Cha-changes. They seem to be everywhere. Changes on the inside. Changes on the outside… and not just for me… this gypsy wanderer from New Orleans… I am sitting in room number three in the “small dojo” at the seminar haus in Wettenbostel savoring a bowl of muesli with strawberries (erdbeeren…) and bananas. Still sort of basking in the wake of the Friends and Reiki weekend….an extended journey in Reiki with Reiki Masters and practitioners gathering from Holland, Germany and Austria… lots of Reiki treatments!
The theme that jumped out from the weekend was…changes. It was interesting to see that everyone at the gathering was in major life transition in some way. We took an evening to share about our transitions. The common theme in our changes and desire for changes was… Balance. Balance in our lives and relationships, with our food, our family, the world around us. Balance within. And balance with our work and play and the way that we create and earn money in the world. We shared and took note of what really mattered to each of us… and perhaps wondering where we went astray from that… and looking at… what is next.
For me personally, so much of my adult life has been dedicating to healing. It wasn’t until my past year in New Orleans that I finally began to experience a deeper, quieter place in myself. A place in me where I could just… ahhh… exhale fully. I felt the need to keep my life really basic. This included minimal financial responsibilities, simple responsibilities with work and minimal responsibilities in relationships. I house-sat in two different homes my past year in New Orleans. My job was selling Shiitake Mushrooms at our local farmers market for a very kind Mississippi farmer. The simplicity of this space gave me time and energy just to be with me. I can recall walking by myself along the train tracks near where I was staying feeling something begin to settle in my bones. Me.
And then of course what started to happen in my life? You guessed it. Changes! My furniture in a leaky storage unit got damaged from mold… nearly everything had to be thrown away. The house where I was house-sitting sold… yeah for the house… but what next?… and then my lovely 1996 Ford Taurus which I bought in Austin, Texas shortly after Hurricane Katrina let me know life was heading for changes. It broke down beyond repair. I gratefully sold it to a mechanic who was willing to take it off my hands… and then I was, well, perhaps free…
As these changes happened so quickly for me, it was a little more than my brain could sort through and organize, so I reached out for support. I contacted Maureen Pua’ena O’Shaughnessy, a Reiki Master in Hawaii who also works as an intuitive guide, and scheduled a phone session with her. She assured me that all of these changes at once were an opportunity to see what I really wanted – that it was indeed possible to have a good healthy work life, earn money, have a place to live where I loved and still have and cultivate the peace and soft pace I had started to love, nurture and need in my life. And she let me know that as I became an “energetic match” for that life, that which I wanted and needed – including a satisfying but balanced and well paid work life…would show up in my world. And if I wasn’t quite a match for it yet… if I still needed to grow, then something else juicy would come along in the meantime – like a trip or travel… and here I am in Europe. Growing. Restoring. Exploring the texture and feel of balance for me in my life.
One area of growth for me is… well in truth… people. All of them. Most of them… I can tend to feel… uneasy around… people. This is not some prejudice I have towards people… I can also be uneasy around dogs, bees and other various creatures. But while I began to find my comfort in me, I am still exploring extending that same comfort within myself when I am not by myself. This weekend at Friends and Reiki was an excellent chance to shake up my comfort zone a little bit and extend myself… and it was… well, uncomfortable. I was surprised at my feeling of inner panic as if noone asked me to dance at the high school prom. I wanted to run and hide when the group arrived, like I was four years old hanging on to my mothers leg. But the joy of the weekend came from poking myself out a bit more than usual… connected conversations, playing the drums with others, even playing a little guitar and singing together… things that I secretly desired to do with others, but prior to this had almost exclusively done them by myself all alone… ah…Balance.
And today my gypsy is tugging at my sleeve again as I prepare to travel to a new place. Like Mary Poppins packing up my bag and heading off… to where the wind blows. Tomorrow I will join Marijke Lemmen, a friend in Reiki and Reiki Master as she returns home to Holland. The situations in my life shift so quickly-like the weather here in Wettensbostel, cold in the morning, sunny midday, stormy by afternoon… except when, perhaps the sun might peek out again… Totally unexpected.
So life moves on. And how great it is to be connected with others… changing and balancing. Perhaps you are too… it seems to be a phenomenon these days. I have started sending Reiki energy to the idea of change and balance in my life and to those who were at the Reiki gathering. A little extra support as things spin and shift within us reflected in our outside world.
Gypsy Woman 
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