Reiki on the road

We've been on the road for the past week or so, traveling by car from our home in New Jersey to Tennessee, where my mother-in-law lives, and then on to Ohio to visit my mother and other family members. We had a bit more excitement than we'd expected in Tennessee when my mother-in-law had to have emergency heart surgery, so that (along with limited Internet access) forced us to delay publication of the latest edition of The Reiki Digest by a few days. I hope that wasn't an inconvenience to any of our readers, but if so, my apologies. Because of that delay and other schedule changes, The Reiki Digest will henceforth be published on Tuesdays. 

Fortunately Reiki is quite portable, and I take my personal practice with me wherever I go. I was able to give my mother-in-law a brief but very helpful treatment shortly before her surgery, my first time giving Reiki in a hospital. The result was instantaneous: she was begging for pain medication before the treatment, but as soon as the session began, her face relaxed as the pain diminished, and afterward she was able to get some much needed rest just in time for the surgery. She made it through just fine and is now recovering at home. I was reminded of something I'd heard a few months ago from medical Reiki specialist Pamela Miles: "If I can only give somebody one Reiki treatment," she said, "I’d do it before surgery." 

Here in Ohio, I've had a chance to give treatments to a couple of other family members, as well as my brother's adorable but ailing family dog. All of them seemed to appreciate and benefit from the experience. Giving Reiki to the dog was a new experience for me as well, since my only pets are fish and I'm not an animal Reiki practitioner. Offering him Reiki was as simple as extending my hand while I sat outside at the picnic table. He's having some hip problems, and as soon as I offered my hand he came over and stood with his hindquarters right under it. After a few minutes, he shifted position so that my hand touched the base of his neck, and then when he'd had enough there he moved again, and again, until he'd had enough. Before the Reiki, one of his hind legs shook when he stood on it. Afterward, the shaking stopped, and he settled under the table for a long nap. 

My portable Reiki practice also comes in handy in helping me get to sleep in unfamiliar locations, dealing with foods I'm not accustomed to, slogging through traffic jams along the way, and adapting to the schedule disruptions that are inevitable when traveling. Thinking about portability brought to mind something I heard from another of my Reiki teachers, Hyakuten Inamoto, a Buddhist monk. When people ask him if he lives in a temple, he tells them yes. "It is a portable temple," he says, indicating his own body. I'm not a Buddhist, or a monk, but I, too, live in a portable temple.

I brought the Reiki precepts along with me, also: they didn't take up any room at all in my suitcase. Even if I hadn't, however, I found some of them posted prominently along our route. 

My favorites:

(In a Holiday Inn in Virginia) "Remember that half the things we worry about never happen, and the other half are going to happen anyway, so why worry?"

(Outside a church in Tennessee) "He who angers me controls me."

By the time you receive the next edition of The Reiki Digest, we'll be back in more familiar territory. See you next Tuesday!