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Calming the Restless Butterflies

Posted by Barbara Techel

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The butterflies are restless today. They decided to take up residence the moment I awoke this morning. Fluttering about madly in my stomach.

I could fight back or try to soothe them. So I did my yoga practice with extra deep breathing. I also asked for guidance to do the very best job I can.

Tonight is the first in a three part series workshop I am teaching on Self-Publishing. I’ve never taught a class like this before — but I’ve certainly been through it with publishing my own children’s books and memoir.

I remember clearly trying to swim through the endless sea of information on this subject myself. Having spent countless hours and many e-courses I took on the subject. There is so much to learn.

While I think the workshop will get the participants off on the right foot, I hope it will also help them set a foundation for what is ahead. The publishing world continues to change and keeping up is a job in itself. But the rewards are great.

Most of all I want to encourage them to tell their stories and get their book out into the world. While I don’t know yet if and when I’ll have another book in me to write, I do know that the books I have written have changed my life for the better. I’m so glad I stepped out of my comfort zone to do so.

And so it is with my first session of talking self-publishing tonight. I step out once again, out of that zone of comfort, hoping I can make a difference in encouraging others to do the same.

And if the butterflies want to come along for the ride, well then, so be it. But I have a feeling once I get into talking tonight they will flutter off to sleep and all will be well.

Wanting to Versus Having to. How this Changed Everything for Me.

Posted by Barbara Techel

IMG_1959I was awake at 5:00am today. As often happens to me, my mind began to fill with many thoughts.

Today I heard, “I want to write. I don’t have to write.”  This thought kept swirling around and around in my mind. I knew I better get up and write this idea down before other thoughts invaded, and it evaporated into oblivion. I knew I’d want to write about this on my blog today. I also reminded myself that I’m trying to follow these impulses more often, so I told myself to get my butt out of bed now.

When I began writing in my early 40s for a local newspaper column, then started my blog, as well as books I’ve written, I read quite a bit about the art of writing. I wanted to do it right.

I often got caught up in the process of how other writers did it. When was their best time to write? How many pages or words did they write each day?  Where did they write?  Did they feel compelled and just had to write?  Many books and blogs I read had the writer sharing they just have to write.

I wonder if wanting to, and having to, is perhaps the same thing?  I suppose it’s all in how each writer defines it. But whenever I read that another writer just had to write and couldn’t miss a day of it, like not brushing their teeth, it never really truly resonated with me.

This morning it was as if I had my own aha moment after writing for almost ten years now on a pretty consistent basis. I want to write.

It’s not like I didn’t already know this, but I feel like I now have more clarification.  Clarity is a good thing. I want to write to make a difference. To bring my thoughts and observations to those that need to hear most what I have to say.

As I’ve shared before on my blog, which became even more clear to me after my sabbatical, I want to encourage and inspire others. This is what makes me feel alive– to know in some small way, through my writing, I’m making the life of someone else just a little bit better.

I’ve heard from so many of you who follow my blog, on Facebook, or have read, Through Frankie’s Eyes how sharing my story and my thoughts has helped, or resonated with you.  This means to much so me. I’m truly grateful when you reach out to me and share your thoughts. It encourages and inspires me to keep writing.

I don’t have to write, but I want to write. Writing is my small way of bringing some positive, peace, and meaning to a world that sometimes loses sight of these things.

No longer do I have the need to find the right way to write. I may not be grammatically correct and don’t put comma’s in exactly the right place, along with a slew of other English proper’s that really never made any sense to me (this is why I love my editor when I write my books). But I want to write. I want to write from my truth and my heart.

This is part of who I am. Having a deeper clarity present itself to me like this today makes me happy to once again have my butt planted firmly in my chair and writing this moment.  Writing in a way that is right for me.

Thank You to My Local Media, The Sheboygan Press for Story in Series, “A Reason to Celebrate.” Gidget Makes the Front Page!

Posted by Barbara Techel


Video and article credit, The Sheboygan Press, reporter , Kali Thiel 

Wagging tales: Local author finds meaning after pet’s passing

This is one in an occasional series of stories to be published during the holiday season about Sheboygan-area residents who have “A Reason to Celebrate.”

It’ll be the second Christmas Barbara Techel will celebrate without her beloved wheelchair-bound dachshund, Frankie, and the first without Joie, another disabled dog she adopted after Frankie died. But the Elkhart Lake author says she still has plenty to be thankful for this holiday season.

Techel and Frankie were well-known for years through her children’s books, including “Frankie the Walk ‘N Roll Dog,” as well as her web site and newsletters. She also had Frankie certified to be a therapy dog and regularly paid visits to people living in hospice care or stopped at area schools for speaking engagements.

But Frankie died in the summer of 2012. In February she memorialized Frankie in a new book, “Through Frankie’s Eyes: One Woman’s Journey To Her Authentic Self and the Dog on Wheels Who Led the Way,” which recently won the Royal Dragonfly Book Award for literary excellence.

The book tells the story of Frankie and the lessons Techel learned from her dog.

“I was so afraid that people would judge me that I put my dog in a wheelchair,” Techel said. “But it really taught me, because I would watch her and she didn’t realize she had a wheelchair. It was her tool to live her best life.

“And I can remember, I can still see it in my head, she was rolling around on the grass and I just looked at her and I thought, ‘Oh my god, the lesson for me is to be proud of who I am and live by how I want to live my life and not how society might determine that or others might think my life should be,’” she said.

When Frankie died, Techel decided to adopt another special needs dachshund, Joie, who had the same intervertebral disc disease as Frankie, which caused her to need a dog wheelchair as well.

Little did Techel know that Joie’s time with her would be so short-lived. She adopted Joie on Oct. 13, 2012 and she died a little less than a year later in August.

“It was really hard for me to lose Joie so quickly after Frankie and I really kind of went into myself and I thought, ‘What the heck? I don’t understand why that happened,’” Techel said.

What helped her come out of her grief was the realization that there were other dogs she could help. Just a few weeks ago, Techel adopted Gidget, another special needs dachshund.

bildePhoto credit Kali Thiel of The Sheboygan Press

read rest of the story on line here!

For complete gallery of photos taken during interview visit here.