Greetings and Opportunities

Lovelies,

Though it’s been some time since I’ve last posted, some things haven’t changed:

I am still trying to cram entirely too much into one garden bed, while telling myself that there is some synergistic benefit to intermingling garlic with every other plant that germinated in the vicinity. I know this is not exactly how farming works.

garlic plus sunflowers, Rocky Mtn bee plant, cosmos and calendula. Whatevs.

Dan and I still have flip phones. Which means we are regularly saying, “can you actually print that boarding pass?” “Can you actually give me verbal directions. Wait, I need to get a pen.” “Can you actually send that link to my email?”

And some things are wildly different:

Col now lives in Santa Monica (in Los Angeles!) and is studying fashion. Often when we talk, he’s waiting for the city bus to take him to the fabric district, or fussing with some sewing project on his mannequin, trying to get a zipper, hem, or collar just right. His apartment is around the corner from a convenience store, barber, donut shop, and taco stand, and also 9 blocks from the beach. When we visit him we spend most of our time trying to figure out the least terrible time to drive in LA. As Dan likes to say anytime we’re navigating to a destination in LA, “we’re very close and also very far.”

I think Col looks back nostalgically on his Durango upbringing as being very sweet and quaint. Like he spent most of his childhood weaving clothing from dandelion stems while we all spoke kindly and gently to one another.

The Berkeley Rose Garden, and perhaps the most nature Col has experienced in the past year.

I recently sent Col a photo of some homely cookies I had made for him and Rose a million years ago. He replied, Oh, I remember those cookies they tasted super good.

Me: If gluten free and low sugar is your idea of good.

Col: Well that’s all we got so it was good.

See, nostalgic.

Rose just graduated high school and is heading to college in Grand Junction, which as a town is growing on me. Wait, this is not about me? Fine, it’s just that Grand Junction may not be the exact milieu where young women throw off the confines of patriarchy to discover the value of their natural, un-deodorized, wild selves. That’s okay. Rose is going to change the world looking and smelling fabulous. Her current concern is how she will fit all her clothes into a dorm room. Valid.

What I really want to share is that I am teaching 2 drop in, donation-based Nonviolent Communication Classes this summer, one in person and one online, and I would love to see you there! I really would! (How’s that for great marketing?) These classes are open to all skill level and all humans. And even though communication sounds kind of serious, we have so much fun in these classes. Please contact me if you have any questions.

Online Nonviolent Communication Skill Building and Coaching Group
Facilitated by Rachel Turiel
Dates and times: Wednesdays, June 25th, July 2nd, 9th, and 16th 1pm – 2:15pm MST
Cost: by donation
Location: Zoom
Pre-registration Required. To Register email rachelburiel@gmail.com

Join this drop-in, donation-based online skill building and coaching group on Wednesday afternoons. All are welcome, no previous experience necessary. Come to one class, all four classes, or somewhere in-between. We will use your real-life scenarios to learn and practice skills to:

• Increase our capacity to speak what is true for us with the care that allows others to take in our message.
• Hear, understand and make sense of the messages we hear from others.
• Ask for what we want in a way that draws others to us outside of coercion or obligation.
• Transform narratives around who’s deserving and who’s to blame to collaborate to find solutions that care for everyone’s needs.

In Person Nonviolent Communication Skill Building and Coaching Group
Facilitated by Rachel Turiel
Dates and times: Tuesdays, June 17th, July 1st and 8th, 6pm – 7:30 MST
Cost: by donation
Location: In town, Durango, In person
Pre-registration Required. To Register email rachelburiel@gmail.com

Join this drop-in, donation-based skill building and coaching group on Tuesday evenings. All are welcome, no previous experience necessary. Come to one class, all four classes, or somewhere in-between. We will use your real-life scenarios to learn and practice skills to:

• Increase our capacity to speak what is true for us with the care that allows others to take in our message.
• Hear, understand and make sense of the messages we hear from others.
• Ask for what we want in a way that draws others to us outside of coercion or obligation.
• Transform narratives around who’s deserving and who’s to blame to collaborate to find solutions that care for everyone’s needs.

Text-breaking up photo. Also, Father’s Day backpacking trip, for which Rose and I gave Dan the 2 beers he carried in 7.3 miles. 

Also, I am sending out occasional newsletters from my Nonviolent Communication Coaching, Mediating and Facilitating business. If you’d like to see any past newsletters or sign up to receive my newsletter, click here.

And finally, these are the best books I’ve read all summer, which yes, just started, but for me, reading is a survival strategy. So, I do lots of it. Heartwood and Sea Wife by Amity Gaige. Real Americans by Rachel Khong, and Margot’s got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe. So, so good.

With love, care, gratitude, heartbreak, hope,

Rachel

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