donkeys

Santa Brought Me a Donkey!

Posted by Barbara Techel

So this happened yesterday…and I’ve looked at her, I think, at least one hundred times already. 🙂

Santa brought me a donkey! Her name is Elli. Just two days before I’d watched a video from Velvet and Linen. They have four donkeys and one of them is spotted. I didn’t recall having seen a spotted donkey before and found this so interesting.

Yesterday I celebrated Christmas with my mom and under her tree was a very special envelope that contained the gift that brought tears to my eyes and a big rush of love to my heart.

My very own donkey and a spotted one at that! Well, okay, I have to share her with others as she lives at Cristo Rey Ranch, so all the more people get to love her, too.

But I received from my mom a sole sponsorship of Elli. This means I will get updates about her, along with two very special thirty-minute one-on-one visits with her. I can hardly wait to meet her!! Though I do plan on waiting until we have some warmer weather. I think Elli will understand.

Many charities have been hit hard this year.

Cristo Rey Ranch which is part of, and on the same property as a nursing home in a town nearby, run by nuns, has always had a yearly fundraiser. This helps with food and medical bills for the animals. They weren’t sure what to do, but then came up with this idea of sponsorship. They have been overwhelmed with gratitude for the support they’ve received.

Such a grand idea that is a win-win for all involved!

Tucked in with the photo of Elli and my sole sponsorship tickets was this note from Elli:

Hi,

My name is Elli and I am a donkey. I am white with spots. I have lived on the ranch forever. A funny fact about me is that one ear is shorter than the other. Even though I am a small donkey I am in charge of the pen of animals that I live with. Even the big horse Duke! If you come into the pen, I will be the first to come up to greet you. I love people but I don’t like goats. Unfortunately, the goats live right next to me. Actually, it seems like goats are all over the place on the ranch!

It just cracked me up what Elli has to say about the goats! Though I’ll have to have a little talk with her and let her know how great goats are, as I really enjoy them. But I love that she has quite a sense of humor while so very loving and even though small, takes charge of her life. Already she has reflected a beautiful lesson to keep living my life in this way, too.

So yup, I got a donkey for Christmas and just when I thought my heart couldn’t expand anymore – well, it has – and it feels SO good!

If you are interested in sponsoring a donkey or any other animal at Cristo Rey Ranch, please do check out their website here. It sure does make for a heartwarming gift for someone or for yourself.

Hee Haw!

xo,

Barbara

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Look Who Followed Me Home

Posted by Barbara Techel
Looked Who Followed Me Home
Art work by Kellie Montana

Dare I say I love donkey’s as much as I love dachshunds? Well, perhaps it’s like being a parent. You love all your kids and each one offers something different you love them for. That must be it for me and my love of doxie’s and donkeys.

I didn’t plan on stopping at a little antique and artistic shop on my way home today. But something told me to. And well, it just could also be that I recently re-did my living room with new furniture and some new decor, and now am taking my time thinking about updates for the kitchen too, so everything flows.

I’ve gone from dark furniture, to light tans, soft blues and greens, with splashes of purple and gray. Painting the living room and kitchen is in the plans for the future so that a new wall color will flow more nicely between the two spaces.

When I saw this donkey, I put my hand on my heart, and softly gasped. Then tears pooled in my eyes and in my mind I said, “Oh, how I love you dear donkey.” 

It seemed I stood there forever, mesmerized by such a sweet painting. I love supporting artists. And well, I love donkeys! Such a win-win. 

But then I tried to talk myself out of it, as I usually do. While it’s not an original, the price tag $49.50. Not bad, really. But should I really spend the money? New furniture has certainly not been inexpensive. Though the furniture before this, we had for close to 25 years. The new change has had me swooning every morning lately when I get up each morning and turn the lights on.

But oh, this painting was tugging big time at my heart strings. I went to the register with a few small purchases in hand. I mentioned to the clerk how I loved the donkey painting. “I may be back,” I said.

I can be a worry wart about money and sometimes live in a space of lack or worried about the potential of lack. Or the “what if” there is an emergency? In part, I know this is due to the economy plunging in 2008 and along with so many others, we had to make some very tough decisions.

It’s interesting in that last night I listened to a replay from coach Jocelyn Mercado talking about money and how so many of us live in this space of worry and thinking we shouldn’t have this or that. Or if we have more money it will make us bad people. She said money isn’t bad, it’s people who can be bad. She talked about how we need to shift our money around doing good things with it.

I definitely try to be conscious of what I spend and not spend above my means. And then there’s the whole accepting abundance in your life, showing the universe you believe you are worthy, and more abundance comes to you.

And who can argue with my heart that just adores donkeys? As the clerk rang up my small purchase, I noted the change on the counter as I was looking what I had left in my wallet. 

“That’s it,” I said. “Who am I kidding? I’m taking that donkey painting home with me. I just love him and life is short.”

