Once a month, my Reiki students and I offer a free Reiki healing clinic for the public. The clinic broadens community awareness of the benefits of Reiki healing; allows us to offer loving service to others who may need healing, a smile and a kind word or two; provides my students the opportunity to deepen their practical experience; and gives us all some time to share and bond with each other.

The Reiki clinic was busy – it was a good mix of individuals and families with children. I love that it brings so many different people in from the community. It’s a day I look forward to every month.

In my 21 day Reiki self-practice, I have been using a specific mental/emotional healing technique to help me let go of deeply-held trauma. I’m starting to feel the shift and wondered why it had taken me so long to finally do this for myself, considering I use it with my clients and teach the technique to my students. I have used it for helping me integrate new habits, but not for releasing mental and physical attachments. The technique involves the use of specifically-worded statements or affirmations, so it fits in well with the “mindful speech” theme I’m practicing.

Meanwhile, I’m still sorting through storage boxes filled with years of mementos. I always suspected I was a bit sentimental, and now I can prove it. 🙂 The best part about going through these boxes every decade or so is finding items I forgot I had, and revisiting some old favorites.

Among the items I forgot I had were my original immunization records dating back from when I was a baby (fascinating to see how different immunization schedules and requirements were 40-something years ago, as well as the section where one could list illnesses contracted, including German Measles, Scarlet Fever, Chickenpox, Polio and Pica.)

Among the old favorites I revisited were the cards from my beloved grandmother in her distinctive scrawl, so different than the formal cursive most people of her generation were taught. My grandmother introduced me to modern art as a child; she was supportive of my creative endeavors; and she was an ardent feminist who she looked a bit like a kinder, gentler Gertrude Stein. I adored her.

Grandma’s been gone over 25 years and yet, I still get teary-eyed reading: “Much love and many good wishes to the girl who first showed us the joy of being grandparents”, and “Thank you for making this Mother’s Day so special. I will treasure your gift (which I am already using) but more than gifts it is you and your love that I treasure.”

I also found the letter my mother gave me on my 13th birthday, wisdom regarding my “transition to womanhood.” If I recall correctly, the letter was accompanied by a box of sanitary napkins heralding the impending arrival of my menses. I was so tickled to find this. As a mother to a young daughter, I can now fully appreciate the sacred act of guiding a child through important rite of passage in her physical and emotional development.

These words of love are my guide, through my 21 day practice and beyond. They are my link to wisdom I can incorporate into my life and share with my daughter. Reading them again inspires me to hand-write again. One day, this blog may be gone. Evolving technologies and the impermanence of data may send these words into oblivion. But I will still have the cards and letters I received from my grandmother, mother and other people who loved me enough to tell me in so many words.

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