Rachel Turiel
Position: Staff reporter

Clutching bows and simple pleasures in the woods

In our family’s archery cosmology, there are many ways to make a good shot. Your arrow can fly straight and smooth, loosed from the runway of your fingers like a bird fleeing a c...

Our questions are a passport to the world

Rose and I are out doing errands, bustling in and out of the car with lists and bags, my mind clamped on things to remember like mantras that could derail my life if I lose the thread. ...

Desert journey redefines our ‘family trip’

Lured by the hope of a banner season of desert wildflowers and some concentrated family time, we pointed our crumb-strewn Subaru south to the Sonoran Desert for spring break. We’r...

Diversity makes us a stronger society

On a 70 degree spring Saturday, Col and I are inside the Fort Lewis College ballroom for a six-hour workshop. Admittedly, when I told Col about the opportunity to attend the Dive...

Growing up is a dance toward independence

Col is skiing with a buddy, turned loose on the slopes without an adult. Rose is cruising downtown Durango with a friend, “window-shopping,” their hair swept into high ponytails, ears weighe...

During holidays, it wasn’t stuff that mattered

The 2016 holiday season unfurled a little like how I imagine those encounter groups went in the 1970s – everyone getting empowered to air their uncensored feelings. So much honesty! So much ...

A desert trip is good for all our souls

The tweens are huddled around a few square feet of sand, as enchanted as a pack of toddlers armed with buckets and shovels. We’re just outside Bluff, Utah, and have made it 500 feet from the...

Soothing a bout of anxiety deep in the night

It is 2 a.m. I am on the living room couch with Rosie, who ghosted up to my bedside whisper-whimpering, “My ankle hurts and I can’t sleep.” I rub arnica salve into her right leg,...

Give thanks for an imperfect feast

Not just for Thanksgiving, gratitude brings joy to every day

Winter squashes are stars of seasonal menus

Versatile, delectable vegetables are a meal themselves

In our swirl of emotions, nothing is ever lost, just transformed

Here we are again, caricatures of our own seasonal habitualness. I’m blindsided by the flared-up beauty of fall. Rose announces she’s not so hungry for dinner while peach and plu...

Reliable roots

Enjoy fresh, local produce this winter by correctly storing root vegetables