Reiki Re-do

In a few minutes, I’ll be heading over to Joe’s Body Shop for a second time, for a Reiki session. The first was in the summer of 2007, for The Oat Project. This second is to experience it again, six years later, so I may better tell you the story in Adventure 4.

Then, as I faced the shibboleth of Eastern philosophy–chi, energy word, all that–as a “door for the Devil,” it came home to me that the project was only mine. I was on my own. I had to do these things. I had to face the fear–expected or surprising. Though I had help and support and encouragement (and criticism and lost friendships), it was all me.

It’s funny to recall that feeling today…because it has been one of the most intense lessons of the past year. It’s all me. This is my life, no one else’s.

Since I saw Joe the last time, I’ve done The Oat Project, faced heartbreak two ways, walked with my mom through cancer, cracked myself open via the end of my marriage and challenging jobs, lost my mom to cancer, my sister-in-law a week later, faced criticism from all corners about going ahead and publishing the book, surfed the waves of being single, all while loving and raising three children and learning how to be a part of a community (thank you).

This time, I wonder what Joe will see, besides the tattoo. I’ll let you know.