Three Months Ago Today My Heart Exploded…

Posted by Barbara Techel

snuggly joie for blog

…with love for my new found love dog on wheels. It’s hard to think Joie has only been here for three months. It truly feels like she was always here. Always meant to be here.

Before this I had never rescued a dog.  Cassie, Frankie and Kylie all came from breeders. Before that I had cats which most came from the humane society. Joie is my first rescue dog.  I’m pretty sure this will be the route I choose going forward when the time comes for another new one to love.  Which I hope is many moons away, as this little one sure has my heart full up with joy and sweetness.

Something that has really amazed me with Joie is that she made herself right at home. She seamlessly fit right into our lives. It truly was, and is, quite magical. I feel very fortunate for this, as I know that is always not the case. I know John worried what we might ‘be getting ourselves into’ not having had the opportunity to first meet Joie before committing to taking her into our home.  But as I spoke of when I first saw Joie on Facebook through Oregon Dachshund Rescue, I just knew in my heart she was the one. For me it is another affirmation of trusting ones intuition and following it.

When Frankie passed, I never thought I’d find another dachshund as sweet as she was. There would never be another Frankie. And while there will truly never be another Frankie, Joie is a new light and love in my life that I didn’t think possible. I keep pinching myself at how lucky I am to have found another very sweet doxie.  Though sharing this with a friend of mine she laughed and said, “Of course you found another sweet dachshund Barb, because you are sweet.”

That was very kind of my friend to say and yes, I suppose we do attract into our lives what we are like. But I also believe we attract into our lives what we most need at the time. I’m not quite sure what that is with Joie yet. But I’m up for whatever it is I’m supposed to learn from her. Or maybe it’s just simply to love and enjoy her the best I can. I know I can do that. She certainly makes that easy!joie 1

And maybe I was just supposed to learn what it is like to rescue a dog.  A dog with IVDD and in need of a wheelchair. And I still sit in awe of that as I would have never considered this had I not traveled the path I did with Frankie. Now this is all I ever want. To care for IVDD/wheelchair dachshunds. I’m so thankful Frankie opened my heart wide open to this… and that my heart got to explode once again with this intense, amazing, deep, love.

Special Moment. Michiels Bar & Grill. Customer Service Extraordinaire.

Posted by Barbara Techel

Michael's take two

Michiels Bar & Grill in Menesha, WI

Today John and I took a little trip and traveled to a city about an hour and a half from where we live. There was a great sale on eye glasses at this place my sister told me about. Since we both were overdue for eye exam’s and glasses, this seemed a good thing to do. We decided to also stop somewhere for lunch afterwards.

Advertised 2/$69.95 for eye glasses (includes free exam) which turned out to be a good deal for me, as I only need glasses for reading and driving at night.  Got some styling spec’s!  As far as John goes, well not such a good deal or I should say it would have cost the same if he had gone somewhere in our neck of the woods.  Live and learn.

So onto our next adventure trying somewhere new to eat for lunch.  Our criteria to picking somewhere is that we can have an adult beverage and it has to have a great atmosphere. We tend to lean towards bar and grill’s also. Google map had us heading for a place called Michiels Bar and Grill.  Not a real unique name, but how pleasantly surprised when we came upon the place!

Of course it was right up our alley because it appears so “cottage-y.”  Being in my photography class, I, of course now have to take photos of just about everything now. But John is good about it and said I just had to take pictures of this quaint place.  When we walked in, to the front of us was a round seated area with a gas fire place and a fire going in the photo you see on the far right.  COZY!

The bartender/host/jack of all trades, a.k.a the owner, was so friendly and nice.  As we sat down at the bar he said, “Hey kids!  What can I get you?” We each ordered our drinks and chuckled to ourselves that he called us ‘kids.’ He appeared to be around the same age as John and I.

Just about every person that came in after us he called by name or greeted them with a enthusiastic hello. It was so charming.  As people left, he walked from behind the bar and up to them and personally thanked them for stopping by and telling them how much he appreciates their business.  You know how rare that is these days?  It was so awesome to see this.

As we would come to find out the owner is only 48-years old– one year younger than me. After hearing this I told him I thought it was cute he was calling me a kid when he is younger than me.  He said, “Well, we are all kids at heart.” I absolutely agreed. I love being a kid at heart.  We also heard him telling the local’s about his 55-year old brother who died unexpectedly recently.

It’s funny, even though I didn’t know this owner or his brother, in that moment everything shifted for me. Not that I don’t appreciate time with my husband, because I do–but it all of a sudden became that more special. How blessed we were to take some time off today and have a nice lunch together away from home. We laughed, talked, and enjoyed each other’s  company. We really do have so much fun together.

On the way home John realized he took a wrong turn.

I said, “I thought you did, but I didn’t want to say anything.” (You see, I’m a very smart wife and know when to keep my mouth shut).  GRIN.

He said, “Oh well, it dosen’t matter because I’m enjoying the day with my wife.”

My heart filled with love. These are the moments that make life so amazingly sweet. Nothing out of the ordinary really, but a simple day of getting new glasses and then lunch… but oh, how extraordinaire it turned out to be.

Are You Listening to Your Inner Voice?

Posted by Barbara Techel

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When I saw this quote it made me think, How many of us drown out that inner voice or stuff it down when it comes up?” I’m guilty of it. But I can also say that I have listened to that inner voice. And I’ve learned to do that more as I get older.  It’s part of the reason I love this getting older thing– lots of good stuff is coming from it. And I can say when I have taken the time to listen and then follow that voice,  the results have been life changing.

I talk more in depth about this in my upcoming book. I wrestled often with what my heart was trying to tell me. But I kept pushing it down. One of the reasons being is because the path I had been on, I was afraid what others would think of me if I jumped off that path.  Society seems to have a set of rules and regulations that is applied to all of us and how we should live our lives. While those rules may work for some, it does not work for all.

How come we don’t hear more about listening to that inner voice and following it? Why aren’t we taught to follow our heart?  Why aren’t we taught that it’s okay to try different things in the course of our life?  You also hear that it is great to be you, but yet we are swamped with all these images of perfection– or what seems to be perfection.

What if everyone today listened to that inner voice?  Can you imagine?  Imagine how different our society would be?  We’d all be living our dream and no dream would be too small or too big, and no dream would be right or wrong. And listening to our inner voices would by default create more happiness. How cool is that?

My inner voice started nagging at me when I was around 38-years older. Over the next few years it grew louder and louder.  There were some days when I just didn’t want to live in my head- it was not fun!  It began about a year before 9/11. Then the tragic event of 9/11 took place along with a personal event for me that  happened around the same time.  You can read more about that in this excerpt from my book if you haven’t already.  But that inner voice started to gain strength as the next few years would unfold. And it really started to sing from the lessons I was learning from the wonderful dogs in my life.  As I started to listen that is when my Joyful Paws moments really began to unfold.

Just before I hit the publish button for this post a wonderful article popped up in my email, so thought I’d share the link to “How to Live a Heart Centered Life.”