Ashland honoring, Aug 30 '09

40-Day Sunrise celebration & honoring on Mt. Ashland

Photos submitted by Tejaswini Rachel Ann of Ashland

author of Rita Lila, a memoir of her unfolding aided by David's guidance

Breakfast at Callahan's

Dear letter from dear lady

Dearest Ananda,
Don't know where to start but sending a huge hugs to your big heart and a cry of strength to keep you up on your feet and hold you in light and and love for days to come

I was away far away ..during the summer my laptop shut down and in the middle of Mount Lebanon mid July i kept hearing voice inside me check on David ..Every night it felt like someone is shaking me and waking me up at night ...You and David were in my thoughts and prayers all this time until first week of Aug i went to the city and check my e-mails and my heart ached ...

I know David will be alive in all of us ..people who knew him and loved him and learned from him

I was by myself when i went to the big vast blue peaceful Mediterean sea and honor David alone sending prayers to his healing eyes and pure soul ... I will always see him perfect and whole and beautiful and remember him as an amazing pure energy full of compassion and sweetness

Dearest Ananda ... i came home not long ago and i'm afraid and deeply sorry that i won't be able to come to Yosemite..

Years ago David assigned me to make a mandala from rose petals and take it early morning and let the rose merge with water thinking of Divine Mother ...
It is my heart call to honor David next Sunday at 6am by making a mandala on his behalf with rose petals the shape of his last drawing and merge it with water early in the morning ..
I hope his soul will accept this little humble way from me to say Good bye ..

I send you my love from the deepest corner in my heart
In heart
Samar
(Princeton sangha)

Post from "Soft Bird", formerly "Fierce Bird"

Hi Ananda,

I tried to post this on the blog. This is what I got the evening of the day David passed on:

7-21-09

David: You are accustomed to my body form so we will use that, but now I am not limited by it, nor was I before, though people thought I was.

Dying is not as profound a change as those in bodies think. It is a shift to another way of being. You let go of being able to manipulate the physical world, but you gain a comprehensive awareness that is overwhelming.

Lisa: I am not as fierce a bird as I used to be.

David: Yes, your feathers are softer now.

Lisa: Do you have advice for me?

David: Be the softest bird you can be. Whatever you think is in the way of you being a soft bird, this is just beautiful feathers. Fluff up your feathers and be a bird that sings just to sing.

From: danagarenanderson.blogspot.com/

TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2009

Thinking of Ananda

Dear Ananda ––

I read with interest the email sent quite soon after David’s passing, and want to extend my thoughts and energy to you as you approach the 40-day mark. Though I met you and David briefly in Alaska, and talked with David maybe three other times via phone, you both made an impact on my life. Words such as grace, patience, and ease come to mind in association with you. As you, personally, change roles in relationship with David, I send you energy and strength.

I was at Hatcher Pass, near Palmer, AK on 23 August, and took this photo. David would have loved being there. He probably was, and helped me save this image of my day there.

I’ll be with you at Yosemite in spirit.

Dana from Anchorage

Threshold

As my house buzzes with Yosemite memorial preparations and probate paperwork I find a longing to someday rest. So many lovely and loving emails and cards coming my way, and everyone has a similar longing for me... a chance to catch up with myself after caring for David. But my intense full-time nurse role has only been replaced by a full-time secretary & human relations job since he passed.

There appears on the horizon glimmers of opportunities and creative pursuits ahead, and yet I stand on the shore with my feet held down with heavy sand, full backpack weighing my shoulders down, holding me in place.

But behind me there's a picnic blanket spread out with 7o or so celebrants, loved ones, students, memorial pilgrims... all gathered and inspired to honor a dear and worthy life, all ready to lighten my load, clink a glass and pass the talking stick with me. So that, from here, and only then, am I then able to fully step down from the seat Ive occupied at David's side, circle them carefully, lovingly, slip into the warm glimmering waters and swim my way to a sparkling new home... a home filled with pockets of ideas, gadgets for publishing creative works by David and myself, colorful messy studio time and many rooms for welcoming visitors to tea.

