Benjamin Dukeminier, thru Nov. 14, Durango Arts Center, 802 E. 2nd Ave.
Danielle SeeWalker’s “Chó Snazz!” art exhibit, thru Nov. 19, FLC Art Gallery
“Southwest Remix” Invitational Exhibition, thru Nov.26, Blue Rain Gallery, 934 Main Ave., Unit B
Indigenous Ink: Empowering Stories in Comic Books, thru November, Maria’s Reading Room, 145 E. College, Ste. 10W
“Fragments” by Andrea Martens, thru November, Recess Gallery, 1027 Main
Dementia/Alzheimer’s Caregivers Support Group, 1st, 3rd & 5th Wednesday of each month, 10:30 a.m.-12 noon, La Plata Senior Center, 2424 Main Ave.
Email Rachel at telegraph@durango telegraph.com
the horizon, hoard away! If not, and if you are not in a shipping-centered profession, and you don’t have cats, then you really should limit yourself to whatever adorable boxes you can fit inside a single larger box. Or, host a Boxcar Children-themed party and share your wealth.
– Boxed out, Rachel
Upcoming
Parker’s Animal Rescue Open House, Thurs., Nov. 13, 3-6 p.m., 305 S. Camino Del Rio, Ste. U
Opening Ceremony for the Compassion Sand Mandala, Thurs., Nov 13, 5:30 p.m., Dreams of Tibet, 988 Main Ave.
Live Readings from “Four Corners Voices Vol. 2,” Thurs., Nov. 13, 6-8 p.m., Maria’s Bookshop, 960 Main Ave.
“Anais,” performed by FLC Theatre, Thurs.-Fri., Nov.13-14, 7:30 p.m., FLC Mainstage Theatre
Traditional Tibetan Dinner & Cultural Night, Fri., Nov 14, 5:30 p.m., Himalayan Kitchen, 992 Main Ave.
Stone Mani Mantra Painting, Sand Art & Tibetan Calligraphy, Sat., Nov 15, 10 a.m., Durango Dharma Center, 1800 E. 3rd Ave.
Walk-in Personal Healings or Astrology Readings, Sat., Nov. 15, thru the afternoon, Dreams of Tibet, 988 Main Nov. 6, 2025 n 13
FreeWillAstrology
by Rob Brezsny
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The Akan concept of “Sankofa” is represented by a bird looking backward while moving forward. The message is “Go back and get it.” You must retrieve wisdom from the past to move into the future. Forgetting where you came from doesn’t liberate you; it orphans you. I encourage you to make Sankofa a prime meditation. The shape of your becoming must include the shape of your origin. You can’t transcend what you haven’t integrated. So look back, retrieve what you left behind and bring it forward.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to engage in STRATEGIC FORGETTING. It’s the art of deliberately unlearning what you were taught about who you should be, what you should want, and how you should spend your precious life. Fanatical brand loyalty to yourself can be an act of self-sabotage. I suggest you fire yourself from your own expectations. Clock out from the job of being who you were yesterday. It’s liberation time!
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): We should all risk asking wrong questions. Doing so reminds us that truth and discovery often hide in the pile of our mistaken notions. A wrong question can help us shed tired assumptions, expose invisible taboos and lure new insights. By leaning into the awkward, we invite surprise, which may be rich in genuine learning. Why not? What if I fail spectacularly? What would I do if I weren’t afraid of looking dumb? How can I make this weirder? What if I said yes? What if I said no? What if this is all simpler than I’m making it? What if it’s stranger than I can imagine?
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Cancerian novelist Octavia Butler said her stories were fueled by two obsessions: “Where will we be going?” and “How will we get there?” One critic praised this approach, saying she paid “serious attention to the way human beings actually work together and against each other.” Other critics praised her “clear-headed and brutally unsentimental” explorations of “far-reaching issues of race, sex, power.” She was a gritty visionary whose imagination was expansive and attention to detail meticulous. Let’s make her your inspirational role model. Your future self is now leaning toward you, whispering previews and hints about paths still half-formed. You’re being invited to be both a dreamer and builder; a seer and strategist. Where are you going, and how will you get there?
