Welcome to Making the Rounds

Come sit down near the fence
The wood feels cool on my back against the warming sun
Watching the clouds go by
Drifting across the sky
Think of the people in your life
Why does time seem to fly?
For now, I sit against the sun washed fence
Feeling wisps of wind moving through the field
Like a caterpillar making his way
Never following the straight and narrow path
Resisting the urge to change
Knowing he must
People come, people go
Touching my life like a fluttering sparrow
Building a nest of friendships
Gathering twigs to strengthen the bond
Savoring memories
Hearing the buzz of a bee serenading the flowers
Showing me that the song we sing
Is our gift in planting tomorrow’s

We are innately provided with the tools for self-healing and the capacity to facilitate healing in others. Many of you can relate to being a good listener, holding someone’s hand during a difficult time, hugging another when grieving, soothing a child by brushing her or his head. These are all acts involving the grace of healing.

Healing is often thought of as an event stemming from physical or sexual trauma, injury, disease or emotional upheaval, that one then “heals” to get over, and move on from. Healing, in actuality, involves continual mending and reconnecting with our conscious self, higher self, and the strands of life we are all truly connected to.

None of us is immune to happenings across the globe, from tsunamis, to earthquakes, and major oil spills. These events traumatize not only the individuals, and species in the immediate areas affected, but it creates imbalances both within our individual self and our global selves, because space, time or distance from something on a planetary scale doesn’t matter.

It is easy to become overwhelmed and feel helpless in times of grave tragedy, but he value of Reiki to help heal not only our self, our loved ones, but the planet as a whole holds great promise. It is a way to do your part wherever and whenever you are needed. With Reiki, you can plug in to the source of all life’s energy and begin to help heal through the Reiki energy that moves through you. Reiki self-treatments are a gentle and powerful way to feel lighter, less stressed and more focused. You will notice immediately that you have more energy and begin to balance your life with greater harmony. You will stop sweating the small stuff!

How does one do this? Reiki can be taught in different levels. Level 1 allows you to begin the process of healing on your self and the circle of people/animals in your life. Level 1 takes about 8 hours of training and ample time is given for practice. You will also receive an energy attunement from your Reiki Master. The attunement is like a DNA Reiki imprint that enters your energetic anatomy, which then allows you to begin activating Reiki.

Reiki is passed from one person to another, sort of like a family tree. The origins date back to the 1800’s and were introduced in the United States in 1935. The founder was Dr. Usui. Each Reiki Master can be traced to Dr. Usui, and other masters that he taught and gave attunements to.

If you are interested in learning Level 1, classes will start in September 2010. Please contact Kathy at 607-210-4219 for more information. Class fees are $125.00 and include an extensive manual.

We often consider ourselves to be flowing along in life, doing our own personal thing separate from another, but have you considered how much of your life’s actions ripple the universe?

Imagine throwing an apple from your car window while cruising a forest road. The apple then becomes food for a wandering deer, the deer becomes a target for a motorist who swerves and misses the animal, but hits a tree instead, all because of an apple.

You, also being a part of the universe, are affected by your own thoughts and actions, more so at the subconscious level. What I mean by this is that larger conscious efforts are obvious, from where we choose to live, what job we work, where we get groceries, how many children we raise, etc. What isn’t so obvious are our subconscious grumblings, almost like hunger pangs that show up to remind us of a sense of imbalance that exists within us.

When we have imbalances we lose energy to the area that is off balanced. This is also true as a universal whole. What is in one is in the whole. This is a well -practiced Tao belief and is quite true when we take the time to observe imbalances within our environment, families, cultural beliefs, and establishing priorities of what really matters.

Flow becomes stuck, thinking becomes adrift, and our behaviors lose focus and momentum. Flow can be re-established by aligning beliefs with values. We become blocked by harboring beliefs, emotions, ideas that are in conflict with who we really are, and act in opposition to our highest good. For example, if you truly care about animal welfare then your behavior, or action must reflect the devotion you give to thinking about animal welfare. An action can be through volunteering at a shelter, rescuing an animal companion, donating dollars to a cause, practicing sending Reiki to a suffering animal, etc. As you become more congruent flow will return.