Rest. Taken winter 08 in Ashland

David shot of me last Feb in Ashland. Helpful for my heart as I head into winter, in a small mountain snow town, this year alone.

Beloved Name

David sent this poem July 15th, to his dear friend headed to Greece

Since it's a "good bye", I thought it belonged on here for everyone to enjoy. Ananda

From David

July 15, 2009

here's a good bye poem to greece for you...

“I LIVED THE BELOVED NAME...”

I lived the beloved name
In the shade of the aged olive tree
In the roaring of the lifelong sea

Those who stoned me live no longer
With their stones I built a fountain
To its brink green girls come
Their lips descend from the dawn
Their hair unwinds far into the future

Swallows come, infants of the wind
They drink, they fly, so that life goes on
The threat of the dream becomes a dream
Pain rounds the good cape
No voice is lost in the breast of the sky

O deathless sea, tell what you are whispering
I reach your morning mouth early
On the peak where your love appears
I see the will of the night spilling stars
The will of the day nipping the earth’s shoots

I saw a thousand wild lilies on the meadows of life
A thousand children in the true wind
Beautiful strong children who breathe out kindness
And know how to gaze at the deep horizons
When music raises the islands

I carved the beloved name
In the shade of the aged olive tree
In the roaring of the lifelong sea.

Odysseus Elytis

love from David's cousin Karen

Dear Ananda,

Please post my comment on the blog. . . in regards to your post about requests for anything related to "celebrating David". I am David's cousin Karen, and David had a profound effect on me and my husband Spencer. After our brief visit to Silverton last fall, I have been pursuing yoga, alittle tai chi & recently mediation. It has been challenging (the meditation) but I do feel a spiritual guide assisting me to release anger and frustration in my life! I like to think my good cousin David had an influence!

I just thought family from David's side should have a voice in your blog! Dolores LaChapelle (my Aunt) was always an inspiration to me growing up. We can not make it to Yosemite, but please keep us posted of the goings on, you never know maybe something will come up and we can get there, just have to be open to the opportunity in the mind!

Take Care! & Thank you so very much for sharing & caring!

Love,
Karen & Spence

Telluride Watch article by Art Goodtimes

Art and Dolores, South Mineral waterfall, Silverton CO. June '04

dearest ananda

i've attached the column. please feel free to post it. i'm so sad i'm missing david's memorials. he was very dear to me. i remember a lakota sweat lodge he and i shared on my property and the vision quest i talked about that he gifted me.

years ago when i was editor of the colorado papers, he wrote a series of
very funny columns from alaska that i published in telluride.

he was a presence in my life like his mom. two most amazing people (three
if you count his dad, whom i just met twice)

but i'm celebrating these 40 days and the great gifts he gave so many of us.

we are blessed, even as david and dolores' lives were blessed.

yours, artful

Telluride Watch: August 6, 2009 issue

copyright 2009 Art Goodtimes

Up Bear Creek

by Art Goodtimes

Celebrating those who have passed and those who are passing

DAVID LACHAPELLE … After a long bout with cancer, David passed away July 21^st. David was the son of Dolores and Ed LaChapelle. All were known to Telluride and Colorado and even beyond, but for different reasons. Ed made a name for himself as one of the country’s pre-eminent avalanche researchers. His book, The ABC of Avalanche Safety, became a bible of sorts for those interested in avalanche work. I knew him the least, but made his acquaintance in Telluride at the Mountainfilm Festival a few years back. A most charming man, and brilliant … His ex-wife, Dolores, was my teacher, mentor and friend. She became a grandmother to me. I studied her work in deep ecology, soaked up her books, studied tai chi with her, went skiing and hiking at her side, founded Talking Gourds based on her principles, and made the trek over to Silverton countless times to visit with her. She was well known in many countries for her many writings, although not as revered in the states, since she was a multi-disciplinary scholar not associated with any university – a no-no in a nation steeped in the academic mindset. The Way of the Mountains was her study, and she pursued it assiduously. Silverton was far from the centers of power but smack dab in the middle of the San Juan’s largest caldera. She died just in January of 2007. I was coming back from New Mexico when I got the news. A half hour later, distraught and distracted, I slammed into a cow elk and totaled my car, escaping shaken but unhurt (miraculously) … Just a few days after the memorial service that David led and Ed attended, Ed collapsed of a heart attack on Monarch Pass while skiing … Now two and a half years later, David has passed too. His spiritual teachings and workshops had drawn a wide circle of followers from Alaska to Boulder. I myself had gone on a vision quest with him at a very low point in my life, and David had brought me acutely into awareness and out of my depression. He too had become a dear friend and icon in my life. We had started plans on how to continue Dolores’ work in the world and carry on her legacy, considering plans for a Way of the Mountains Center in Silverton. And now, all too soon, he also is gone … A most amazing family. Ed, Dolores, David. All of them passed on now, into the mystery. For me, there is now such a huge gap in the veil that separates this world from the next. I am sad, grieving, and yet enervated and gifted. To have had such amazing people in my life. In our lives. May their spirit live on in us and all our relations.

