Sunday Reiki

My friend lives on Carroll St. between 7th and 6th Avenues, or as I like to think of it, between the steeples of Old First and St. Francis. This is significant to me because I feel at her house, under her hands, during the Reiki sessions she gives me, I've had some of my most direct experiences of what seemed like God.

I went to her place yesterday afternoon, got a parking place across from her house right on Carroll St., saw people leaving Old First. Thought about stepping in there to see what it was like but new I'd be getting sidetracked because my friend was expecting me.

She does a lot of volunteer Reiki with a group named Sparks. Recently they offered free Reiki sessions at a center for Homeless and struggling families in Park Slope. She's done this in various places in public and sometimes it's awkward and uncomfortable because the Reiki givers and their receivers get heckled. I thought she was going to tell me that this is what happened to her, but instead she told me of how a bunch of boys were hanging out there. One of the boys opted to have a session with her even at the risk of embarrassing himself in front of his homeboys. Apparently he was very receptive to it because when she was done he walked off with some difficulty, practically staggering. (A fact I don't find surprising at all. When I see her I like to joke that she's put narcotics in my water.) He sat down and told his friends about it and then they also elected to have Reiki performed on them. So this was the result of his bravery, to open up to the potential for healing for himself and his friends. I was so glad to hear this story, glad to know that people there opened to her gift.

Because that's what it is. Pretty much the second she rests her hands on my head I start down into a very deep place that seems induced by anaesthesia. But it is a spiritual thing like entering the amniotic fluid of the source of creation. It is amazing to float there for as long as she offers her gifts to me.

Once when she was working on me I felt a very strong presence at the foot of the massage table. In Buddhism they talk about internal winds, that keep blowing our minds in one direction or another. This being that was with me had the power of an immense anchor to still all these winds so that I felt purely anchored in spirit for that moment, aligned with the energy of that powerful and nameless and holy being.

I knew it wouldn't last, it's hard to enter that state walking down the street, picking up kids from school, etc. But it gave me a sense of being guarded and supported, and closer to finding a way to walk with grace and truth in the world. But truth, truth is not easy. Some of it is really disgusting.