We often don’t realize how our energy affects the world we live in. When we have a bad day, for instance, how many people do you encounter that you affect that day? Think about being around a person who is acting arrogant, superior, or in a manner that causes you to shrink from her or him? Now, imagine the feeling of flow, being balanced, focusing with the intent that you are changing your world to the highest wisdom available to you.

Reiki is another powerful way to establish and align flow. Reiki reduces imbalances, eliminate toxic energy and realign chakras so that a flowing stream of energy travels with wisdom, inner strength and grace toward the goals you are manifesting.

Have you received Reiki recently? Perhaps you haven’t and you are contemplating what a session might feel like. If you are new to an energy healing experience then you are in store for something quite special.

Reiki is provided through a practitioner who has received training and is in tune to your energetic self. It simply involves lying on a massage table, fully clothed, with the message to just close your eyes and gently surrender in a deep relaxation.

When a person is attending a session for the first time we spend a few minutes discussing any physical, emotional or spiritual concerns. This helps prepare a Reiki intention to facilitate healing to the highest good in the areas of concern. A session may last about one hour and is followed by a discussion where a client shares thoughts, feelings, images, and mystical experiences.

Many people are profoundly affected by what occurs during a session. Simply put, we all have an energy field that surrounds our physical bodies. This field often referred to luminous energy, records energetic data of our lifetime including previous lives and future possibilities. Reiki practitioners often receive impressions within your luminous field. This may include hearing, seeing, feeling or knowing deceased loved ones, having a keen understanding of significant points in your life, have knowledge of information that no one but you could know, and recognizing areas of physical pain that may encompass a site of an old injury.

This is often not what people expect and can often open floodgates of feelings of joy, release, connection to a loved one, or a divine connection. It seems that seeing into your world through receiving energy to the highest good possible is designed to help you in areas of your life that may welcome you to stretch and grow in some way. It is always important to review a session and share what was experienced from both the energy healer and the client perspective.

A session also involves balancing and releasing energy. Sometimes toxins build up in our energetic system that may contribute to fatigue, headaches and lead to potential illness and disease. You can positively influence how energy balances in your system by taking control of thoughts and emotions. One of the most destructive things we do to our human selves is negatively self evaluate. This means that you may live with regrets over decisions made in the past or you are unable to forgive someone who you perceived to wrong you. It doesn’t matter energetically what it was, but if it was involved in past transgressions than you energy is connected to the past.

When we live our lives looking over our shoulder than we diminish our current supply of energy to much needed cells for continued nourishment. Several sessions are needed to restore accumulated imbalances and increase vibrations that lighten one or enlighten one.
Every session is different but it always involves healing with the utmost grace of life energy vibrating from your Reiki guide directly to you.

Blessings on your journey,

Kathy

Okay, I admit it. I fell into the murky land of hollywood gossip where the grass isn’t any greener, and the relationships are just as complicated as wee mere mortals. So, the latest heartache that portrays the female as victim and the male as bully treating the relationship as simple black and white, good and evil, betrayer and betrayed. Why all the media buzz over “cheating” recently? Whether it’s a politician, athlete, entertainer, or whomever, the invasion of one’s intimate life gets plastered on the internet and television for public viewing and evaluation.

In my short lived viewing I witnessed a correspondent just shake her head sadly with “that poor woman” look for the latest damsel betrayed by her husband. I am even more aghast by views people take of these relationship woes. For instance, if either partner decides to exit a relationship by entering a sexual encounter unknown to the other partner, this is not classifiable, in my opinion, by whether the action is deemed “good” or “bad” or punishable by the media, or sponsors to that person. Ultimately, an intimate union only involves two people, a dyad, and this dyad, in many cases, has cut a deal. Please remember that betraying another in a relationship is just the meter reader telling you that all is not right in that relationship. In many cases it was never a relationship to begin with. It was a deal.

