Seeking connection with the Unseen, the Divine, the Mystery has been a lifelong quest.
As novelist Tom Robbins says, deep desire is the thing that gets you there.
He's right.
Deep desire... Affinity...
A long time ago, I was nicknamed "The Cape Breton Lightning Rod."
I seemed to attract all sorts of commotion from the unseen realms...
I've had a life-long affinity for lightning...the dunamis of the Greek.
Now if you know anything about lightning, you'll find that the electrical charge
in the heavens tracks a corresponding electrical charge under the ground.
When the charge intensifies sufficiently, lightning leaps from the earth and meets the lightning in the sky. An orgasmic flash as they meet...
When we generate a sufficient charge...deep desire...the Lightning is attracted and explosive energies are released in brilliant display.
I was one of about a dozen practitioners at a week-long Reiki intensive in Canada.
(Reiki is a Japanese hands-on-healing lineage) Eight hours a day were spent in deep, altered states. It was profound and dynamic. It took us to heights we had never known. By the end of the week, we were in a high state of awareness and connection.
As the intensive came to a close, we shared a last dinner and said our goodbyes.
I turned in early, planning to be on the road at first light.
I fell into a heavy and dreamless sleep.
Around 3 am, I woke with a start just in time to see my left leg being lifted high
into the air. I felt a pair of very small hands on my ankle.
In the next moment, I felt another small pair of hands on my left hip.
Then the two pairs of hands gave a simultaneous jerk, pulling away from each other.
I heard a loud crack in my knee and felt my leg straighten for the first time in over
a year. (I had had surgery...an ACL replacement)
My leg, though functional, had never fully straightened.
It was a minor defect to me and I expected to live with the imperfection.
But Spirit had a better outcome in mind...
By some mysterious and unexpected intervention, my leg had been restored!
We knew, at times, that we were not working alone.
Sometimes a gentle unseen hand could be felt in our healing sessions.
But this! In the middle of the night... Unasked for...
After 'they' had straightened my leg, I felt the pair of hands at my ankle
lower my leg to the bed with the most incredible love and tenderness...
as if I were the most precious thing in the world.
That love haunts me still...
We do not dream that we are loved like this on the other side...
I am often reminded to convey that incomparable love to my patients.
At the conclusion of another Reiki intensive, I had another extraordinary experience. I had gone to bed hoping that, despite the excitement of the week,
I could get some hard sleep and be on the long road home at first light. I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. I woke suddenly and with some dismay I realized it was already light outside. How had I overslept?! I felt as if I hadn't had nearly enough sleep! I ached to have a few more hours. I wondered if I could catch just a few more minutes of rest. The house seemed unusually quiet. There was no smell of coffee, no sound of people rustling around downstairs. I climbed out of bed. I remembered a stately old grandfather clock in the hallway. To my surprise, the clock read 2:30 am! No wonder I felt so tired!! I headed back to the warm bed and closed my eyes for a few more hours of blissful sleep. But when I closed my eyes, I could still see daylight throughout the room. I instinctively rubbed my eyes, but to my amazement, I could see through my balled fists! Something was wrong! No matter what I did, early morning daylight pervaded the room! I squeezed my eyes shut a few times. Nothing changed. Finally, I pulled a big pillow over my head to make the room dark...only to find that I could see through the pillow! No one had ever told me about this kind of experience! No matter what I did, the daylight remained! All I could do was to find a way to rest my body for a few more hours...
When a few hours had passed, I dressed and got on the road. I was enroute from Ontario, Canada to Atlanta, Ga. As I drove south, I wondered about a friend in Pennsylvania that I hadn't seen in a couple of years. I decided to take a little detour and drop by to see how she was doing.
When I arrived, I found her and her daughter in crisis. They had a long and tortured history. I had offered Reiki a couple of times along the way, but was rebuffed. I offered to work with her distraught daughter that day and they accepted the help. Not long after I put my hands on Sam's head, she relaxed and I could feel her anger shifting. She went into a deep space and I felt the Holy Presence that is Reiki. In that space, she was receiving insight. She began to cry and let the pain flow out. I shared that space with her and I could feel what was taking place. The clouds were lifting... Then, the unexpected happened. She rose with a start and yelled like a blind person whose sight had been restored, "I can SEE!! I can SEE!!!" My hands were covering her eyes. I realized she was having the same experience I had had the night before! I could not imagine how I was going to explain this to her mother. Mom came rushing in to see what the commotion was. Sam just kept yelling "I can see!" Mom starting testing her in a whole host of ways. No doubt about it! Sam could see through my hands, a pillow, through her mom's body...no matter what mom did, Sam saw clearly! Suddenly, Sam's gaze focussed on her mom and she burst into tears. "Mom! You are SO beautiful!"