SHI SHI … It’s a fabled stretch of beach along the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State. Dolores LaChapelle talked about it wistfully – it was a very special and sacred place for her. I have a picture of her and her young son holding hands at Shi Shi in my studio at Cloud Acre – a gift from David when Dolores passed … As you read this, I’m trekking at Shi Shi with my son – carrying on a tradition that I know Dolores would approve of.

WEEKLY QUOTA … “One must live the way one thinks, or end up thinking the way one has lived.” –Paul Bourget

THE TALKING GOURD

I married myself, again.
With spirit presiding,
this delicate matter,
I was a mad mean hatter

And a delicate lady,
The perfect partner

For of this moment,
Humbled.
I did and I didn't

And I still do,
And no announcement

Was made.
No one attended

Except me.
This ceremony calls

My intentions forward,
Again to this great lover

partner painting
of my
choosing.

-Chace Haynes

New Mexico

Letter from Sandra Aug 20

On this day, the 21st of August, we can pause and notice that it's been exactly one month since David merged with Existence. This letter from a friend in California seemed a perfect post to share today, on the one month anniversary of his passage. Blessings in all directions, Ananda

Hello, Ananda,

I have just now revisited the blog site and just wanted to tell you how beautiful it is, what a wonderful wonderful work of love you have woven. Great photos, I am very grateful and appreciative to see them.

While I was never actively involved in any of David's groups or communities, my connection with him was profound, and one of deepest, ancient friendship. He told me, shortly after meeting up with you, that he was sure the three of us would soar in remembrance if we were ever to sit in meditation together. (Specifically, sharing Egyptian contexts). I recall his happiness and clarity in reporting that you and he had found one another. I am so glad for this, and for you, even now... with so much of your life ahead, with such an enormous foundation of love and service with him to be your heart's comfort, remembrance, and joy.

You and I haven't met this time around, but that seems a small thing, really. Once connected, always connected. I honor you and send you love.

I am grateful that he and I had frequent email contact in June, during his beautiful sketching period... you may recall, through daily photos I sent at his request, he was delighting in studying the stages of a rose opening, which appeared in one of his drawings... our last contact was around that rose, and mine to him -- sending the petals to him. A perfect benediction. His flawless, masterful exit during the eclipse told me everything I needed to know. Only joy for him and his accomplishment under such difficult terms.

Blessings for the upcoming celebrations....and to you in all ways, always.

love,
Sandra

A Photoshop David creation.

Words for Warren 1930-2009

Warren & Suzanne Addicott, Ashland OR

"Some words from Warren's memorial, there were many beautiful things said and sung for him, but his words are without a doubt the most beautiful and wise of the many words."