Tons
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The Tagalog language includes the word “kilig.” It refers to the butterfly-in-the-stomach flutter when something momentous, romantic or cute happens. I suspect kilig will be a featured experience for you in coming weeks – if you make room for it. Don’t fill up every minute with mundane tasks and relentless worrying. Meditate on the truth that you deserve such blessings and must expand your consciousness to welcome their arrival.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Your liver performs countless functions, including storing vitamins, synthesizing proteins, regulating blood sugar, filtering 1.5 quarts of blood per minute and detoxifying metabolic wastes. It can regenerate itself from as little as 25% of its original tissue. It’s your internal resurrection machine: proof that some damage is reversible, and some second chances come built in. Many cultures have regarded the liver not just as an organ, but the seat of the soul and source of passions. Some ritual purification ceremonies honor the liver’s role. I invite you to celebrate this central repository of life energy. Regard it as an inspiring symbol of your ability to revitalize.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The pupils of your eyes aren’t black. They are actually holes. Each pupil is an absence, a portal where light enters and becomes sight. Do you understand how amazing this is? You have two voids in your face through which the world pours itself into your nervous system. These crucial features are literally made of nothing. Everything I just said reframes emptiness not as loss or deficiency but as a functioning joy. Without the pupils’ hollowness, there is no color, no shape, no sunrise, no art. Likewise in emotional life, our ability to be delighted depends on vulnerability. To feel wonder and curiosity is to let the world, just as light enters the eye.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Your dreams speak in images, not ideas. They bypass your rational defenses and tell the truth slantwise because the truth straight-on may be too bright to bear. The source of dreams, your unconscious, is fluent in a language that your waking mind may not be entirely adept in understanding: symbol, metaphor and emotional logic. It tries to tell you things your conscious self refuses to hear. Are you listening? Or are you too busy being reasonable? The coming weeks will be a crucial time to tune in.
Ge Gear up for wininter er
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The tour guide at the museum was describing the leisure habits of ancient Romans. “Each day’s work was often completed by noon,” he said. “For the remainder of the day, they indulged in amusement and pleasure. Over half of the calendar consisted of holidays.” You probably can’t permanently arrange your schedule to be like the Romans’. But you’ll be wise to do so during the coming days. Do you dare to give yourself such abundant comfort and delight? Might you be bold enough to rebel against daily drudgery to honor your soul’s and body’s cravings for relief and release?
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The Zulu greeting “Sawubona” means “I see you.” Not just “hello,” but “I acknowledge your existence, dignity and humanity.” The response is Ngikhona: “I am here.” In this exchange, people receive a respectful appreciation that they contain deeper truths below the surface of their personality. This is the opposite of the Western world’s default state of mutual invisibility. What if you greeted everyone like this – with honor and recognition? I recommend you try this experiment. It will spur others to treat you even better than they already do.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Bear with me while I propose an outlandish-sounding theory: that you have enough of everything. Not eventually, not after the next achievement, but right now: You have all you need. What if enoughness is not a quantity but a quality of attention? What if enoughness isn’t a perk you have to earn but a treasure you simply claim? In this way of thinking, you consider the possibility that the finish line keeps moving because you keep moving it. And now you will decide to stop doing that. You resolve to believe that this breath, this moment, and this gloriously imperfect life are enough, and the voice telling you it’s not enough is selling something you don’t need.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): The Inuit people have dozens of words for snow. The Scots have more than 100 words for rain. Sanskrit is renowned for its detailed and nuanced vocabulary relating to love, tenderness and spiritual bliss. According to some estimates, there are 96 different terms for various expressions of love, including the romantic and sensual kind, as well as compassion, friendship, devotion and transcendence. I invite you to take an inventory of all the kinds of affection and care you experience. Now is an excellent phase to expand your understanding of these mysteries – and increase your capacity for giving and receiving them.
classifieds
Deadline for Telegraph classified ads is Tuesday at noon.
Ads are a bargain at 10 cents a character with a $5 minimum
Even better, ads can now be placed online: durangotelegraph.com Prepayment is required via cash, credit card or check. (Sorry, no refunds or substitutions.)
