This is a draft I started in October, 2011, and last edited on June 26, 2012. I am publishing it now for posterity and as a demarcation between what this blog was and what it is now (see About page). Funnily, the post starts by discussing what the blog had become then vs. what it was before THAT.

New blog! I started Blossom Reiki on Blogger to share my progress in learning Reiki and building a practice. When I decided not to build a practice right away and to travel instead, I briefly changed the name to Reiki The World. And then…. when my travel planning took prominence, I realized I wanted to “establish an online presence” (a phrase that makes me want to roll my eyes at myself a little bit) and broaden the scope of the blog to include… all of me. So I chose a new name, migrated from Blogger to WordPress, and here we are. Thanks for being here with me.

What’s going on:

Health

I’m down to four treatments per week at Portland Natural Health. All of my practitioners feel they have moved through the damage caused by the car accident and are now working on my underlying postural/structural issues. I went through a phase for several weeks of being resentful about the amount of time I am having to invest in getting healthy (which does not preclude being grateful for the excellent care I’m receiving).

My employer was patient about all the time off I took when my appointments were stacked back-to-back, but I eventually had to start pushing them to the evenings, fewer at a time, which meant I had appointments after work every day and rarely got home before 7:00 and then had exercises I was supposed to do. I did a lot of complaining and very little of the home therapy for a while. And then I adjusted my attitude and accepted that the more I participated in my recovery, the quicker it would be.

In addition to the chiropractic, massage, and acupuncture, I am now in physical therapy, which is all about the home exercises, and I’m doing the best I can to take my responsibility to do them seriously. I do them most days. And the really good news is I am starting to have pain-free days again.

Reiki

I received my Reiki II certificate in mid-October. As with Reiki I, I didn’t feel much of anything during or after the actual attunement. What was different, however, was my attitude toward not feeling anything. After Reiki I, I was overly concerned about not feeling the energy right away, but since that time, I’ve learned to let go of expectations and let whatever is to just be. (Michelle, my teacher: “You understand how huge that is, right?”)

Having said that, I had a major new experience with my newly acquired level of energy channeling. A Reiki II class and attunement includes the ability to send Reiki over distance, whether that’s time or space. My mom in San Diego has been having knee pain since January, and once I learned what I could do as a Reiki II practitioner, I’d been looking forward to sending her Reiki to help relieve her pain.

About a week after my attunement, she was having a particularly bad day with her knee. She’d gone to the doctor and had several cc’s of fluid removed from her knee (eww). When she got home, the back of her knee was really hurting, which was unusual. It seemed like a good opportunity to practice distance Reiki for the first time, so I asked her to sit quietly for 15 minutes while I did so.

I felt the energy very strongly as I sent it (in fact, the only other time I felt it like that was immediately following the car accident). I texted her afterward to say I was done and that I trusted she had received the energy whether she was aware of it or not. I had hope in the outcome, but I did my best to temper my expectations.

What she reported thus really surprised me. She had done some deep breathing and repeated the words, “light and healing in, darkness and pain out” (well, isn’t Mom cute with her little mantra). She was aware of receiving the energy, and best of all, the back of her knee didn’t hurt anymore. In other words, IT WORKED!

portable table

Finances

Travel