- S.W., Ashland

I welcome silence

In it beneficent presence

I release myself from

the tentacles of mind and thought

to welcome the moment that is now

the awareness is of presence

that ecstatic state of being

in which there is no separation

This state of being

Can not be described or transmitted

It is beyond the reach of words

Memory of this experience

May fade and blur with time

Yet it is ever-welcoming, ever-available

To those who would surrender

the seductive pleasures of thought

And it's judgements and projections

Into the silence,

The timeless moment that is now

Warren Addicott

1930-2009

Resources of Mother & Healing the Wounds

On Aug 17, 2009, at 8:49 AM, Cynthia Yoder wrote:

Hi Ananda,

Just back from vacation…but had a dream while at the beach. You were holding an event, and there were many students there of David’s who had some confusion over his passing. But we were in a very big building; I want to say a barn, but there was no hay. Just a large barn-like structure (airy; high ceiling;outdoorsy). I looked around, and saw how many resources you have available to you. This was what struck me in the dream: how many resources (esp. people resources) you have available. It was abundant – and comforting. [Reminder to] look around, see all of the resources the Great Mother Universe is providing!

This was the first time I had ‘retreat’ dream in which David was not part. I have had countless retreat dreams w/ either you and David, or just David! I truly feel his presence …but no dreams about him yet.

Today, I was drawn to journal – have not done so since June – found this tucked into the journal. A picture David sent in June w/ the subject “healing of the wounds”. I saw it as an image of his receptivity to the feminine—all of the love he was receiving from you and the women in our circle. So beautiful. I put it on my altar; O beloved David!

Love & joy & peace, and remembering, and kisses & hugs

Cynthia

The following is a small excerpt from a longer post (link included below) by Karsten. Seemed fitting to place it with the Christ image in this post.

"a few days before he passed away, i had a dream that he had passed away. afterwards, i sat on a surface level with him in a lucid state, knowing very well that i was speaking with his soul or light body (told to me in the dream) he was younger, strong, and had a clear powerful voice. i remember being shocked at how much strength his words held. his tumor site was shriveled, and i could not help but liken that energy to the christ' s wounds after ressurection. much like it was there as merely a symbol of an earthly body, but did not hold much REAL significance. David's eyes were so bright!"

the longer entry can be found at: http://celebratingdavid.blogspot.com/2009/08/announcing.html

Passport Photo 1977

David's words to remember

Including this letter again from David to a friend, as they together tracked the passing of a loved one from this realm... good reminder for us...

she is moving deeper inwards

listen in meditation and follow her journey

she has already released a couple of her koshas

the outcome on the physical level is almost immaterial to her at this time

it is of course, deeply of interest to us

silence is very helpful now

deep silence

mouna (in sanskrit)

Ramana describes a silence so deep that it [is] filled with the most intense of activities.

dawn and dusk are particularly important

love,

David

Margulies

This morning, just before I woke from sleep, I clearly heard a dream-voice-over say, so specifically, "The ghost working the closest with David right now is the ghost of Margulies. Margulies and his assistant, ___ (forgotten the assistant's name)___."

Of course, I Googled "margulies" today and was directed to two references pertaining to the sea which both felt familiar, closely connected to state in the dream.

One was 'Gloucester Fisherman', is an oil on canvas painting by Joseph Margulies

The other was a play by Donald Margulies called Shipwrecked! that opened off-Broadway Feb. 8.

One other reference showing a different spelling of the name pertained to the Margules formula, which, according to Wikipedia's data, is a formula for characterizing the slope of a front, named after Max Margules, a Galicia-born Austrian meteorologist (April 23, 1856 - October 4, 1920), as is the Margules number associated with the formula.

Im putting it out there on blog so other dreams that David shows up in can be shared and studied for any common threads, symbols...

Please write in. You can post as a comment on the right hand bar, or send me anything in an email specifying to post and I will upload it for you, about dreams, but about anything related to "celebrating David"

Heartfully, Ananda

Last drawing completed morning of July 21, 2009

A map of his limbic center?

a prayer of his release back to Existence?

a dance of the healing journey?

a gift to us all...

Beauty in meditation

Taken by Ed LaChapelle, 1975

Amy, David's wife during these early years, sent me this wonderful image of David this week. She also found letters he had written her from India, describing that the letters "offer scope, from the initial stabbing in the dark, glimmers of understanding and then absolute conviction".

She is compling them to be able to share his insightful journey with others.