Querencia ...

In bull fighting there is a place in the ring where the bull feels safe. If he can reach this place, he stops running and can gather his full strength. He is no longer afraid. It is the job of the matador to know where this sanctuary lies, to be sure the bull does not have time to occupy his place of wholeness.

The safe place for a bull is called the "querencia".

For humans the querencia is the safe place in our inner world. When a person finds their querencia, in full view of the matadore, they are calm and peaceful. Wise. They have gathered their strength around them.

Rachel Naomi Remen.

He's been preachin' to me ...

Ok ... so he has been in my CD player in my car for a week now. I go through my Stevie "jones" here and there. I am considering a change to my profile as it seems that my focus is love so really the healing powers of LOVE, including Reiki, Munay-ki and other forms of love healing. NO MARVIN GAYE!!! That "old school" hit needs to be "suspended".

Back to Stevie ... grab some of his best ... the deep cuts as they are called. The ones that didn't get the play on the radio stations and press into them while listening to them. Hear his messages.

"AS" ... by Stevie Wonder

We all know sometimes life's hates and troubles can make you wish you were born in another time and space. But you can bet your life times that and twice its double, that God knew exactly where it is he wanted you to be placed. So make sure when you say you're in it but not of it, you're not helping to make this earth a place called Hell. Change your words into truths and then change that truth into love!!!

So if you press into the lyrics and hear it with your heart ... your perspective may change and you just might dance around a little bit too.

our mistakes ...

We heal when we learn from our mistakes and in order to learn from them we need to be honest. We need to acknowledge our mistakes, face them and live in them for a moment ... a real, timeless moment. It is essential to be accountable and honest about our actions and what we have done.

After any mistake there is an aftermath that needs to be cleaned and cleared up. When others are involved in our mistakes we need to share with them how we feel about what we have done and stay with them for a moment (a real, timeless moment) to also find out how they feel about what we have done. We need to help ourselves and help them and move past the mistake if at all possible. It is possible. Be honest and couragous about this.

At times the mistake that is more difficult to move is the one that we face alone. The mistake that we know has compromised our "highest good", regardless of its impact (or lack of impact) on others. As unfair as this may seem we often feel our solitary mistakes on a deeper level than the mistakes we made that effect others. We live within ourselves daily and therefore live in our mistakes sometimes in each moment.

It is not a different process when moving a mistake that we have made against ourselves.

Create a dialog with your higher self like you are sitting in circle with yourself. Let your higher self counsel and support your learning, remembering and growing self. Stay with yourself for a real, timeless moment and find out how you feel about what you have done. Help yourself move past your mistake with honesty and courage. This is possible too.

The aftermath of a mistake is not a good time to be a wimp. The act of being a wimp can turn mistakes into catastopies and can fade moments, even real and timeless moments into a dull lifetime.

When truthful contemplation and communication is complete we then need to walk away from the mistake. That moment in time is over. You now have much better things to do AFTER the mistake is cleared up. This is an act of love ... the universal kind of love that holds the love of self, the love of others, a love for growth, honestly and reality.

on the daily drive

On my daily drive to work and back I usually contemplate aspects of life, love and the pursuit of freedom a.k.a. happiness. This morning my contemplation surrounded the song I was listening to ... Stevie Wonder and his timeless, imaginary news cast about the circumstances of days long ago ... from the "70's. The song was "Love's in Need" and it states that love is in need of love. Poetic playfulness about a seriously needed emotion. Not a thing about this song was old. So what does this have to do with healing? Everything. Love ... simply given and taken, shared and felt realistically. Stevie says "don't delay".

What else is there that can immediately regenerate us like a good dose of love? In a hug from a true friend, eye contact from your lover, the enthusiasm in seeing a beloved coming your way ... to love is to heal. Nobody needs Reiki as much as they need love.

Thoughts ...

Reiki is "hands on healing" * Reiki is a continual circle of energy with no beginning and no end * As Reiki is given Reiki is received and as Reiki is received it is given * Reiki washes away stress like a good window washer cleans a window * Reiki is to the touch what electricity is to an electric blanket * Electricity runs from the plant to the transformer to a home and Reiki runs from its great universal source straight to you ... you are the plant, the transformer and the home * Reiki is a most incredible energy of very high intelligence * Reiki is about being of loving service * Reiki is a beautiful form of self love - unconditional self love * The foundation of Reiki is self healing (when you support other in their healing it is an added benefit) * Reiki promotes balance, wholeness and higher consciousness which sustains a calm state of being. This leads to the healing of ones emotional, mental, physical and spiritual being * Reiki builds personal energy for more resilience * Reiki transforms negative energy into positive energy * Reiki starts but never stops * Reiki simply is Reiki.

Shot from a cannon

I said in my earlier blog that my introduction and initiations into Reiki were like being shot out of a cannon and they were. One Sunday in January of ’01 I went to lunch with a friend. Her plans included a Psychic Faire after lunch.. My plans did not. My friends was quite forceful and I was not the one driving so we went to the faire. I entered the faire pouting and protesting. I was a sweat lodge, meditate at the stream kind of chick.

Walking into this place was like wading into the fresh remains of a bad sinus infection. Snake oil salesmen on the right and Goddess Candle Wax Readings on the left and deep in the midst of the neon-rainbow-chrystal-bling-bling was this dude with dreadlocks playing the didgeridoo and his magically calm and somewhat surreal partner giving readings. I could somehow relate to them so I did.

Don’t get me wrong. I have a strong affinity for snakes, snake medicine, dragons flight and the ever so sacred kundalini energy. I worship and place myself before the Prime Creator’s God and Goddess. Candle wax is the effect of a lit candle and I love candles. Neon warns us of road hazards. Rainbows are beautiful and the chakras are most significant. Crystals are so cool … I have them all around my garden. It was the combination that got to me and that psychic faire was where I got my first Reiki treatment. The dreadlocked dude and the surreal psychic were Reiki Masters and quickly enough they became mine.

