Buddha Buddha Buddha Buddha rockin’ everywhere

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Props to Bubba Sparxxx & Ying Yang Twins for the title, well, with a little remix of my own obviously. Time at Shambhala has come to an end and I’m sitting in a Boulder bookstore doing a quick recount of the past weeks. The tent takedown continued as the days got colder, the Aspen trees began to golden and we sensed the imminent arrival of winter. Last week we awoke to a Colorado winter wonderland and spent the morning hiking around identifying animal tracks in the snow. Moose, deer, bear, bunnies, and birds were all happily sharing the land around our tents, probably under the cover of the night.

On the last day of work, my friend Gale and I had a chance to work at the Stupa polishing the 10 foot, brass front doors. Gale was having problems with her eye and I had grown tired of taking down tents and moving furniture, so we willingly sought out the job. It was a somber, lovely morning and a wonderful way to spend the last day at Shambhala.

The weekend earlier I volunteered myself as moral support to a friend, Tara, who was training as a runner and had signed up for the Crossroads 5K in Fort Collins. It was a race to benefit the Crossroads Safehouse, which is a free, secure and undisclosed safehouse for abused women and children in northern Colorado. It provides advocacy, legal assistance, transitional housing, education, clothing and food to those in need and has operated for over 30 years. Truth be told, it’s been months since I’ve run and certainly not at 6,000ft elevation. But I woke up at 5:30 and made the hour trip to run the race and placed 42/106 (respectable?). Tara was amazing and placed 1st in her division and 4th of all the women.

Friday after leaving Shambhala, Bridget arrived at DIA ready to rock out in the Rockies - we explored the downtown Denver streets and the 16th street mall (truth = mostly chain stores), did a tour and sampling at the Great Divide brewery, stumbled upon Oktoberfest (etulfts: remember my song “Roll Out the Barrel”? The Germans really do sing it!), and drove outside the city to Red Rocks Amphitheater. The Amphitheatre is geologically spectacular and was once listed as among the Seven Wonders of the World. Running along the theater steps seems to be a popular exercise activity but Bridget and I found ourselves slowly dragging our bodies to the top and immediately finding a place to sit and be as comatose as possible. Some things never change.

Sometime in there I visited the Annual Flower Trial Garden at Colorado State University (see photo 6). I don't know much about it except it is a great place to spend an afternoon reading, napping and flower watching.

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Photos

Crossroads 5K in Fort Collins
really exited.. to be done