writing

A Mix of Emotions

Posted by Barbara Techel

A Mix of Emotions

Happy Monday, Friends!

I just had to take another peek in the Robin nest today to see how the little ones are doing. They hatched last week Wednesday and I’m simply amazed at how fast they have grown since then. Almost double in size!  Whoa!

I’m utterly enjoying watching this new life take shape right outside the east side of my writing cottage window where these little darlings reside in the limelight Hydrangea tree that was just planted in May.

At the same time, I’m feeling some sadness that soon enough they will be leaving the nest. I have to admit that I didn’t know how long before that happens. I had to do a Google search. The result in my search tells me that baby Robin’s typically leave home around two weeks after they have hatched.

So I’m trying not to think about that day of them leaving that is right around the corner and instead just enjoy the time they are here.

And this has me relating this to my manuscript, Wisdom Found in the Pause. After checking in again this morning with my editor, she has promised I will have it no later than tomorrow morning.

I’ve had so many emotions around the writing of this, my second memoir, and the many stages I’ve walked through with it. It took me three years of fits and starts to get it to where I could feel comfortable in handing it over to an editor, which I did in mid-February.

I never anticipated having to have waited this long for it to return. Oh the thoughts that have run amok in my mind at times! It certainly has been a practice in patience and trusting in faith once again. While I believe the timing of much of anything is up to the Universe, I also do believe one must do their due diligence in following up on where things are at.

While I’m happy to know I will have my manuscript back in hand again, I’m also feeling anxious about it. While I want to work on it again and get it to the next step, it comes with trepidation, too. But I also know this is all part of the process of being a writer – and really a part of life and all the little steps we take to where we need to get to next.

Just like those little birds outside my window – all the stages they too have gone through. Soon they will take flight and no doubt with fits and starts too. But soon enough they will be flying off on their own and out into the world– and who knows where it will take them!

 Thank you for sharing and subscribing to my blog updates.

And this is Why I Write. A Heartfelt Note from Reader, Patti.

Posted by Barbara Techel

IMG_1555

Life as a writer can be lonely at times. Though I do love spending quite a bit of time alone there is on occasion when I wonder if anyone is out there reading blogs anymore. And then every now and then I’ll get a note from a reader that really makes my heart sing.

It was in 2007 when I started my blog to write about my love of the human-animal bond. It has now evolved into so much more and it’s like coming home to myself every time I sit down to write on my laptop.

One of my goals in writing is to inspire and encourage others to live a creative and meaningful life by sharing what that looks like for me.

When writing about ones life it can be a fine balance of what to share and what not to share. While I wish to share all the good, I also write about when things aren’t good too — though I try my best to look for a teaching in each situation that seems hard.

And the rewards of writing are that this is the way in which I take what is inside me and give it breath. And the other reward is hearing from readers.

Like today on this beautiful, sunny, Friday morning, I open my email to find this sweet note from Patti:

I am so grateful for your daily posts. On my darkest days, you seem to give me hope. You brighten my days and have opened my eyes to so many things, I might otherwise have missed. 

Thank you from the depths of my heart for being the person you are! I so admire you!

Thank you, Patti for taking time to send me this beautiful note. As I said in my response back to her, this is music to a writers ears. Though I feel like I’m in a place in my life where I can’t not not write, notes like this from readers truly mean so much to me.

So to change the subject a bit now, I promised to share the new landscaping with you. Here is a sneak peek of the east side of my writing cottage in the above photo.

Now I know there isn’t much color yet, but these are all new plants that will need time to establish themselves. Though I was told by Kathy from Willow Acres that I will see blooms on my roses on the west side of the deck in just a few days!  Woot!

In this space next to my writing cottage is a honeysuckle plant I’ve had for two years. The tree in the center is a limelight hydrangea and the shrubs with pink are Dark Horse Weigela, while I believe the other two perennials are Shasta daisies.

And just to give you an idea of the huge improvement, here is a photo of what it looked like before.

I feel on cloud nine with all the new plant life around me topped off today with the kind note from Patti. It’s these simple pleasures in life that are the air that I want to always breathe. Because when I do they fill me up with so much joy.

Thank you for sharing and subscribing to my blog updates.

Cycles of Life. A Writers Life. My Life.

Posted by Barbara Techel
Writing has so many cycles like life - I'm in the waiting game right now.
Joie and Me. Summer of 2013.

I was thinking about the cycle of life today. How things come and go. Another Mother’s Day has come and gone. Spring, for the most part, has sprung, and before we know it, we will be in the heat and humidity of summer.

The cycle of life, how at times speeds by, but then other times feels like it is crawling slowly along like a snail.

My manuscript for Wisdom Found in the Pause, my second memoir, has been with my editor almost three months now.

A book that took me over three years to get to the point of feeling comfortable and handing it over to my editor. A hurdle I wasn’t sure I’d be able to jump. But yet, I did.

Just like many things in life, there are always hoops to jump through. Some we can do without a thought, some we ponder for what seems eternity.

It felt that way, writing my second memoir, like trudging through very thick muck at times. My own fear and questioning if it was “good enough” was the mud I was trying to see through.

My vision for it not quite clear yet, as I still have some doubts. But I’m hopeful with my editor’s feedback I will find that opening of freedom all writers strive for- that moment they know without a shadow of doubt the book that won’t not let them rest, will make its way out into the world.

Writing has so many cycles like life – the idea for a book – the endless hours of writing – the courage summoned to release it to an editor – the thoughts that invade at the oddest times- the wrestling of doubt, fear, and questioning during the waiting game.

I’m in the waiting game right now, which for awhile was a comfortable place to be. I was relieved to let my manuscript go to my editor when I did in February, and take a break from it. There comes a point when you just have to do this in order to make it better.

But now, I find myself in the not-being-so-patient process of wanting to know that all my devotion and hard work can actually be a book I release to my audience.

Waiting for confirmation from my editor that the manuscript, which will no doubt need lots more work, but hope I rest in the arms of that it is doable.

And the place in the cycle I am now is that I am eager to get back to work on whipping it into the shape. But I must wait.

And I envision when I can say it is complete…and I can let it go…and it moves out into the spaces and places it needs to go.

But now, in this moment, suspended in time, hanging slightly off balance, I await the fate of what it will actually be.

Not yet fully knowing, but leaning heavily into my faith that a divine plan is already in place.

And just like I had to do when things unfolded so rapidly in my dachshund, Joie’s, short-lived life with me, of which I write about in this book. How it seemed to spin way too fast, but yet stopped me dead in my tracks when I had to make a gut wrenching decision to do what I felt was best for her.

How that decision led to the next phase which was a period of transition for me – and that was a whole process of cycles too. And a cycle I had fought against the whole year before. Until I knew I had to look it straight in the face or let it continue to disrupt my inner world.

Days come and go. We create, struggle, fly high, let go, look back, look forward, and search for peace in-between…where peace is always faithful in that it resides here always beckoning us to see that this is truly the only cycle that matters.

And so it is.

Thank you for subscribing to my blog updates.