A personal note

Dear Readers,

I'd like to take a moment to welcome the hundreds of new readers who've subscribed to the Digest and/or visited our web site in recent weeks, to say thank you to our longtime readers, and to note a couple of significant milestones for us.

Three years ago, as I was finishing my initial Reiki master training, I had a revelation that surprised me -- even if it didn't surprise anyone who knew me. All during my first year of Reiki training, I thought I was making a career transition, from journalist to natural health practitioner. The surprise was when I realized I wasn't making a leap from one profession to another. Instead, as I learned to focus my energy with Reiki, I was distilling everything I'd ever done, studied, or experienced into a new, more cohesive way of living, working, and being. 

At the same time, eager to learn as much as I could about Reiki, I began searching through the news once a week or so for items about it. As a veteran journalist, I was curious as to how Reiki was portrayed in the news media. Sometimes I shared what I found with my Reiki classmates, and others began asking me to share it with them, too. I realized that I was still a journalist, and I assigned myself a new beat: Reiki. From that, The Reiki Digest was born. 

My regular research also led me to gather more and more information about this valuable practice, and that led me to books I hadn't heard of and teachers who gave me a brand new perspective. That, too, grew from my journalistic roots. I was trained in old-fashioned newsroom values, where you didn't have a fact confirmed until you had it from at least three sources. Following that path led me to begin sponsoring advanced training by some of those teachers, and two years ago today, at the conclusion of the first such class I organized, I announced that I would begin renting space to host a weekly practice group for advanced practitioners. And thus The Reiki Dojo was founded. 

Now I'm happy to announce that I've found some new ways to be of service to the global Reiki community.  

First, on Saturday, May 9, I'll be sharing what I've learned from my ongoing study, research, and practice of Reiki in a special Reiki Training Update course at The Reiki Dojo in New York, open to anyone who has completed Level 2 or above in any lineage.

Soon we'll be introducing another channel for our ongoing discussions, with a chance for us to interact in real time as well as asynchronously, no matter where in the world we might be.

Beginning this summer, we'll be launching a quarterly print version of The Reiki Digest. 

And in September, my new book, Reflections on Reiki, is scheduled for publication. More on that in the coming weeks as well.

Meanwhile, the cherry trees are in bloom here in our area, and we're pausing to savor the moment. If you're in the New York City area, we invite you to join us for a cherry viewing event on Saturday, April 25, as well as other exciting events during our first annual Cherry Blossom Festival.

Many thanks to all of you for your kind attention and all the comments you've contributed to our discussions. Thanks to all the writers who've been kind enough to let us share their work with our global audience, thanks to our advertisers for their support, and thanks especially to each of my Reiki teachers so far: Margaret Ann Case, Frans and Bronwen Stiene, Hyakuten Inamoto, Pamela Miles, and Susan Mitchell. And many, many thanks to the readers who've clicked on the "donate" button on our web site to give The Reiki Digest your tangible financial support to help cover some of our costs. Thanks as well to Google for providing so many free services to help us keep those costs down, especially our ace reporter: Google News.

We hope to keep this service, and the community that has formed around it, going strong for many years to come. 

With humble gratitude,

Janet Dagley Dagley

Editor

P.S. To our new readers: don't be shy about joining in the ongoing discussions here. Just click on the word "comments" at the bottom of any post on our web site, or email your comments to editor@thereikidigest.com. And if you'd like to write an article for us, contact us at that same email address.