Open Our Hearts to Peace and Healing. A Thanksgiving Prayer.

Posted November 24, 2016 by Barbara Techel

Creator, open our hearts

to peace and healing between all people.

Creator, open our hearts

to provide and protect for all children

of the earth.

Creator, open our hearts

to respect for the earth, and all the

gifts of the earth.

Creator, open our hearts to end exclusion, violence,

and fear among all.

Thank you for the gifts

of this day and every day.

~Mi ‘Kmaq prayer

Wishing each of you, dear readers, a most blessed Thanksgiving. I hope you can feel from my heart to yours how very grateful I am to each and every one of you. Blessings today and always…

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This Thanksgiving – I am Grateful for Hope and More Sparks of Light.

Posted November 23, 2016 by Barbara Techel

One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these – to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity.

Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do. – Clarissa Pinkola Estes

I share this section above from an article I read this morning by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, who is also author of Women Who Run with Wolves. I found myself getting choked up reading it because it solidifies once again my own commitment to not giving up on hope and moving forward in continuing to let my light shine out into this world.

I know so many (including myself at times) can feel overwhelmed when situations around us feel so big and out of control like many things have of late— and we can be left to feel helpless and not sure what we can each do. But I’m reminded once again, which has lit a fire within me, that there is hope. You are hope. I am hope. And we can each make a difference by being that hope so that it spreads to another who needs hope.

It just so happened that after reading this piece from Estes today, I had plans to be with a dear, young soul, named Rachel. I’ve known her for a few years, but have had the pleasure of getting to know her better lately. We have come together and will be teaching a workshop that we both happened to discover we were both interested in offering. So we decided to combine our energy and efforts to do so.

We will be teaching a workshop on the meaning of a Native American tradition called Talking Sticks, to be held in December on the night of the solstice. Today we met so we could experience for ourselves the magic and power in creating our own Talking Stick —an experience so rich and beautiful that I am still soaking in all that it brought to my soul in such a positive and uplifting way.

We are both passionate about encouraging others to open to their intuition so that others can experience the many gifts this has to offer and enrich ones life.

After being with Rachel who is twenty years younger than me, having read Estes article of hope, and thinking about Thanksgiving tomorrow, I’m feeling full up with gratitude and a huge helping of hope for the future not only for myself, but for others too who commit to finding a way to be who they are meant to be…and to not lose hope.

While I know it may likely be a rocky road for many, I also know that in order to achieve that light within oneself, the journey calls for looking within, really listening, and honoring those whispers that want to come forth. It’s my hope that my blog, future workshops I offer, and just by being who I authentically am, will be part of that hopeful, positive light that shines out as a beacon of promise, and by default will give permission to others to let the light of their true self shine, too.

—

If you are interested in learning more about the Talking Sticks workshop, please visit my workshop page here.

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Local Watering Hole

Posted November 22, 2016 by Barbara Techel

Local Watering Hole

This scene of at least six to eight birds gathered at the bird bath right outside my writing cottage greets me at different times throughout the day, which only seems to happen like this in the winter months. It just lights my heart up! There is something so grounding and calming – almost meditative – in watching them.

Last winter I was disappointed that I couldn’t keep my bird feeders up because deer come through our backyard and eat the feed in one fell swoop. It took me a few days to figure out why my feeders would be empty the day after I filled them!

I was disappointed that I couldn’t keep feeding the birds as I love to see them all year. Though I do have a suet feeder where woodpeckers visit and the deer don’t seem to bother that feeder.

But the positive side to all this is having a heated bird bath I get to see a sweet scene of a flurry of action as birds flutter in and out, taking their turns at the local watering hole I’ve provided for them. And with all the leaves off the trees, after they have quenched their thirst they hang out out on the bare branches.

And I’m quite sure they are all raving how delicious and five-star the local watering hole is right outside Joyful Paws headquarters!

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