I went from that quickie Reiki session at a Psychic Faire to the Master Level initiation in 6 short months. My Masters felt certain that I was “ready”. I had no idea what that meant. With my heels planted firmly in the earth I got “ready”. Looking back I have often questioned what “ready” was. I cannot answer that question any better today than I did then … I just know “now” that I am here “now” and how I got here was right.

Have you ever been shot out of a cannon?

I haven’t either but imagine it … there you are … all dressed up for this big event, maybe wearing a nifty spandex high-kick jump suit with a wide collar and matching boots. You have a helmet … a freaking helmet that matches your jump suit and your boots. It's like dressing up for Easter Sunday only better.

Everyone is watching. You realize you are at least one cell shy of a full brain but you drop feet first into this cannon and you wait.

5 …. 4 …. 3 …. 2 …. 1 … B A N G !!!!!!

You are forced forward into space in an unreal state of time, noise is weird, time is slow, everything is passing you at an unrealistic speed, you have never seen people look at you this way, you have never seen people this way … whoa, pay attention now, right in front of you … the T A R G E T !!!!

SHIT … you hit it !!!!

There is probably a bit to clean up after you hit a target.

The speed of my initiations was like being shot out of a cannon and amazingly enough I hit the target. The target being Reiki. Reiki with an understanding of its purpose. Reiki with an intention to share its highest good with others.

Would I shoot my Student’s out of a cannon?

What if a student showed up for class all dressed up like class was a big event, wearing a nifty spandex high-kick jump suit? What if the jump suit had a wide collar, flicked up in the back with the points of the collar pointed to their ears and they had on matching boots? What if they had a helmet on, a freaking helmet that matched their jump suit and their boots? What would I do? … (call 911!) … I would lovingly unbuckle their helmet and sit them down on a soft pillow on my floor and I would ask them to take a few deep breaths. On their second or third really good breath I would ask them to encourage their brain to hold that deep breath until they find the still point between it and their next breath. With a student like this it might take more than a few deep breaths. When they found the still point between breaths I would ask them to take off the boots and the helmet and join me for class.

I might learn a lot from this student.

ok, I am sick today

and that is all I had to say about it ... a cold, a dag nabbit cold.

Reiki ...

Reiki is Love ... unconditional love and it allows you to touch the profound and to place your hands on an intangible.

Reiki lessons ...

My passage into Reiki was like being shot out of a cannon. I knew a bit more than nothing about Reiki in January of '01 and was inititated into the Master level by July of '01. Coming up on 7 years I am just now in a place where I feel that I am prepared to lovingly and supportively initiate others into Reiki. My certainty is a passionate belief.

Of all of the things that I have experienced over these 7 years the turning point ... from just a person that does Reiki to a person that wants to offer a catalyst for others is as follows ...

I met an amazing woman while volunteering at a local hospital in the cancer center. I was running Reiki on cancer patients and their care givers. The majority of the people I shared Reiki with were women (close to my age) diagnosed with and hoping to survive breast cancer.

Prior to my volunteer work I had been in a self propelled, candy coated practice of Reiki. I was soothing friends who had quarrels with lovers, melting people of everyday stress and thinking I was doing great things. My ego was attached to outcome and it was really attached to the title of "healer".

Having survived cancer myself I had this notion that I could give back to the cancer community a little thank you from me for having lived. I learned a lot from the women at the center and especially from the woman who became my friend. To date I have not given back more than I have received.

Early on, my third patient was the woman that I became friends with. She had just been diagnosed with breast cancer and she had never experience Reiki. She was honestly one of the most frightened people I had ever met. Working with this stranger with this intense fear was a wide threshold for me. She was rigid with anxiety, I was way out of my experience level. She was mellow and resilient when we finished. I was grateful that Reiki happened.

She became a Reiki junky. She scheduled in advance to meet with me and over six months I saw that she was really one of the most couragous people I had ever met. I was honored that she was my friend.

The combined influences of the energy of cancer, my gratitude for my own survival, the fear of many of the women I saw and the healing of some of the women I saw was amazing to witness. I was humbled by the experience and the exposure. My ego was reduced.

My friend "survived" breast cancer as she swore that she would.

Around the time she was scheduling her first hair cut (her hair had grown back in) she confided in me that she was frightened again due to some things that were "just not right" with her head. She was soon diagnosed with brain cancer. The brain cancer grew rapidly and agressively. It all went so fast that there was no time to really think about it.

She asked that I support her with Reiki and I did. Through supporting her I learned even more. I learned some profound lessons about detachment from outcome and results. I became detached from my desire for her to live. I learned about detachment of ego. There was nothing great about such good lessons as I was learning them while my friend was passing,

I had already reached a place where I knew that we are only healers when we heal ourselves. We can best support others in their desire to heal when we step aside. As my friend was passing I learned that sometimes healing is about your ability to heal at the point that we need to. She held onto her ability to heal during breast cancer. She was past her abilty to heal with brain cancer ... we were left facing that when it 's time to go it's time to go.

I learned deep lessons about unconditional love. I had conditions and so did all of her loved ones. None of our conditions mattered and we all loved her anyway and we all loved her more as the days continued. I learned from her family members after she passed that my loving support as a friend and as a Reiki practitioner really mattered.

My friend was a devoted Catholic. When she first came for Reiki it was at the advice of her Priest who told her it might help her relax. The very last thing that my friend said to me was "you need to know something, you need to know this ... I understand about karma now ... I finally understand about karma". I don't recall that my friend and I ever talked about karma for her to feel the need to tell me what she finally understood.

Chinese proverb ...

Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.