the quest

But the main thing is the spiritual path, the quest for enlightenment. That's the primary reason for being Reiki.

Sharing Reiki with others can be part of one's Reiki journey. Doesn't have to be. Can be.

If you share Reiki with other people, and they love it, maybe they can learn Reiki. Be Reiki.

Just for today...

therapeutic presence v ego

So this whole thing about just plain Reiki and Reiki with other modalities. I love other modalities. I love sound, stones, messages, massage, incense, and laughter. When my Reiki friends and I get together we joyfully, creatively, and intuitively combine therapies. But we know what is Reiki and what is other stuff. We know the difference. We love and respect Reiki, but we like to play with sound and stones, etc.

But when I introduce someone to Reiki, when I share Reiki with a person with cancer, when I teach students, and when I practice at medical institutions, it's just plain Reiki. Just plain Reiki is just plain amazing. It is enough. It's marvelous: relaxing, restful, and rejuvenating.

Why? Because I don't want to confuse people. If I'm teaching or introducing a person to Reiki, then it's just Reiki and get my ego out of the way. I want the person to experience Reiki; the experience belongs to the person. It shouldn't be about me. It's about the person, what the person feels and knows. My experience is irrelevant. I'm the supporting actor, or the silent woman in the crowd, and the person on the table is the star.

That's why. If I'm to be a therapeutic presence, then I must keep my ego out of it. Keep it plain and simple. Let the person feel and be in Reiki. 

Reiki at the Fair

Shared Reiki for almost two hours today, in a Reiki tent, at an agricultural fair.

I met lots of people. It was nice to connect, to step out of the intensity of the crowds, to be Reiki. One man on my table told me he had pancreatic cancer, with mets to his liver and colon. He had beautiful skin and appeared to be completely healthy. "Appearances are deceiving," he told me. It was his first Reiki session. I shared with his wife also. Felt so honored. Shared with another husband and wife; husband complained his wife doesn't Reiki him enough.

All the other practitioners were mixing modalities. It's fun to do that, of course. Fun to use stones, messages, and massage. But I wish they would tell people. Wish they'd say what Reiki is and what is other stuff. Otherwise it's confusing. I was the only one doing plain Reiki. I saw stones, massage, psychic messages, reflexology, and KCR. All of that's great, of course, but but but...

Am I just being like one of those kids who won't eat supper if the carrots touch the potatoes?

Just plain Reiki is just plain amazing. It's simple, subtle, sensational.

I'm Unitarian or Zen: I don't talk a lot; I listen. I don't waste motion: I don't shake, tremble, or dance. I just place my hands and it's Reiki. Some people like the drama; they want the practitioner to perform.

The other thing different about me: I don't discuss my experience with my client. One woman asked me what I saw and felt. "Let's keep this about you," I responded. "What did you see and feel?" She happily described her experience to me. It was good.

suck and twirl

Taught suctioning all day. Eight 50-minute sessions. Oral and tracheal suctioning, sputum specimen collection, and applying sterile gloves.

Lubricate the tubing, insert into the tracheostomy, twirl and apply suction as you withdraw the tubing. You have 15 seconds. Allow the patient to rest for at least 30 seconds, applying oxygen if needed. You may reinsert twice.

Tomorrow is cardiac landmarks: all pigs eat too much. 

firecracker hot peppers

I don't understand how garden critters can munch on the hot peppers. They're tiny but so hot. They're called firecrackers, are tiny and pointed, red orange and purple. Almost every one shows a teeny bite. Who?

coconut harbinger

Summer transitioning to fall.

I can tell because the coconut salt scrub in the shower, deliquescent, liquid for three months, is now solid. 

swirls

after teaching for 7 hours I went to the cancer center to share Reiki with people with cancer. I placed my hands. Conversations of the day filled my head. I saw the words swirl around around, up and out; I felt peace.

2 weddings

I went to the beach yesterday, a small sandy beach with a correspondingly modest parking lot.

It was warm and sunny but breezy. I finished the James Salter novel, Light Years. It's excellent. I got it used, online, for about $3. Was surprised when it arrived to find it signed by the author. I was reading at the beach, absorbed in book, laughing children, and waves of fog. I heard music. Live guitar. I scanned the beach and boats, looking for the musician. Saw a crowd of standing figures, gray and unmoving, on a rocky ridge, sheathed in fog. Rows of white chairs, empty. Three musicians. Classical guitar. A bride in a strapless white dress, surrounded by people in gowns and suits.

A bus arrived and guests walked to the chairs, women in cotton dresses and men in wrinkled tan suits. A chuppah flapped in the breeze. A second bride walked past the musicians, to the very end of the rocky point, and stood under the chuppah. The sun shone through her veil. The first bride stood a ways away, watching. Two brides?

Another bus arrived and tall slim women in silk turquoise and stilettos strode off the bus, followed by young men in grey suits.

Two brides, two weddings, on a late summer day at the beach. 

communication

I heard a story on the radio about a boy and his father; they had no language in common and thus felt estranged. Immigrants, the parents decided their son should learn English, but the father never did. They never spoke. Just awkward smiles and gestures; loneliness, sadness, and guilt.

Something clanged in me as I listened. Two people might share the same words yet fail to communicate.