A client of mine recently shared an experience she had and I was so touched by how the story ended, I just had to share.
She was on her way to a shopping center, in the hopes of unwinding from a stressful couple of days. She was on a frontage road that has a lot of traffic, but no houses, shops or gas stations near by, when all of the sudden her car died. Fortunately, she was able to coast over to the side of the road and mostly out of the way of passing cars but when she looked in her purse for her cell phone to call for help, she realized she had left her phone at home.
A recent knee injury prevented her from walking a few miles to the closest gas station, so she sat there, trying to figure out what to do, all the while hoping that one of the passing cars may stop to help her. For over twenty minutes, she sat there while car after car drove past but not a single person stopped to see if she needed help. She even noticed that people seemed to avoid having eye contact, as if they didn't want to be bothered and thought it would be easier to pretend they didn't see her.
She was beginning to feel really discouraged when a homeless man walked up to her and asked her if she needed any help. He has seen her on the side of the road from a little ways down the road and wanted to make sure she was OK. When she explained that she didn't have a phone and thus couldn't call AAA for assistance, he said that one of his friends had a cell phone and offered to go find him. She couldn't believe how generous he was being but she welcomed the help.
The man walked far out into a nearby field until he found his friend and returned with both his friend and the phone. When she called AAA she was told it could be an hour, or possibly two hours before anyone could get there. It looked like this was going to be a long day.
After returning the phone to the one man, they asked if she knew what was wrong with her car. She told them that either it was out of gas or out of oil, so the men offered to check her oil and sure enough, that's what she was out of. If she could just get some oil in her car, she'd be able to drive home.
The homeless gentleman with the phone mentioned that he also had a bike and she offered to pay him if he'd ride his bike to the gas station down the road to buy oil. Not only did he agree to do this for her but when he returned, he found some paper to make a funnel and even put the oil in her car for her.
They waited to make sure her car was in running order, then the one man let her use his phone again to cancel the AAA tow truck. She gave them both some more money as an expression of her gratitude and instead of proceeding to the shopping center, she decided to go home.
The experience had put her in a different frame of mind . . . no longer feeling the need to de-stress by wandering around some stores, instead she felt deep gratitude that these men went out of their way to help her the way they did. She said she was still shocked that all the people who drove by in their fancy cars didn't give her the time of day, but that the two homeless men were the ones who reached out to her.
Her story shined a spotlight on the fact that no matter how little you may have, it is still possible to help someone else.
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Putting the Pieces Together
When I am working with an animal, I get information in many different ways--physical sensations in my body, pictures and images, words and phrases. There is often some interpretation required to understand how everything I am picking up fits together. When I am asked to help "solve a puzzle" the animal's guardian is often the key ingredient to making sense of what I pick up.
I recently had an experience that showed how all of these pieces work together. I was asked to do a session with an older pit bull who was crying all day long. For months, the only time he stopped crying was when he fell asleep and his guardian was very concerned. She wanted to know if I could help them figure out what was making him so unhappy.
When I first put my hands on me, my stomach began to hurt. It felt inflamed and irritated but I couldn't get a sense of why, so I asked this sweet boy if he could tell me why his tummy hurt so much. He showed me the sensation I feel when an animal is struggling with allergies. I explained this to his guardian but after reviewing what he eats and how long he's been eating his particular food and treats, we couldn't figure out what he could be allergic to. My stomach still really hurt, which told me that we hadn't identified what was going on yet. (Once I "name" or "identify" what is going on, the sensation will go away, so when the sensation lingers, it indicates to me that we haven't figured it out yet).
As I continued to give him Reiki in the hopes it would help soothe his tummy, his guardian and I moved on to the other questions she had about his health. While we were covering those other topics, his guardian asked me if he mentioned his skin, as he has some pretty severe skin allergies. I was telling her that his itchy skin didn't bother him at all in comparison to how bad his stomach hurt when all of the sudden I could see a major light bulb going off in her head. She explained that she had been spraying something on his skin to stop him from itching but that he was constantly licking it off. She asked if that could be the cause of his stomach pain and offered to grab the bottle of this spray. I took one whiff of it and knew it was definitely the cause - not just because of the smell of it but because of the way my stomach hurt just talking about it.
His guardian and I sat there, putting the pieces together. She realized that his constant crying started about the same time she started putting this particular spray in his skin. I realized that when I asked him why his tummy hurt and he gave me the "allergy sensation," I interpreted it as food allergies because it was something he was ingesting but he was trying to show me it was connected to his skin allergies.
She said she'd never use that spray again and we also talked about some things she could do to help soothe his stomach. We were both so relieved to put all the pieces together and figure out what we could do to help her sweet boy feel better. Animals do the best they can to communicate with us and as I was reminded last weekend, partnering with the guardian is the best way to ensure I am interpreting the messages correctly.
I recently had an experience that showed how all of these pieces work together. I was asked to do a session with an older pit bull who was crying all day long. For months, the only time he stopped crying was when he fell asleep and his guardian was very concerned. She wanted to know if I could help them figure out what was making him so unhappy.
