The Day My Heart Found Its Way Home Again

Posted by Barbara Techel
The Day My Heart Found Its Way Home Again
The Wise and All Knowing Miss Gidget

I truly believe we get the dog we need at the different junctions on the path of our life’s journey.

To try and explain it any other way it seems to defy true explanation or pay honor, really, to what they truly can mean in our lives if we allow it.

It’s a knowing that is felt in heart and soul. A truth that is there if we choose to open to it even when we may not yet clearly understand.

It was two years ago today that I held Gidget in my arms for the first time. As always happens after the loss of a dog in my life, getting another one when the time is right for me, never fails to make me feel like my heart has found its way home again.

It’s a connection with Dog that my spirit calls out for, and can’t live without.

The first time I laid eyes on Gidget after doing a search on the Internet, looking specifically for a dachshund with special needs, there was this lightning flash of recognition that I knew I had found her. She was the one.

Her eyes, I find, are hard to look away from. They have this ancient and all knowing wisdom about them and I’ve often referred to her as my Buddha dog.

Sometimes I get lost in my own little inner world of worry and lose sight of her gifts to me. I was reminded of them again, and of seeing her for who for she truly is, when the organization I adopted her from, re-posted a video of her (see below).

I saw her again watching the video, as if for the first time,and what made me fall in love with her. And why I understand in many ways why she is in my life.

She is independent, yet loves time with me on her own terms, and something I’m learning to be more aware of to honor that in her. This also is honoring that in me, which fascinates me.  She is also quite funny in her own unique way, and sometimes reminds me of a Leprechaun or playful sprite.

Though she may be small in size at only 10 lbs. and quite petite, her spirit is that of all Dog and all knowing. I just sense that about her and what I greatly admire in her.

She has taught me so much already these past 24-months and those teachings I continue to ponder and work through, of which I can’t quite find words to express. Perhaps someday I will.

So today I celebrate Miss Gidget as we mark this day we found our way home to each other through the aligning of the stars— and how we help each other to live more fully into this time we have together here on earth.

 

Never Say Never

Posted by Barbara Techel
Never Say Never
My First Author School Visit April 2008

What a curious few days it has been.

I’ve been working on updating my bio, book order form, and letter of agreement.  All things I had in place five years ago when I did over 400 school and library appearances with my dachshund, Frankie.

For so long, I couldn’t imagine a day I’d do an author visit without my faithful, steal-the-show, wheelie dog, at my side. Even when my friend Mary mentioned that I could still continue to do author visits after Frankie died, I just couldn’t imagine it–it didn’t feel right to me. And honestly, I was burnt out.

But time has a way of sometimes changing one’s thoughts.

And it isn’t something I planned. But when a friend contacted me, who recently took a new principal job at a nearby school asking me if I’d come visit their school and talk about the writing process, life as an author, what empathy is, plus a lunch and learn with the teachers, I found myself curiously open to it.

Working on updating my forms I find myself excited about doing this visit in either January or February, which will be a morning session with k-2 and then an afternoon session with 3-4 graders.

I find myself smiling as I think about Frankie and how, because of her, I was able to gain the confidence to speak in public – and as you likely know that is most people’s number one fear!

I also find myself in sweet reflection recalling a reading I had done with Frankie with my friend, Dawn, who is an animal communicator. It was the day before Frankie passed away.

During that reading Frankie shared how she loved how I’d become much more relaxed as we did more and more presentations over the years. And how I’d learned to go more with the flow and not be so anxious and overly uptight about being oober organized – which I can tend to be – and something I never verbally shared with anyone. And Frankie was spot on!

So much I learned from that little dog who flew through the school hallways on her wheels, oftentimes looking like she’d take flight!

It was such a beautiful time in my life. And so it is now, too. Opportunities and possibilities to ponder and consider and take advantage of when it feels right.

While I could never imagine sharing Frankie’s story without her, here I am, ready to do just that and feeling happy in heart about it. While she won’t be with me, and I shall stand alone, it is the loving memory of her and all she taught me that I am never, ever alone…

And what a lesson in never saying never.

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Accepting My Writing Process. What a Revelation.

Posted by Barbara Techel
Accepting My Writing Process. What a Revelation.
Gidget my ever faithful writing muse

This writing thing and my own process has taken me just about ten years to be comfortable with. While I love to write, I was always looking for thee method that would make me feel like a real writer.

You know… those you put on a pedestal and think they lead this all so glamorous life and their writing flows out the end of their fingertips with no effort what-so-ever?

When I began sharing my writing with others, first via a column in a local paper, then my blog, and four books that have followed, I got caught up in trying to find the right way to do this and the one that would make it feel effortless.

I’ve read oodles of blogs, articles, and books about the creative process. Oftentimes I’d follow the advice of one author or another thinking this was it – this was thee way. But it would fall to the way side eventually. Nothing stuck.

But I kept at it, and I keep at it. What does my process look like? More importantly, what does it feel like? It’s messy and it causes lots of ups and downs of a roller coaster of emotions in my life!

But I’m not quitting.

As I near the end of the fourth draft of my second memoir, Wisdom Found in the Pause, I see that writing for me is so much about working through my own time and my own process. In other words, I gave up trying to buy into what others are doing that works for them.

It has nothing to do with how other writers write or their own process. There truly is no right or wrong way to do this.

The only way is to keep working at it. Keep trying it on for size.

I realized today that I started working on my current manuscript two years ago this month. And for many of those 730 days I found myself internally beating myself up wondering why I don’t yet have a published book.

Today I cut myself a huge piece of slack cake! Because I really understand now that this book wasn’t meant to be born yet. I see it so clearly as I continue to revisit and edit what I’ve written to date.

In large part, I’ve been working through my own inner process of healing and capturing in my everyday life what I’ve learned from the over 55,000 words I’ve written so far. It’s taken me this time to do just that.

But I’ve never stopped writing.

That’s the thing. Writing helps me to process life. To process what I’m feeling. To help me heal. To bring me to another level of awareness. To get comfortable with where I was, and where I’m going, and then share what I’ve discovered with others when that right time feels right for me.

What a new level of awakening this is for me today and it feels pretty dang good. And I do think I shall have to post this particular post next to my writing desk for that day, which oh yes, will no doubt come again…when I question my own process….because it is part of the process of a creative life!

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