Now Mom has had a hard life and it shows in every crease and bulge and wrinkle. Moreover Sam and her mom had a tragic relationship, much of it undeserved by her child. So this was a very strange turn of events. Sam looked at her mom and cried for the beauty that she saw. I started to realize that Sam was seeing beyond the physical now...to the spirit. This experience melted so much of the painful history between them. Sam saw the beautiful soul beneath the ravages of time and terrible experience. Something broke in mom and she was lifted, as well. Then mom asked for Reiki...and mom soon had the same experience of seeing through eyes closed! In the end, there was no need to explain. The experience taught them everything. It broke through so many layers of pain and history and reunited them in love. Their relationship was never the same after that. So much healing happened in that short time...
A few years later...
I was hard at work in my Thai massage practice.
With all the people and problems,I didn't have much time to recoup...often a quick supper, a hard night's rest and prepping for the next day.
I often neglected myself. I just hoped for the best and kept going.
One time, a strange kind of back pain began to intrude on my consciousness.
It lingered for a week or so. I couldn't figure it out.
It was going to need some outside attention.
I rarely visit the doctor, but on this afternoon, I decided to try to find the business card of a doctor that a friend had recommended should the need arise.
As I was reaching for the drawer, however, my next client walked in early
and I had to abandon the search.
"Hi Katherine! How are you? It's great to see you again! Come on in...your room is all ready!"
This was a favorite client that I only saw at rare intervals. She was a nurse and the daughter of a wonderful 90 year-old doctor. We had great conversations about all things medical, comparing new and old methods of caring for patients.
She'd had a rare bout of illness...a kidney problem. Soon, I was so engrossed
in our conversation that I forgot about my pains.
She decribed her experience. One very expensive diagnostic test, followed by another pricey test to get to the bottom of things. Finally the results came in.
She sat across from her doctor as he told her she had kidney cysts.
They both laughed as she said "And we don't do anything for those, right?!
We just let the body take care of it."
Something she had learned from her father... He confirmed it.
So two weeks of waiting and expensive tests just to let the body resolve the condition.
It was ironic.
I worked late that evening and finally fell into bed.
In all the distraction of the day, I had forgotten about my pain.
But as I laid there quietly, I felt the throbbing in my lower back.
It was more intense now. I wondered if I should go to the emergency room.
I prayed, but an answer, if it was forthcoming, was unclear.
The pain was distracting...
I asked again after awhile. I began to sense that I was just to be still
and do nothing.
Through the night, the pains were intensifying.
I asked 3 more times if I should go to the ER.
Each time, it seemed to be the same message. 'Be still, wait quietly.'
There was no chance of sleep. It was destined to be a long, hard night.
A couple more fretful hours passed.
Then, suddenly, I felt something move in my left kidney.
The intense pressure gave way to a bit of relief.
At least there was some kind of shift.
About an hour later, I felt a similar movement on the right side.
I was beginning to feel like the danger was passing.
Finally the pain and pressure eased to the point where I knew I would be able
to get some much-needed sleep.
I dreamed soon after.
In my dream, a shadowy figure was creeping slowly toward me from the back.
As the shadow crept closer and closer, I perceived a nun in an old-fashioned black habit. When she got close enough, she suddenly JABBED me in the kidneys with white-hot index fingers!
It was a shocking amount of pain.
I jumped out of bed, now wide awake, yelling "OW!! What did you do THAT for!?"
I looked around for the perpetrator.
Then I realized it was all a dream! But it had felt so real!!
All of a sudden, I realized that my pain was completely gone!
That white-hot searing fire in her fingertips healed me.
That was about 10 years ago. I have never had a problem since that night.
My kidneys are still healthy.
In retrospect, I remember hearing about healing nuns and the like.
Souls who have passed into the next life, but who are still engaged in caring
for us.
The wonder of the love that surrounds us and helps us through life...