Deal making is located in the second chakra (please refer to chakra articles in earlier posts). This is where we keep our word, honor one an other, and learn how to negotiate our power to money, sex and control. It is no surprise when hollywood style relationships go sour, because the attraction usually has one or all three second chakra components to it that are out of balance. The chakras’ aim is to maintain balance and flow, and the flow gets very jammed around insecurities that may include dominance and control themes. Here’s an example that might help. We have unconscious motivations that have unconscious payoffs, so we are not talking in our heads about making a deal, but it goes something like this. “In order for me to provide you with love I will need security and stability.” The other partner may say, “Okay, in order for me to provide you with security (e.g. money, good compliments) I need you to love me by never demanding anything of me that involves where I am or what I am doing.” Maybe that’s a bit simplistic, but you can see that one person is acquiescing to the other.

The relationship is out of balance when one partner compromises an innately held value (trust, individual responsibility) for the sake of the relationship. However, the couple is unconsciously choosing this tryst to play out a specific drama to learn from. This is the beauty of understanding how energy works and how it gets buried in the great trickster of the mind. In the couple scenario mentioned above what is the couple’s lesson and what are they really asking for? One thought: “Can you be real with me?” If I vomit my transgressions for the world to see, will you rescue me? Do you care enough to crawl into the abyss with me?

Real genuine intimacy involves self disclosure. This means the risk in really being you while another is bearing witness to you. It’s an unbelievable gift, a walk in trust, faith that when you fall from a cliff that partner will catch you. In the second chakra the challenge is bearing this gift of soul to another. This is where passion and compassion do their greatest unfolding and flow upward to the heart, to the communication and spiritual centers.

The next time you witness another man gone wrong, look a little deeper and see the whole picture with greater compassion and understanding. No one did anything to another. He or she did it to themselves. One must have a code of honor within, a foundation where truth lives. It’s possible that many couples skip this step and scatter values that have been compromised until they are so watered down that they really don’t know what they stand for or believe in. Sooner or later the relationship will become challenged by something so profound that a serum of truth must be injected, such as extra-marital encounters. The couple at this point will start evaluating and decide do they want to live in a “make a deal” couple hood, or do they believe that their union is greater than their individual selves, and can they risk revealing their true natures to each other?

It’s work between two and perhaps a valued teacher, counselor or spiritual advisor. It does not belong in the media where a superficial coating is given to our greatest gift to each other. The gift of love.

Blessings on your journey

I hear the air swirling across the mountain ridge
Gasping and gaining momentum before swallowing torrents of waterfall lining the river’s edge
She moves with the speed of a jaguar speaking to the trees as if they were her humble servants
Then inhales a collection of leaves knitted among moss within the blustery March current
Her voice pitching high notes echoes through tumbling waters
With her outstretched arms she huffs a surrendered sigh across a meadow
Her breath caresses my hair and hugs my body like a loving mother
I sense her song circling around my feet as I gaze upon a majestic outcrop
Looking out over the valley her silence moves me once more

Within our daily lives I am so moved by how air touches all that we are and all that we do. The above sensory experience spoke to me and I began to think about our collective relationship to the simple act of inhaling and exhaling. In what ways do you sense the air around you? How do you speak to it? How does the voice of air speak through you? blessings on your journey, Kathy

I’m sure many of you have experienced synchronicity in your lives. For instance, the time when you hadn’t thought of a particular friend in months or years, and as you play a scene from a conversation or experience together, the phone rings and it’s that very friend on the other end. We are dancers in a dance of surrealism and discovering mystical connections takes a bit of observation, present focus, and looking for clues.

Synchronicity involves an inward dynamic, such as a thought, feeling, state of mind, followed by an outward manifestation that provides meaning only to you. For example, a friend of mine was mulling over her decision to marry. Feeling the need to reflect, she embarked on a long walk. During her walk she observed arches. She became entangled in arch-like vines of raspberries, she looked upward and saw an arch in a cloud, she passed under a bridge constructed with an arch design. Only she knew the significance of this encounter as it provided her a doorway to a realm of experience that required an initiation to walk under arches and even get tangled in one. Until this point she was so involved in planning her wedding from a logical, intellectual view, that she missed the spiritual undertow that seeing arches provided.

