Christmas

Mary and Joseph -and lovely lady on the corner – Do You Know How You Have Touched My Heart?

Posted by Barbara Techel

It was a few weeks ago that I noticed something special transpiring on a corner tucked off the main street of my small village.

Figures depicting Mary, pregnant with child, and also Joseph, appeared one day on the south side lawn of the two-story white home. Every day or so as I’d come around the corner on my morning walk to discover Mary and Joseph had moved a few more feet.

I realized soon enough that the lovely lady that lives here was honoring the journey of Mary and Joseph. I was so touched by this that I wrote about it on my blog then (you can check it out by clicking here if you like). I looked forward to watching this unfold and today I share with you the continuation…

Now to just back up a little first, I’m not one who has gone to church for I can’t even tell you how many years. I don’t consider myself religious, but I do consider myself spiritual. There are many figures in history, religious and spiritual — I’m pretty open to them all — that I’ve learned a great deal from. I am grateful for their teachings.

But it was in the early spring of 2018 after a difficult few years, feeling challenged by health issues with my dear dachshund, Gidget, that I found myself in a very dark place. As they say, hindsight is 2020, (pun intended as we all get ready to bid farewell to this year), that I’d eventually arrive at a new lighter place in my spirit after much inner turmoil.

In part, big thanks to what sweet Gidget was mirroring for me that I needed to heal. But it also led me to an experience that will no doubt stay with me until I leave this beautiful planet. As I walked my healing journey, one small step at a time, listening to my intuition, I was led to book a transformational breathwork session.

During the session, which was intense at times, it would eventually bring me to what I can only describe as a realm outside myself as I felt a presence wrap itself around me with the utmost unconditional love. I knew at that moment it was a force far greater than me that was here to remind me of a knowing I’d forgotten, and that I’d always been safe and that I was loved.

It still brings tears to my eyes to think about it.

This year has been a challenge in some shape or form for all of us. I don’t think anyone has escaped this. How often we’ve just wanted this year to be over. To be relieved of our suffering. To be shown that all will be okay. To go back to the way things used to be.

But there’s no going back. So as I’ve watched with great interest and felt an anticipated joy each time I rounded the corner to see how far Mary and Joseph have traveled (while also privy to knowing they made it), I see this as such a pivotal reminder of what we’ve all gone through this year.

A reminder that with faith and hope we will arrive at a new destination that we just can’t yet see. It won’t be what it was, but what if, just what if, it is far greater than we can even imagine?

I love how at one point the small garden shed in the yard became Bethlehem Inn. As Mary and Joseph continued their journey of many unknowns and then thought they’d found the answer to their prayers when the Inn came into view, to only see a sign on the front door that said, “No vacancy.”

How they had to muster up at that moment even more faith and hope that all would be well. To trust that the journey would take them to exactly where they were meant to be. To keep their courage alive that they were safe no matter what.

Then yesterday as I came around the corner, my heart burst in complete joy to see that they’d made it! 

The memory of my own walk of faith during a painful time surfaced again in my mind along with the reminder of the gift of a deepening of wisdom I wouldn’t now have had I’d not walked that journey — plus the unfolding of a year unlike anything we’ve ever witnessed before — is no doubt why this depiction of Mary and Joseph’s journey has deeply and profoundly affected me.

It has been a soothing balm at times when fear has tried to envelop me and a reminder that I can choose to suffer or lean into the faith that the journey will bring gifts beyond what we can even imagine right now. In many ways, it already has.

Today brought another burst of joy to see that the wise men and drummer boy had arrived… and…

yet another gift and a reminder that we don’t do this journey alone and with the best yet to come with the miracle of Jesus about to come into this world…

Merry Christmas and thank you for being a part of my journey. I’m so grateful for each of you.

XO,

Barbara

In Appreciation of the Journey and the Fact My Eyes Weren’t Deceiving Me Afterall

Posted by Barbara Techel

At first, I thought my eyes were deceiving me. Almost every morning, I walk by this white house located on the corner across from the police station and the library.

The yard is spacious with many areas of flowers and a darling potting shed. Each holiday season the home is decked out with various decorations.

When I walked by this particular morning I was puzzled. Hadn’t I just seen Mary and Joseph two days ago in a different spot in the yard?

On the other side of the home is a wooden stable, but it’s empty. I found that curious also as in the past I’ve seen it lit up with the scene when Mary and Joseph are settled in at the inn along with the three wise men, the angel, and the shepherd.

I then realized my eyes weren’t deceiving me. The woman who lives in this sweet home is honoring the journey that Mary and Joseph made to Bethlehem all those many years. She is intentionally moving them ever closer to the stable every day. Honoring the journey that we sometimes may think was easy, but is said was long, grueling, and dangerous.

I was so touched by this. I thought about how often we see the stable already set up for the duration of the Christmas season and we lose sight of the journey it took to get there. While it’s beautiful to reflect on the miracle that occurred in that manger, it’s the journey that made it even more special.

And I thought about our own lives, how we sometimes fear the journey to something that is unseen. But more often than not, we look back in deep appreciation for what we learned and how far we came. 

So thank you, dear sweet lady, in the cozy white home who touched my heart in such a special way. I’m looking forward to watching the journey continue…

xo,

Barbara

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Photo Gallery: A Beloved Christmas Tradition Continues

Posted by Barbara Techel
Photo Gallery: A Beloved Christmas Tradition Continues
Can you stand this card? I can’t stop looking at it – from my Sistah V – to me, because she knows my heart and my love of animals.

Everyone has one… that little child in them that is just waiting in anticipation to come out…especially, I think, during Christmas time.

It’s exactly how I feel waiting for the special day I have every December with my dear friend, Sistah V, and our Christmas celebration.

I’ve said it before, and I say again, that going to Sistah V’s house is like going to grandma’s. There is so much nostalgia within the walls of her home that it envelops my heart and is so reminiscent of those hugs one got from grandma as a small child.

And so it was again that the magic of Christmas filled my heart with joy once again, being with my Sistah V, wrapped in the warmth of her home sweet home, as we partook in simple joys and pleasures.

Sistah V’s tree, though the tinsel not on yet, always, always takes me back to how my grandma P.’s Christmas tree looked.

I love how the Christmas tree lights reflected off the photo on the wall. I simply love how she decorates and could just sit and look at all her special treasures ALL. DAY. LONG.

Our gifts awaiting to be opened…

But first! Time to pick out cookie cutters for cut-out cookies!

And while cookies baked and frosting began, we watched Journey Back to Christmas – a must see Hallmark movie! Well, aren’t all Hallmark movies a must see?!  

Cookies I decorated… and geesh… a blurry photo. Hmmmmm. Okay, true confession…. I had a glass of Bailey’s Irish Creme while decorating. This could explain things. 🙂

And before I left… one last moment of enjoying Sistah V’s decorations in the backyard, which you can see from her kitchen window.

Driving home, love of friendship filled my heart…thinking about the ending of the movie and how I was trying not to get all emotional… as you know those movies can make one do!  When just on cue, Sistah V cocked her head to the side, sitting across from me, sprinkles of various sugars and frosted fingers between us, she looked at me and we both had tears in our eyes.

Another memory firmly planted in my heart. A blessing so beautiful I find it hard sometimes to believe how truly lucky I am.

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