Aunnie's Special Reiki Day

My 8 year old niece and I have had a special Reiki day planned for a couple months now and finally had our day together this past Monday. I'm not sure who was looking forward to it more! It's so different to impart this learning to children and I had a feeling it would end up being me learning so much from her. We started our day with a walk at Stoneybrook...I was well aware that she already possessed within her everything I wanted to "teach" her so I simply asked a lot of questions and allowed her to discover within everything she understood about energy. She was so engaged and excited to talk about all of it!

At one point, we came across a small turtle wedged and suspended between a couple branches of a bush in the marshy area of the pond. Together we contemplated what we should do as we stared at it. Should we get a long stick to push it out from its entrapment? Was there enough solid ground that I could walk out there to help it? Then it slid down a bit and now was suspended straight up! There's always a part of me that doesn't like to interfere with nature and Lex, in all her wisdom kept saying "let's keep walking and see if it's still here when we come back." But we kept watching and it slid some more and now was laying on it's back. Again, we kept watching, until suddenly it managed to flip right side up! Yay! I thought of this being a good opportunity to talk about sending Reiki to people and situations...but decided to wait and not rush things. I'm so glad I did because a minute later Lex said to me in her excited sing-song voice "Hey! It's kind of like by looking at the turtle we sent it Reiki to help it!" And I looked at her in wonder and awe, my heart bursting with joy, and told her she was absolutely right.

We had lunch together at the restaurant of her choice while she read to me from her Reiki Kids manual, colored some of the pictures, and discussed more about Reiki and energy. She even drew her own picture of giving Reiki to her stuffed animal to sleep at night (yes, her new webkinz, Marshmallow spent the day with us too!) After lunch, we came home for her attunement. We did some energy exercises together and then she picked out some crystals and we created a medicine wheel around her chair. I asked her how she felt after her attunement..."wonderful! I felt the energy coming into me everywhere!" And the first person she wanted to practice on? Great-Grammie of course! Until Maya got jealous, meowing constantly until we gave her some Reiki too. We finished the day with a "Journey to Sacred Mountain" meditation.

So there's no point here, except to share this beautiful day. Oh, and maybe to share what I learned...the importance of honoring our children for the wisdom they possess and encouraging them to discover it for and within themselves. And the recognition that we have so much to learn from these kids...so much to learn from seeing the world through their eyes. : )

(For anyone interested in learning more about Reiki Kids: http://www.reikikids.ca/ )

The Earring: Another Lesson In Letting Go

Sometimes we come to a place where we recognize the need to let go of some stuff...like my recent blog about making room for the new. It's always a work in progress, but in choosing to release old thought patterns that no longer serve me, as well as the more tangible "junk" cluttering my life, I'm making room for new awareness to flow in and sometimes just simply creating some space. (I did finally clean out my closet by the way!) Spiritually or intellectually I can understand that "I have given everything I see all the meaning it has for me." And in so doing, I release my attachment to the "things" of this world. It's wonderful and so empowering when this is a choice, but sometimes the universe presents to me an opportunity to release by "forcing" me to become aware of how attached I am to some thing.

I have this pair of earrings I wear all the time because they pretty much match everything. I got them in Flagstaff, Arizona about 10 years ago and last year in Delaware I went to a place selling Native American jewelry and I found a necklace with the same design. I was thrilled! Last week I was getting into my car and as I pulled my bag off from across me the strap caught my left earring and pulled it out of my ear. As I attempted to stay calm searching for it, thoughts flashed through my mind-how bummed I would be if I lost it; I had just found that necklace to match so I CAN'T lose it; memories of my trip to AZ a decade ago; and finally, how appropriate a lesson it would be for me to lose it because suddenly I realized that maybe I had given those earrings a lot more meaning and significance than what some metal on a post actually deserves...but it doesn't end here!

I got back into my car and looked in the rearview mirror and there it was...the earring had popped up into my ear and was resting right there. HA!! You can't make this stuff up! And I was so relieved. However, becoming aware of a lesson to be learned isn't the same as truly facing the opportunity to learn it. I hadn't fooled the universe. I brought the earring inside when I got home and set it on the kitchen table because I needed to grab a new backing for it. Took care of some other stuff and went back for it, but to my dismay it was gone again. Very gone...flashlight searching, floor swiffering, table/chair moving, under fridge looking gone. And I am left letting go of more than I realized I had to let go of...