Playing mystical detective will allow you to embark on a trail that the rational mind doesn’t and can’t conceive. Synchronicity permits us to wander within the corridors of the invisible world that exists among the visible. It asks us to ponder deeper questions about the nature of reality, purpose, fate, and destiny. We accept coincidence when perhaps our lives are causally created. Sometimes words and meaning cannot be accessed because mystical realms surpass our understanding. Not every synchronistic experience is meant to wow you, but it will underscore your typical way of being aware. The times I am in a mystical space typical time and space become the backdrop as the cosmos moves in the spotlight. The time, for example, when I grappled with my purpose while walking aimlessly through a cemetery. As I peek upward an inscription on stone read, “our purpose is greater than what we can know on Earth.” Timely, huh?

Stay open and tuned in to your daily experiences. Just as you are humming a tune that just came to you someone else begins to sing the same song. Look for the messages that only you can know and perhaps you will be amazed at the direction your life takes because the choices you make will hold greater significance for you. Remember your energetic system is connected to what you cannot see and what you cannot know, but the clues you discover will reveal to you your place within the mystical landscape of which you live.

How many dedicated runners hit the pavement shortly after the alarm goes off? How many have clothes laid in sequential fashion, shoes meeting one at the front door, along with the sound of the first fresh coffee brew perking from a nearly darkened kitchen?

Yes, this is the life of the inner runner. Our culture yanks on the runner’s shoelace by referring to these ingrained habits as obsessions, but runners’ know differently. This is the stuff of life, the edge to which reason cannot cross. Now, combine the morning scenario with a grisly climb up a rocky slope, a slippery and sodden ravine barely visible at first light, the sound of a coyote whisking under a Hemlock tree, and the image of the “trail runner” appears.

Trail running has a Zen nature quality to it as one tramples into the underworld of flora and fauna, leaving the comfort and semblance of the concrete backdrop behind. There is a sense of inner urgency to return again and again to nature as our culture yearns for this romantic interlude. Hence our environmental issues all speak the language of returning to roots that pull us downward to our soulful core, our relationship to nature itself.

Trail runners aren’t necessarily more enlightened then others, nor more conscious of their choice to grace the ground of roots and earth, but trail running is contagious, and seems to call upon our primal nature to drink in the surroundings and become one with our wildish selves.

It is light, and fragments of sun blink through white pines
A shadow passes drifting on currents from the exhaling wind
The same phantom figure that awaits me hovering over frosted meadows upon the glaze of thawing snow
She is the lead raven speaking for the clan, a piercing shout echoing among the whistling wind
Crows cast a song from another direction, and the dance of cousins spread their black, dotted, winged- bellies against yellowing skies
A melody of notes reigns throughout the forest
My parroted voice reflected in stamped ground
We are different, yet touched by the same wind, sun, and snow softly tapering down
Our voices claim similar space and are given shelter from the pines, and a mattress of needles for rest
It is in the space between that I am raven and raven is me

Drinking in the aspects of your self requires a bit of seeing yourself in another. We are but a small part in this vast universe, and our connections to all can be realized by simple meditative nature exercises. The poem above is an example of how we can see the world through old conditioning, I am this, and you are that, but as we move through harmonious encounters we can perceive otherwise.

Try listening to your own inner voice, and heed your own message. It is easy to think that seeing a raven in yourself just can’t be, but imagine how it feels to search for food, to take flight, to navigate a landscape, to drink from the water, to feel protected by family, to rest, to hunt, to play. Objects outside ourself still reside in our deepest interior. This is why we well up when we see species devastation, when trees are harvested, and the land toiled because it is simply for us to use.

Meditative time in nature, once again, calls upon you to enter an underworld journey that discovers the space between you and another. Try an exercise in nature with your companions, then try seeing the space between you and a loved one. You will come to know, and realize the collective cord that binds us all.

