Mari Tara (nee Marian Dietrich)

Mari Tara (nee Marian Dietrich) passed on Friday, June 21, 2019. She was born on September 30, 1943, in Cedar Falls, IA. She was preceded in death by her father, John Franklin Dietrich and her mother, Orva Mitchell Dietrich, and leaves behind a sister, Suzanne, nieces Dara Chantarit (Del Mar, CA), and Yana Cabell in Hawaii, great-niece Jaya, great-nephews Chase and Quinn, and a myriad of friends near and far. Mari’s parents traveled to Ethiopia and Cambodia months and years at a time for work when she was a child, and Mari credited this early exposure to wildly different worlds, peoples, ideas and cultures with fostering her natural curiosity and openness to things others might be afraid of.

She traveled back and forth, finishing her education in the US, challenged with returning to her homeland, America, feeling its strangeness, and questioning everything. She earned a master’s degree in counseling in Portland, OR, and began a career that would endure for fifty years, always learning and growing in this field, exploring energy work,  massage, and using every way possible to assist in the healing process, connecting with Spirit, deeply listening, focusing always on her desire that each person be ‘all of whom they could be.’

She came to Taos in 1983, following a call that came from deep inside and a vision of herself on a mesa, looking out over the horizon, which brought her to New Mexico. There she met Moses Yanes on her birthday at San Geronimo Day at the Taos Pueblo. There began a sacred marriage that lasted for fifteen years. Mari and Moses made many pilgrimages to Mexico and India, and lived according to spiritual principles, surrendering everything to Spirit.  Mari felt a profound connection with the earth, her animals, Libby, Sky and Sunny, and the people who came to her for healing in body, mind and spirit. She was deeply distressed at the harm being done to our planet that she could see and feel but others seemed to be able to ignore somehow.  Her home was filled with holy things-- plants, paintings, crystals, icons, photographs, a wood stove, tiny symbols representing truth, beauty, and the wonders of this world. She loved her life, the opportunities it gave her to grow and learn and contribute her gifts, loved inhabiting a strong body and a clear mind for so many years. She did not want to leave, but felt called to another transition into the unknown.

A celebration of her life will be held at Unity of Taos on Wednesday at 4:00 PM, led by Father Bill McNichols, Mirabai Starr and Steve Wiard. In lieu of flowers, if people would like to make a donation in honor of Mari, please contact her niece, Dara Chantarit, email: darashomes@gmail.com, phone: 858-775-1872, address: PO Box 892, Del Mar, CA 92014. The family of Mari Tara (Nee Marian Dietrich) has entrusted the care of their loved one to the DeVargas Funeral Home & Crematory of the Espanola Valley. 505-747-7477-www.devargasfuneral.com

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