Inspired by PAWS (wings, hooves, scales & fins too!) who taught me the value of slowing down, trusting my intuition, listening to my heart, and the importance of healing past wounds in order to live an authentic life and one in alignment with nature.

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I’ve learned over the years to pay attention to messages from my animal friends and especially when they are in line with what my inner voice is saying also. Though truth be told, sometimes it does take me a bit before I take action.

But with Gidget’s blessing, as we had a little chat the other morning, and the voice inside me getting louder, I finally made some changes to my website’s home page. What used to be a photo of me and Gidget on the beach as the header on the page is now a photo of my Joyful Pause Cottage. Below the header, my site welcomes you to Joyful Pause Cottage with a paw print after the word pause.

That magical paw print I shared the story of in my memoir Wisdom Found in the Pause that Joie gifted me with two weeks after her passing in 2013. The shape that came to be by water droplets that had formed as condensation on a glass of water that had dropped onto the arm of my Adirondack chair – in the perfect shape of a paw print. It was clearly a sign from little Joie that I shall never forget.

The words pause and paws play together as the teaching of the importance of learning to pause at different intervals of our lives, but also on a daily basis, which I’ve received from all the sweet dogs I’ve had the honor to have in my life. A photo of each of them on the page as my way of honoring them today and always.

As I continue to write for my blog, offer virtual oracle card readings, and create art (and eventually offer it for sale!), this is all done under the roof of this special and sacred space – Joyful Pause Cottage – that John built for me in 2009, and I felt it was time to make the change. 

Joyful Pause Cottage really does encompass all that I am and all that I am creating. If it wasn’t for the teachings from my beloved canine-pawed friends, I wouldn’t have stopped to pause and reflect on what I really wanted for my life, which led to having Joyful Pause Cottage built as a symbol of continuing to follow my hopes dreams…

and to share with others in hopes that it will be an inspiration and a beacon of light to all to live inspired lives and shine brightly… and with a little help from the animal kingdom and mother nature too!

If you’d like to check out the rest of the changes on my home page, you can do so here: www.joyfulpaws.com

XO

Barb

I finally framed this print I bought a few weeks ago from Deb of Vintage Sparrow Studios (you can find Deb on Instagram). I try to reuse frames I have and looked around Joyful Pause Cottage for what might be time to part with. Seeing a certificate on the wall, which I’d received from some training I did a few years ago, I realized how I’d evolved. The very thing I did the training for, which I’m glad I did, and am grateful for the life-changing experience, I realized I no longer needed validation to say I’d done that. So out came the certificate and in popped The Aviary Keeper print.

My love for birds has deepened over the past two years. I’ve always enjoyed them, but I think the fact I don’t have a dog right now, the birds have been welcome visitors and companions. So when I saw this print it really spoke to me.

While I’d found the frame, I still didn’t know where it was I would hang it. But I’ve been allowing it to find its due place in time instead of forcing it to happen.

Yesterday afternoon as I was doing my afternoon breathing session sitting on my meditation chair, the window open, the sounds of hummingbirds chittering, and looking at the vase of growing birch twigs I’ve been collecting, I knew at that moment exactly where that print belonged.

It seems so fitting to be in this spot! As I sit at my desk, writing this post, I look over, and I am able to view it from this angle too. Once winter comes and I need to turn my petite gas stove on to warm my cottage, I will have to find a new home for it, but I trust where it will go next will make itself known when it is time.

Such a simple act brought welcome reflection and a bundle of joy. It also reminds me of Tasha Tudor, one of my favorite mentors as you know, and her philosophy to always Take Joy, which is also a documentary about her life.

I think now that I’ve written this blog post and will now venture over to my art table I’ll have to play that documentary in the background as a way to simmer in more of the joy.

Hope you find and experience simple joys today too!

XO

Barb

Words are the seeds we plant in the earth of our days. ~Anne D. LeClaire

Walking out to Joyful Pause Cottage this morning I looked around as I was wishing to share something inspirational today. This window box on the front of my cottage is one of my creative outlets. I enjoy changing it to reflect the seasons. I especially love seeing it in full bloom this time of year.

After taking a photo of it, I grabbed one of my journals that I’ve collected quotes from over the years. I randomly turned to a page and the above quote is the one I turned to.

It reminded me of a conversation I had with John over the weekend. It was about how I don’t like hearing when some people still call those coming into the US from other countries “illegal aliens.” My thought on that is no one in this world is illegal. We are all part of the universe and part of Source. So how can we be illegal?

The power of words can be so damning or we can think before we speak as words can also be incredibly healing. It’s reminding me of when I went through my dark night of the soul in 2017-2018 and when I finally revealed the secret I’d kept of being touched inappropriately as a child.

That little girl in me was finally able to voice it and be heard. The most soothing thing to that frightened little girl that I heard was, “I’m so sorry you had to go through that.” Those words were an incredible part of my healing. I didn’t need anything else at that point as I’d done the inner work to have gotten to that point.

Everything carries a vibration and words are part of that. So how fitting I felt the quote is above that if we can begin to recognize this more, think before we speak, that these are positive seeds we are planting to help shift the energy of this planet into one of more love and peace.

It’s something having been brought to the forefront of late that I’m definitely going to be putting into practice myself.

XO

Barb