Blessings on your journey

Journey to the Wild: Reclaiming the Wild Self in Nature

When is the last time you recall being so immersed in a natural area, such as a forest footpath, that you lost track of time? Better yet, got lost altogether? One of the most profound experience we can have is understanding our wild nature, while in nature. Rediscovering the playful rivers that instinctually run through our veins that include walking in sloppy mud, hopping rocks, skimming stones, hugging a tree, or sitting beneath a veil of branches lives the wild self. Our true energy thrives in the moment, and nature draws out this ‘now’ experience like no other.
It is hauntingly true that centuries of nature disconnection stories told to us, that suggest such nonsense, the darkness is scary, creatures in the forest are dangerous, strangers will hurt us, the basement of nature’s floor is covered with harmful, biting insects, and that the world out there is our possession, or resource, and we own it, have been damaging to the sacred nature that lives in us all.
It is a testimony to the human spirit that we are witnessing at this great time of change a resurgence to belong again with nature, to follow the call to return to our sacred union with our living earth. Thoreau captured the self divided from nature in many of his works. He noticed the “nostalgic longing” when we stray to far from listening to a flock of birds, witnessing a sunset, smelling rain, trying to catch a snowflake; the divided self.
As a Reiki healing agent, and counselor, I have witnessed the puddles of lost joy from aching hearts filled with illusions that if they could just find that one right relationship, job, place, or possession, the world would be fine. The missing piece for most was the daunting self-realization of a gap between the authentic self, and the mask worn for everyday life. The distance between the gap, over time, creates a form of self-alienation, where one no longer recognizes the whole self, and lives a fragmented existence. A fragmented self serves the ego in that it avoids full psychological, emotional, and spiritual contact with the world. It is a form of self-betrayal in which one has negotiated self power to be accepted, to be “normal.” This is what depression, and anxiety are; just fears that have manifested as a result of separating from the natural self, the wild self, the self in nature.
The mask we sometimes wear is a perfectly natural way of protecting oneself in the world. We wear masks of pride to hide vulnerability, and fears of humiliation that have little to do with the authentic (real) self at all. Masks are worn to cover pain, hide fear, and protect wounds we perceive others to have done to us. When we discover that masks no longer serve us, because if we maintain this protective barrier there can be no liberation, just a continual shackling of the soul bound by the ego, we can let go.
Nature can assist in mask removal and reclaim the free spirit self, because nature doesn’t judge, evaluate, compare us to another, or remind us of our mistakes. It beholds symbolic and sacred truths, such as a raven’s song, a tree’s stamina, the stealth movements of a coyote, tall inviting grasses, our own breath on a cool day. This is the vibrant pulse of nature, and how we recover our wild self. Time in nature builds the interior self with loving acceptance, nourishment, and insulates one with the unconditional reminder that we are apart of a larger seamless world.
There a few ways to practice being home in nature. 1) Go out and explore a natural area. Don’t think about your destination, or even staying on a path. Go with whatever feels like it is speaking to you. For instance, if it’s a snowy day and you spot fox tracks, just follow them. You will fee like a detective on the scent of a nature mystery, and you will shed your outer layers as you become like a fox. Use your wild imagination to wonder what does a fox do, where does it go, and how can I surrender to this call of a fox track? Explore a stream and where it leads, or a deer path. Just let yourself wander. 2) Try some meditative walking. This method involves settling into your physical body and connecting your body with the earth. As you walk focus on your breath. Connect your breath with the ground beneath you. Feel the cyclic nature of breath. Sense the breath of nature around you. Imagine yourself in synchronicity of breathing with all that’s around you. Now, feel your feet as they strike the ground. Feel the lightness and deepness of each foot. Looking back, see your footprint, if you can. If you cannot physically see your mark, imagine that you are leaving a trail of flowers where you have walked; a gift you are giving back to the earth. 3) Go to a natural area that attracts you. This can be sitting next to a rock that, or under a tree, or lying in an open meadow. For 30 minutes sit in silence, and listen. At first you will hear with your ears, but allow yourself to drop deeper and listen with your heart. What do you notice about yourself and your surroundings? As you settle and let go, you will begin to feel an awe, and a sense of Oneness.

Wild Journeying involves a profound understanding that you are a part of a larger cosmic map, and that your presence by means of your birth, is a significant landscape on this map. When you allow yourself to be in nature, a union that dissolves the separate self will emerge. Take part in this journey and reclaim your wild self.