One of the things I take great pride in is our home. While we don’t live in a mansion, within these walls I think there is a whole lot of love. We live simply in that we enjoy being home on the weekends, just hanging out and talking, playing Yahtzee, or watching movies.

To fill our space with things we love and make our hearts happy…well, that just adds that much more to the love. And so the donkey painting followed me home. During the drive back to my little cottage in the village, I smiled as Gus rode in the front seat with me.

Once home, and looking the artist up on the internet, I discovered that the donkey’s name is Gus, and the artist, Kellie Montana describes her work as “whimsical renderings of the ordinary.”  And so this purchase is so much more. It’s about, yes, my love of donkey’s, but also my love of home, and my love of supporting artists. Seeing Kellie on her website and feeling the joy that oozed from her face and her page, well, it just makes it feel like a big time win-win-win. 

XO,

Barbara

Looking to the New Year. Living a Life Uncommon.

Posted by Barbara Techel

Looking to the New Year. Living a Life Uncommon.

Looking ahead to the New Year, I’m filled with hope, excitement, and yes, some nervousness and fear. From all indications of what I’ve observed about this particular mix of emotions of the past, this signals I’m on the right path and exactly where I’m supposed to be.

With Christmas now gone, I’ve realized I moved through it much easier than in the past. I believe in part it’s because I’m much better at letting go of expectations. I also believe it is because I have a much better perspective and understanding of who I am and what is important to me. Though I know I am never complete in this process, and I am a work in progress.

In years past, I’d have to have the whole week between Christmas and New Years just to re-group and find my way back to center. Where as this morning, I was eager to get back to my writing cottage and work on details for a Women’s Creative Sacred Soul Circle I’m forming for the winter months.

This is somewhat new territory for me, but something I’ve had a vision of for many years. There are many workshops I’m giving thought to while also keeping myself in awareness mode of not filling my plate too full, like I can tend to do. But I’m feeling very called to stay in a centered, sacred space of my own, fully engaged in what I’m feeling pulled toward….even when I don’t always have a clear picture…but putting my trust into the fact that a master plan is already in the works.

While workshops for women are my main focus for this year, I also want to stay dedicated to my blog because it’s a place that I’ve really come to love. While I thought I’d continue work on writing another book, I’m feeling called to table it for the time being. Though I will simmer in it and save nuggets of wisdom I find or that run across my brain, writing them down and collecting them in a folder should the time come to write that book.

I’ve realized I was struggling with letting the book idea go for now because I had mentioned it in my latest book, Wisdom Found in the Pause that it was something for my readers to be on the lookout for. It’s always a feeling that I’ve disappointed others if I don’t finish what I said I thought I was going to do. But I’ve realized holding onto something just for the sake of not wanting to disappoint others means I only really disappoint myself and more importantly, it blocks me from moving forward.

I continue to want to lead a life uncommon. What that looks like to me is continuing to do my own inner work, encourage that in others, live a life of creativity and less stuff, take some short jaunts away in our van we are in the process of converting to a camper, collaborate with my friend Rachel on future Talking Sticks workshops, and other workshop ideas we have in mind, a possible online collaboration workshop with my friend, Dawn of Animal Voices, and also volunteering to help with geriatric miniature donkeys coming to LaValley Equine Sanctuary this spring.

The other reason I feel it is a life uncommon is that I think too often we push aside our intuition and let fear get in the way, thus losing out on doing what truly matters most to us.  Everything I’ve written about my New Year ahead feels so heart centered and is coming from a place that feels true and right…and most of all it feels incredibly meaningful to me.

And as my mom eluded to in a note to me this month that when she looks at me she still sees a little girl trying to figure everything out and get it right, but she also sees the strong individual I am letting her light shine and spreading it out into a world that can sometimes be gloomy.

And she’s right…It’s important to me to try and make a difference in this world. I’ve come to realize that it does not have to be something grand and big…it just has to come from that sacred place within me. Because when it does, it by default does make a difference…it’s that positive and bright light of following your own soul’s wish, which it desperately wants for you to do, that you begin to live a more fulfilled life…and when you do, other’s who wish for the same will see that and want it too.

So my focus for the New Year is to continue to follow that true, inner light of mine, provide a sacred space through workshops for women to help them open to their soul’s whispers and inner light and to keep writing here on my blog. I also look forward to learning more about donkeys and being open to what lessons they will no doubt have in store for me.

It’s my hope that you will continue to return to my blog time and time again and that I can provide you with inspiration and encouragement to live fully into who you are and not only seek out, but truly live a meaningful life that is right for you.

“If you trace our roots to the very essence, you find we are all connected. On a deep level I am a tree and birds perch on my arms. In the Land of the Imaginative Heart, I am connected with spirit and earth.”

~Laura Hollic, soul artist

Photo above by Kevin Thom. Makeup by Rachel Duff. Costume, model Laura Hollick.

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