quotes

Wisdom from My Kitchen Windowsill

Posted by Barbara Techel

Wisdom from My Kitchen Windowsill

Every season I enjoy changing out the decorations on my kitchen windowsill. I must admit that Fall is my favorite season to do this. There’s just something so cozy and comforting about it this time of year, don’t you think?

For months now I’ve been wanting to paint a quote I like from Tasha Tudor on a piece of wood and place it above my stove. But it just never seemed to happen. Then on Sunday morning a friend came over- Rachel, a young woman I’ve known for quite some time, but would like to get to know better. She is just one of those people who has an old soul and I thoroughly enjoy talking with her. Our discussions are deep and meaningful which I really appreciate. She and I are working on offering some future workshops together which I’m really excited about. But I digress…

But it was because of her sharing with me how her favorite spot in her house is her kitchen and looking out her window that I knew my Tasha quote would finally make its way to my kitchen. Her view out her kitchen window is spectacular from some photos she showed me, surrounded by woods and her horses, where she also gets to see deer and other wild animals too. But she told me about a quote she keeps on her windowsill that reminds her to be in the present moment.

And that’s when I knew that I would find a photo of one of my favorite authors, Tasha Tudor (who passed in 2008 – oh, how I wished I could have met her!) and I’d include my favorite quote on it from her – ” I don’t believe in hurry.”  It is perfect sitting on my windowsill where I now see it several times a day.

And it’s a reminder to s-l-o-w down when I find myself trying to rush through life- but a practice of being more in the present and believing that everything will get done and will happen as it is supposed to, that I find this quote helps remind me of that. Every time I read it I immediately feel calm and at peace.

Thank you to Rachel for the idea it inspired and thank you to Tasha Tudor for the quote that I find much comfort in.

fall-photo-and-quote

This quote from another favorite author, now gone, Gladys Taber — as seen in Susan Branch’s (yet another favorite author of mine – and still with us!) book, Autumn from the Heart of the Home.

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Listening Below the Surface. Signposts Along the Way.

Posted by Barbara Techel

Listening Below the Surface. Signposts Along the Way.

Three years ago at this time I was learning how to just be still.  In our crazy go, go, go world, the idea of just stopping most of everything I was doing in my working world and take a sabbatical felt like a very scary thing to do.

In part, because I was afraid of losing all I had worked so hard to build. I worried that others would think I was selfish or wouldn’t understand. I was afraid to hear what was just below the surface of my consciousness. But this inner niggle had been trying to get my attention for quite some time. It’s request to me was to slow down and re-evaluate what I wanted for my life.

I ignored that inner voice for too long, in part, because I just didn’t know what it was I wanted and that was scarier than just being and feeling uncomfortable. Until my dog, Joie, died…she was my wake-up call to be still and go within.

I can say today that I’m so glad I took that two month sabbatical. There were so many spiritual signposts during that time that were my guides, as they have also been while I worked to complete the writing of this time in my life, and now as I get ready to release that story.

The quote above is one of those, what I call a spiritual signposts, that crossed my path last Friday while perusing a magazine. This quote, and the time I spent on a personal inward mission speaks to what I learned…and that wisdom finds us when we are willing to be still and in silence. Just like when sleeping, answers oftentimes come to things we struggle with come to us during time of rest.

And may I share one other thing?  When I’ve been open to the spiritual signposts it sure has made my life that much more enriching and meaningful – besides the many goosebumps they’ve given me! And that is my intention – to continue to awaken to this time and space I’m within, and all it has to offer me if I continue to practice stillness, listen to my heart, and pay attention to how it truly is all divinely orchestrated if I just stay out of my own way.

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Wisdom of the Butterfly

Posted by Barbara Techel
Wisdom of the Butterfly
Photo credit: Paula Pipping Hirschmann (my sister)
This morning I had the impulse to randomly open one of my journals where I collect quotes because I wanted to share one with you today.
It so happened (synchronicity!) to be one about the butterfly. This made me think of the beautiful photo of a butterfly my sister posted on her wall yesterday.
We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty. – Maya Angelou
This got me thinking about the wisdom of butterfly that feels fitting for me and perhaps it may for you too.
I think oftentimes we forget how far we have come and about all the positive changes we’ve made in our lives. How easy it is to think we are not enough, haven’t done enough, and need to be and do more.
This has been a practice for me to know that I am enough…no matter what. All those years I was in the “spotlight” so to speak with my work with my disabled dog, Frankie, and now I’m in a place where I’m content with more solitude.
But yet, I still have this need to make a difference in the world. And the butterfly reminded me that I am…no matter what…just as long as I honor my true heart and live from that space.
All the different layers of myself I’ve peeled away and shed over the years have brought me to this place called me that I am right now. A place, I for the most part, am quite happy about. I’m happy with the changes I’ve made for myself, though not always easy.
And so the butterfly reminds me to pause and remember all I’ve done to get to this point. All the little steps I’ve taken along the way (and will continue to). And as I sit for a moment to look at the photo of this butterfly I see it coming in and landing ever so softly on the flower. In my minds eye I see it opening and closing its wings in the most graceful way – reminding me that there is beauty in the pause and there is beauty when we take flight once again…and that there is beauty in each moment and stage of our lives.
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