by Paula Kain
As a recently attuned Reiki Level II practitioner, I am learning to be open to life’s experiences and allowing things to happen without interference from me. I sometimes find myself controlling situations, and I’ve noticed that when I try to control the outcome of a situation, it usually doesn’t end up the way I expected. I’ve also noticed that when I allow situations to unfold with trust, faith and love, the results are far superior to anything I may have anticipated. It turns into a rewarding experience beyond my expectations. I recently had an experience just like that.
I practice Reiki on my friends and family. They have been wonderful about giving me their feedback as we work together in sessions. I have learned a lot from them and am feeling more confident in my skills and abilities as a blossoming Reiki practitioner. My Friday afternoon session with my friend, Karla, began at her house. I recently purchased my own table so I have the flexibility to go to the homes of my friends and family or they can come to me, at my house. This was our first session at her home. Previous sessions were held at a mutual friend’s office. Karla has a menagerie of critters living with her: two birds, two cats and three chickens. The birds and the cats are inside. The chickens live outside. I’ve been in Karla’s home before and her birds are very vocal. They are in a separate section of her house and make it very clear to the rest of us that they are there by screeching at the top of their little lungs! One of her cats, Smudge (Smudge is an all-white cat with just a smudge of dark fur on his chest), is the epitome of the curious cat. Her other cat, Buster, is never seen as he stays hidden in her bedroom.
Our sessions always start out the same way. She tells me what issues she is experiencing, and I start my session with a prayer, a Byosen Scan and energy field work, after which I transition to work on her specific issue. That day, Karla was feeling painful sciatica radiating down her left leg and into her left foot. During the first ten minutes of our session, her cat, Smudge, was roaming around the underside of my table, rubbing his face on the table cables, looking up at me and his mom, becoming more and more curious about what we were doing. I then ask Karla to roll over onto her stomach. As I begin working on her energy field, I noticed Smudge jump onto the couch, walk to an adjoining couch that is positioned closer to my table, meow several times, and then jump onto my table.
Smudge was clearly checking out the situation. He walked closer to me, looking for some attention. I gladly succumbed to his persistence and scratched his head and his ears. Karla asked me if I wanted to move Smudge to her bedroom and close the door. At that point, I had begun thinking that I could secure Smudge somewhere so he wouldn’t be interrupting my work. Then, remembering the purpose of learning a new normal, as my Reiki Master states it, I said to Karla —“Smudge isn’t bothering me if it’s okay with you.” Karla was completely fine with Smudge’s presence. After Smudge satisfactorily received some loving, he laid down at the foot of my table, seemingly content to just stay there.
As I finished a section of energy field work, I laid my hands end-to-end on Karla’s low back area. At that moment, Smudge got up and walked up the left side of Karla on a section of my table, climbed onto Karla’s legs and lay down on her legs, centered, with his upper body at the base of her spine. He wriggled around for a few seconds getting comfortable. The way he was lying and the way my hands were positioned, he could easily reach either of my hands. Smudge chose to place his paws on top of my left hand. My left hand is my dominant hand. Karla told me that she felt a huge amount of warmth from Smudge the moment he laid down.
Together, Smudge and I worked on Karla for 10 minutes, at which time he got up and walked back to the end of the table and laid down again. Karla told me that she felt an energy release when Smudge moved and that the pain in her low back area went from an eight to a two and was no longer radiating down her leg into her foot. With Smudge’s help, we were able to achieve in 10 minutes what used to take me 20 to 30 minutes! I did more energy field work on her legs and her feet. Smudge was still at the foot of my table. He shifted his body to lie back down on Karla’s toes, at which point Karla told me that she felt the blockage that was beginning to move from her back to her hip, release and travel down her right leg and out her right foot. I worked some more on her joints and her energy field.
By now, 40 minutes had passed since Smudge joined us. At that moment, I noticed how quiet the house has been for a while. Karla’s birds had not made any bird noises! If I didn’t know there were birds in the house, I would have convincingly told anyone Karla did not have birds in her house. Smudge then jumped down onto the floor. His work was done! And then I noticed another cat in the room with us. It was Buster! He was standing not three feet from me looking up at me! I studied him for just a couple of seconds, because I’ve never seen him and really didn’t know what he looked like. Buster is a beautiful gray striped tabby.
I finished my session with Karla, and we reveled in what had just transpired! Karla went into another room and returned a minute later to tell me she bent down to pick up something with no thought of the painful sciatica. The blockage had released and was no longer causing her pain.
I am very grateful for continuing to be aware of my world and allowing situations to unfold with trust, faith and love. And, I am grateful for Smudge’s help!
