When Shift Happens. An Update on Where I’ve Been.

Posted by Barbara Techel

My dear and loyal blog readers,

Happy Fall Equinox!

I’ve been feeling a bit guilty as I’ve not posted as much lately so I wanted to touch base with you.

As I shared with you earlier this summer in June, I began a 22-week online course called The Magic of You. I’ve been growing and expanding deeper into who I wish to be and really, who I already am, and this has opened up some wonderful shifts for me.

So yes, “Shift happens.”  🙂 We are truly all a work in progress!

I’m very excited about where my expanding path is taking me and how I want be of service to women searching for purpose, feeling stuck, or wanting to connect more deeply with that ‘something more.’ 

As The Magic of You class winds down in late October, I’ve made the commitment to go even deeper into my own personal mastery with another intensive 7-week program that begins the second week of October.  It is something I’m really feeling called to do and feels very much in alignment. It’s my greatest hope to take what I learn and to be of service in helping other women to do the same, and live an empowered and meaningful life.

When I look back on all my work with Frankie from 2007-2012, my sweet dachshund who lived life to the fullest in a wheelchair, and our mission we accomplished together, I could actually see in my minds eye that this new work I’m gearing up for is what I was being led to. And so now here I am.

It requires much of my energy and I’m dedicated to working on more of my own personal mastery so that I can be in service to other women soon.

Soooo…what this means is that I may not be posting much here to my blog until later October/early November. I may post if I feel spirit calls me to do so…but like I did in Fall of 2013, and I wrote about in my memoir, Wisdom Found in the Pause – Joie’s Gift it is time for me to once again step back for a time being so that I can make this personal commitment.

I will still be sending out a newsletter (which is separate from my blog posts) so if you’d like to keep in touch, please do sign up for it here. I’d welcome having you as a subscriber and part of my community in this way also!

If you’d like a sneak peek at what I’m up to you can also check out the following pages of my website which have been updated (and continue to be tweaked!):

Home page

Intuitive Oracle Guidance Readings

About page

I truly appreciate each and every one of you for being here and walking this journey with me!  It means so much!

XO

Love,

Barbara

Kangaroo’s Poignant Message about Guilt We Feel with Our Pets

Posted by Barbara Techel
 
Recently I talked with someone who was struggling with the guilt of having to put their pet to sleep. Then just this morning, I talked with someone whose older pet just had surgery for a ruptured disk in her neck. And the difficulty is that the pet owner needs to go away for a week in the next few days and the guilt has him full of worry.
 
Guilt can be such a tricky thing and can weigh on us like a ton of bricks. I completely understand this having been through it so often myself in various ways with my own pets.
 
After talking with my friend whose pet is coming home today, but then he must leave out of town soon, I’m happy to say I was able to provide him some comfort and be a reflection for him that he has covered all bases in making sure his dog will be in the best care while he is away.
 
After I got off the call I kept thinking about this more and wondering why it is we have such a difficult time with feeling guilty.
 
So I decided to turn to the Power Animal Wisdom Oracle card deck, as I often do, when I ponder my own challenging questions. It’s my hope that by sharing this and what the card that revealed itself had to say that it will help others facing this feeling of guilt that can oftentimes consume us.
 
So I asked this question: What do pet owners need to know about feeling guilty? The card I got was Kangaroo, which is about gratitude and being grateful for all you are blessed with.
 
Reading into this message further, thinking about my friend feeling guilty for having to leave his dog after surgery, Kangaroo confirms that gratitude, not guilt, will help us to ease our worries, which more than often those worries never come true.
 
Kangaroo reminds my friend how blessed he is to have someone he trusts, who his dog has stayed with many times before, and who has taken care of dogs before after surgery, and who will be looking after his dog. How blessed he is to have this person in his life.
 
Regarding having to put a pet to sleep – one of the most difficult, heartbreaking decisions we face when having a pet, is that we will likely have to say goodbye to them for their time here on earth is so much shorter than our own.
 
Kangaroo’s message of gratitude is so fitting for this because she is reminding us how very blessed we were to have had that love and joy in our life from out pets. We can’t have one without the other. This is the reality of loving a pet.
 
I truly believe with every fiber of my being, and the many teachings I’ve received from my own pets, that our animal friends don’t want us to carry this heavy burden of guilt. As I shared with my friend today, and something I’ve come to understand, is that he can still connect with his dog even when he will be away from her.
 
I shared with him that he just needs to talk to her in his mind, and she will feel that connection and love. She already knows he loves her and she does not want him to feel guilty.
 
Guilt causes worry and worry won’t change anything. And we worry because it feels like then we are in control and if we are control we feel like it assures us of a desired outcome. The reality though is that we aren’t in control. But we can be grateful for all that we are blessed with and give thanks for that -that is a choice that we always have.
 
Thank you for sharing and subscribing to my blog updates.

A Serenade to Fall

Posted by Barbara Techel
A Serenade to Fall
A vinette of Fall on my writing desk – with a photo of illustrator, Tasha Tudor at her home in Vermont – who I adore for living to the beat of her own drum

Every year it happens.

Fall calls to me.

The yearning so strong I can’t ignore it.

It seeps quickly into my bones.

And it takes hold ever-so-gently

though I hold on tightly as I never want it to fade.

I scurry like a squirrel to take in all its goodness.

Vignettes popping up here and there as I answer the creative call to capture its beauty.

Its whispers.

Its colors.

Its dancing light.

Its cozy warmth.

And then a fear enters my mind.

What if when my time comes I die in the fall?

I couldn’t bear it.

To miss this season I hold so dear.

But then I catch myself so as not to lose what is now here.

And yet for a moment I wonder what it would be like.

Fall in heaven.

So utterly breathtaking I imagine.

Beyond what I can even begin to comprehend

magnified beyond what it is here on earth.

And then I hear them

the crickets

softly calling me back to where I am now

here, in this moment,

as the light changes again moving from afternoon to early evening soon.

But not before I remember the promise

that fall will dance before us for quite a few more weeks.

A reminder to truly enjoy it.

Deeply savor it.

Give grateful thanks for it.

And let its magic continue to unfold and enrapture me.

Thank you for sharing and subscribing to my blog updates.