Ads can be submitted via: n classifieds@durango telegraph.com n 970-259-0133
HelpWanted
The Hive is Hiring a FT Director of Programs and Operations. Email kelsie@hivedgo.org for position description and more information. Experience in youth programs preferred
Lost/Found
Help Cid Come Home
Last seen July 21, 2024, by St. Columba Church. He is chipped, missing left canine tooth, white, big black spots, green eyes. Reward $2000. 970-403-6192.
Classes/Workshops
Join K-Lea Gifford for Mindful Movement to Release and Restore Winter workshops. Held on six Saturdays at 10:30 a.m. in The Smiley Building, RM 32. Dec 13: Pelvic Floor; Dec 20: Neck & Shoulders; Jan 3: Hips; Jan 17: Yoga on the Ropes; Feb 7: Psoas; Feb 14: Backbends. Six-class package: $240. Single workshop: $45 pre-registered, $50 at the door. Details and registration: www.k-lea.com
A Martial Art for Kind Humans
Slow learner? Two left feet? Kindhearted? Aikido may be your jam. Weekly Crash Course and Starter Series available now (adults 18+). Details and registration at durangoaikido.com
Sacred Psoas Offering
Dr. Keneen Hope McNiven at Yoga Durango Nov 9th. Is your hip flexor creating back, hip or groin pain? Your psoas has everything to do with stress, fatigue, pain and sleep loss. Healing happens when your psoas, diaphragm and vagus nerve find freedom and fluidity. Find out more: yogadurango.com or Dr. Keneen 303513-8055. Early bird ends Nov 2nd.
Men's Yoga
Every Tuesday, 7:30-8:30 AM at Yogadurango. All levels welcome.
Wanted
Books Wanted at White Rabbit
Donate/Trade/Sell 970 259-2213
ForSale
Boiler Service - Water Heater
Serving Durango over 30 years. Brad, 970-759-2869. Master Plbg Lic #179917
‘The Family Fang’ He is in it, but sadly, not a hot Bateman vampire movie – Lainie Maxson
Honor Military Veterans at Greenmount Cemetery by purchasing a wreath for $17 at www.bluestar momsofdurango.org. Volunteers are needed Nov. 8 to premark veteran graves. Checks can be mailed to Blue Star Moms of Durango, P.O. Box 874, Bayfield, CO 81122. The deadline to purchase a wreath is Fri., Nov. 28.
Bar Stools
Set of 3, new, un-used, swivel, adjustable with comfortable seats. $60/ea. Call 937-271-9633
Equestrian Motif Pillows
2 large pillows with horse head motif, 20” square, $25/ea. Call 937-271-9633
Screen Printing Business for Sale
Over 100 screens, multiple presses, flash dryer, screen maker, squeegees. Call Greg at 970-247-3457 to see equipment.
Reruns Home Furnishings
Time to refresh your indoor space. Rolling wooden bar, nightstands, mirrors, lamps, cool artwork and lots more! Also looking to consign smaller furniture pieces. 572 E. 6th Ave. Open Mon.-Sat.
BodyWork
Massage by Meg Bush
LMT, 30, 60 & 90 min., 970-759-0199.
Services
Need Help Raking Leaves?
Call Chris 970-442-1021
CommunityService
Free Dental Care for Veterans
Dr. Blake Brown and staff are proudly donating free dental care to veterans on Veterans Day, Nov. 11. Please call for an appointment or more info: 970-247-9549.
Tools for Cancer Caregivers
free workshop. Nov. 6, 4:30-6 p.m. 1701 Main Ave., above the Community Banks building. Pre-registration advised, www. cancersupportswco.org or 970-403-3711
Dementia/Alzheimer’s Caregivers Support group and information/resources to those caring for a loved one with dementia/Alzheimer’s on the 1st, 3rd & 5h Wednesdays of each month, 10:30 a.m. – 12 noon, La Plata Senior Center, 2424 Main Ave. For info., email cajunmc @gmail.com or go to www.alz/ org/co
Dog Fosters Needed Parker’s Animal Rescue urgently needs foster families to provide temporary homes for rescued dogs. We supply crates, food, leashes, toys and support, and cover vet visits. Apply at: parkersani malresuce.com.
New kid on the block?
(Don’t worry – the Telegraph is here for you step by step.) 50% OFF one month of display ads* for new advertisers
