And the meme goes on....

The Reiki Digest is becoming more popular every day, with readers in 56 countries and counting. Still, we don't expect this publication to ever become an Internet phenomenon, like Mahir ("I kiss you!") Cagri, the dancing hamster, or even those rumor emails that get forwarded and forwarded and forwarded without any fact-checking.

We are delighted, however, to report that The Reiki Digest has been tagged by The Thinking Blogger's meme.

What's a meme? According to Dictionary.com, a meme is "a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes." An Internet meme is "A meme, a catchphrase or concept, that spreads from person to person on the Internet," according to the Wikipedia.

The Thinking Blogger's meme was started in February 2007 by blogger Ilker Yoldas, aka The Thinking Blogger, who was tired of meaningless memes. Yoldas began by tagging five "blogs that make me think," and the phenomenon spread from there. Last week, Reiki Master Doreen Gordon of the blog Key on Garden Door passed on the meme by tagging five blogs that make her think, including The Reiki Digest.

Thanks, Doreen!

The rules of the meme are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.

So here are five of the many "blogs that make me think":

1. Jet Li's blog at Alive not Dead. Yes, THAT Jet Li -- the world-famous martial artist and movie star. I am now fan number 7886, though I know he already had millions before I ever saw him fly across the screen or even discovered his blog. Jet Li makes me think when I see his movies, of course, but his blog makes me think for different reasons. A decade ago, he began focusing more on the spiritual aspect of working with the energy known in Chinese as qi or chi, what we in Reiki call ki. Since then, among other things, he has survived a tsunami, set up the One Foundation, and become a blogger. He writes from the heart in Chinese (look closely at those characters and you'll see some Reiki symbols!), but there are English translations also. Ni hao, Jet Li, and tag. (I realize this form of tagging is as close as I'll ever get, though I would relish the chance to engage in a little push hands....)

2. Michelle Shinagawa's Reiki Photography blog. As regular readers know, Michelle is a Special Correspondent for The Reiki Digest who recently revisited her native Japan and climbed Mt. Kurama, the legendary birthplace of Reiki. She's been telling us about it in her posts there, and this week she has another entry, Middle Gate and Temple of Art Goddess.

3. Joan's Going for the Cure! -- Diagnosed with cancer and told her only hope was a bone marrow transplant, Joan Griffith found another doctor, underwent gallbladder surgery and is now starting chemotherapy. And she's blogging her way through it all -- succinctly and downright elegantly. We send her Reiki, along with kudos for her blog and her courage. We also understand if she's got more important things to do than tell us which five blogs make her think, but we'd still be interested.

4. Intentblog -- Dr. Deepak Chopra and others. Intentblog is a community blog whose authors' intent is "to reach critical mass with a message of personal, social, environmental and spiritual wellness." It's a very active blog -- we don't know what might happen if they do reach "critical mass," but we wish them well and hope they tell us about the five blogs that make them think.

5. Reiki authors Bronwen and Frans Stiene always make us think, whether through their books, their weekly podcast, their courses or their Amazon.com authors' blog. One of the things they make us think is how do they manage to do so much and do it so well? (Maybe Reiki has something to do with it?) By the way, this week's podcast of The Reiki Show is about Reiki and the Environment.

And there are still spaces available in the Shinpiden course with Frans Stiene in New York City this October, (sponsored by The Reiki Digest)but who knows for how long?

With all that food for thought, not to mention reading matter, we'll let those five blogs serve as this week's Reiki Roundup. This week's Celeb-Reiki's are, of course, the aforementioned bloggers.

One last item, not quite about Reiki but still perhaps of interest, particularly to readers in the New York City area. After more than 20 years of practicing the ancient Chinese energy cultivation art of qigong, I am founding my own style of qigong: My Chi: Easy Energy Exercises for Everybody.

At noon tomorrow, August 3, I will be teaching the first ever My Chi class at Chelsea Studios, 151 W. 26th St., 5th Floor. The classes will normally cost $10 a person, but the first class is an open house and you're all invited to join us at no charge. Hope to see some of you there! If you'd like to find out more or let me know whether you're planning to attend, check out the new My Chi Meetup Group. Or you can just click on the image below to see a full-size version of our flyer:



If you've got some extra time for lunch on Fridays, join us and we'll give you some extra energy for the rest of the day and beyond.

All the entries are in for our "What Does Reiki Look Like?" contest. We'll show you some of them next week and announce a winner soon.