Making a difference

Sometimes it feels like we aren’t doing enough. So many people can use some help, you do what you can, but it never feels like it’s making a difference.

I walk my dogs every morning on the property. I live in the foothills and my property is dotted with pines and oak trees. I do several laps as my property isn’t all that big, but I do have a small creek and an irrigation canal and it does make for a lovely and peaceful walk.

This morning my mind wandered, (I call this a walking meditation) and I recalled an incident from my childhood. I grew up in the 60s .. yes a very long time ago!  I lived in a neighborhood and it was considered a nice upper middle class area. Of course at 10 years old I had no concept of those things. It was an area that us kids roamed freely, going from house to house to see if anyone could “play”. We didn’t have playdates back then, you just looked for bicycles in a front yard or listened to playing in the back. We had a large orchard to one side and we actually walked to school.

I happened to be wandering around and noticed a car I hadn’t seen before, it was old and a little rusty. My neighborhood wasn’t a place you drove through to get somewhere else, it was all winding streets and cul-de-sacs.  So an odd car would catch your attention. I had seen it driving around for a couple days and never saw it pull into a driveway. One afternoon I saw it parked in a cul-de-sac, and one of the little neighbor girls was talking to the person in the car. I was about 3 houses away and saw the door open. I remember I had a gut punch of panic when I yelled to the little girl of about 5 years old to RUN!  And she did, she took off like a flash and the car sped away, right past me. I wasn’t smart enough to get a license plate and I didn’t even look at the driver, I was running to make sure the little girl (I think her name was Shelly) was okay. She was frightened, but alright. We just sat on the lawn for a bit and talked, then she went inside.

You know, I don’t even think I told my mom. I didn’t really understand the concept of child predators at the time. I just had a feeling she was in great danger. I have no idea why I thought of that this morning. It was an odd vague memory I hadn’t pulled up in years. But as I was pondering that day, I thought about how much different that little girl’s life would be if I hadn’t yelled out. Something so simple, so basic, but made a difference, an impact I have no concept of reconciling.

I am not sharing this to get a pat on the back, heck, I was 10 years old. I am sharing this to remind us all that everything we do has a ripple effect. The simplest smile, the littlest complement, can change a person’s day. 

It is a good idea to pay attention to your surroundings, to help watch out for other’s children in public. Sometimes it takes a village. Sometimes it takes a young girl screaming one word. But all the time it takes sharing, caring and love.

Finding my way to healing

It’s funny how life seems like a maze, you go one way and get rewarded, go another and you hit a dead end. Gently life brings you to your purpose, one lesson at a time. After a life of raising my sons, competing on horses for 50 years! And work in real estate and income tax prep, which I still do, it was time to do what I was being called to do. Not that any of it is a waste of time, just one step that leads to many.

I found my gift of healing in the strangest way. I had this pain in my left side, I told my doctor I must have a 10 pound ovary.  We did ultra sounds and everything was normal. I found that really odd. I’m pretty good about pain, I respect it of course, but I don’t seek it.  Then one day I got on my little mare and the pain was striking! I got off and it went away. Now I’m thinking I am losing it, so I get on her again, and BAM! Here comes the pain again. I step off and it’s gone. So… I called the vet and had her ultra-sounded. Sure enough she had cysts on that ovary!  I sheepishly told my doctor and he wasn’t even surprised. He had heard of such things before.

Not too long after, at a race my big mare and I crashed going around a barrel. She rolled over on top of me and we were both pretty banged up. I felt fine after a couple of days, so I went and rode my trusted gelding just to make sure I was alright. It was all good. Then I got on my big mare and BAM! Great pelvic pain. But not mine, it was hers.

So here I am able to feel their pain and felt there must be something I could do to help. I laid hands on and pictured energy coming from the earth through me, to them and back to the earth. A circle current. It really worked. It was a day later I was able to tell she was feeling better. It worked on the small mare too, she stopped sending me her pain and was back to work.

I realized through a couple of flukes, that I really had no control over how the energy was working or if I was using my own emotional energy. I did some reading and found that emotional energy is very unstable. Makes sense to me, on so many levels. So I decided to learn a proven modality. I had just found Christ, and was worried about working in this arena. I found a Reiki Master that had been attuned by a Catholic Nun!  Okay, that pretty much told me I was on the right path. 

So now I doing Reiki treatments in my home. I have a specific room set up for gentle healing. I work by appointment, and being a Reiki Master, I am able to facilitate physical, emotional and spiritual healings. Seem recently it has been a lot of emotional during this trying time. We have to remember what an honor it is to be here for this event. So many things being opened up, so many changes. Life gets so rewarding when you stay on the right path. This will be no different.