When I first put my hands on me, my stomach began to hurt. It felt inflamed and irritated but I couldn't get a sense of why, so I asked this sweet boy if he could tell me why his tummy hurt so much. He showed me the sensation I feel when an animal is struggling with allergies. I explained this to his guardian but after reviewing what he eats and how long he's been eating his particular food and treats, we couldn't figure out what he could be allergic to. My stomach still really hurt, which told me that we hadn't identified what was going on yet. (Once I "name" or "identify" what is going on, the sensation will go away, so when the sensation lingers, it indicates to me that we haven't figured it out yet).
As I continued to give him Reiki in the hopes it would help soothe his tummy, his guardian and I moved on to the other questions she had about his health. While we were covering those other topics, his guardian asked me if he mentioned his skin, as he has some pretty severe skin allergies. I was telling her that his itchy skin didn't bother him at all in comparison to how bad his stomach hurt when all of the sudden I could see a major light bulb going off in her head. She explained that she had been spraying something on his skin to stop him from itching but that he was constantly licking it off. She asked if that could be the cause of his stomach pain and offered to grab the bottle of this spray. I took one whiff of it and knew it was definitely the cause - not just because of the smell of it but because of the way my stomach hurt just talking about it.
His guardian and I sat there, putting the pieces together. She realized that his constant crying started about the same time she started putting this particular spray in his skin. I realized that when I asked him why his tummy hurt and he gave me the "allergy sensation," I interpreted it as food allergies because it was something he was ingesting but he was trying to show me it was connected to his skin allergies.
She said she'd never use that spray again and we also talked about some things she could do to help soothe his stomach. We were both so relieved to put all the pieces together and figure out what we could do to help her sweet boy feel better. Animals do the best they can to communicate with us and as I was reminded last weekend, partnering with the guardian is the best way to ensure I am interpreting the messages correctly.
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Dogs, Butterflies and Reiki
I spent most of last spring "tutoring" Kino on yard etiquette - repeating over and over again "The butterflies are our friends" and "We don't eat the butterflies" - because my darling boy couldn't stop himself from trying to devour our lovely visitors each day.
Fortunately, by the time summer rolled around, Kino finally understood and for the rest of the summer and all through the fall, we peacefully co-existed with our daily butterfly visitors.
So, you can imagine my disappointment when the butterflies reemerged a few weeks ago and I found Kino chasing after them. Once again I was reminding him again and again to leave the butterflies alone.
Last weekend, we were out in the yard and Kino gave in to his instinct to go after one of our beautiful visitors but amazingly, before biting down on the butterfly, he suddenly remembered that he wasn't supposed to and he backed away from the butterfly and then looked at me as if he deserved a treat for remembering. :-)
Unfortunately, he had already slobbered all over the poor thing and because his wing was bent, the butterfly wasn't able to fly away. Sitting down on the ground with the butterfly, I began to give him Reiki in the hopes that he could recover from his German shepherd encounter.
After about 10 minutes of Reiki, the butterfly climbed up on my hand. He stayed there for a while and then he decided to walk up my arm, and eventually made it up to my shoulder. He sat on my shoulder for another 10-15 minutes, which was fine with me, as it was much safer for him to be up there where Kino couldn't reach him.
Eventually he tried to fly off my shoulder but he didn't make it very far and ended up on the ground. Putting my hand down next to him, I offered him some more Reiki and once again he climbed up on my hand. When I looked at the clock and realized I had to leave soon for an appointment, I placed him in one of the flower pots in the yard so he would be safe.
When I got home, I was delighted to find that he was gone and since Kino was tucked away safely in the house while I was away, I know the only way the butterfly could have left was on his own. It was a really cool experience to give Reiki to a butterfly - and while I feel blessed to have had the opportunity, I don't want to have to do it again, so Kino's refresher course will have to continue. :-)
Fortunately, by the time summer rolled around, Kino finally understood and for the rest of the summer and all through the fall, we peacefully co-existed with our daily butterfly visitors.
So, you can imagine my disappointment when the butterflies reemerged a few weeks ago and I found Kino chasing after them. Once again I was reminding him again and again to leave the butterflies alone.
Last weekend, we were out in the yard and Kino gave in to his instinct to go after one of our beautiful visitors but amazingly, before biting down on the butterfly, he suddenly remembered that he wasn't supposed to and he backed away from the butterfly and then looked at me as if he deserved a treat for remembering. :-)
Unfortunately, he had already slobbered all over the poor thing and because his wing was bent, the butterfly wasn't able to fly away. Sitting down on the ground with the butterfly, I began to give him Reiki in the hopes that he could recover from his German shepherd encounter. After about 10 minutes of Reiki, the butterfly climbed up on my hand. He stayed there for a while and then he decided to walk up my arm, and eventually made it up to my shoulder. He sat on my shoulder for another 10-15 minutes, which was fine with me, as it was much safer for him to be up there where Kino couldn't reach him.
Eventually he tried to fly off my shoulder but he didn't make it very far and ended up on the ground. Putting my hand down next to him, I offered him some more Reiki and once again he climbed up on my hand. When I looked at the clock and realized I had to leave soon for an appointment, I placed him in one of the flower pots in the yard so he would be safe.
When I got home, I was delighted to find that he was gone and since Kino was tucked away safely in the house while I was away, I know the only way the butterfly could have left was on his own. It was a really cool experience to give Reiki to a butterfly - and while I feel blessed to have had the opportunity, I don't want to have to do it again, so Kino's refresher course will have to continue. :-)
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