You never completely know where reiki will go

I've been sending my almost 76 year old father reiki in an effort to help pull him out of his descent into dementia as much as I can. Since the last post, much has happened. He is much more lucid, not completely himself, but borderline, understand what I'm talking about and can hold a conversation. (Actually, in my lifetime, I've never known him to hold much of one with me, but he did the other day).

The remarkable story goes like this... I picked him up from the retirement home (where he's been living for a few days since his wife kicked him out), and took him for dinner. Now, I've been sending him reiki daily, just hoping it helps his mind. In my wildest dreams, I'd wished all my life that he would amidst to the many heinous things he'd done during my life, but that wish was mostly in the back of my mind, as apology is not in his nature, nor is introspection.

But that night, something happened.

After showing him several photos of where I lived in B.C., I ran out of things to talk to him about (since I do most of the talking) so I decided to wing it and ask what career would he have chosen if he hadn't done fashion or if he really had another choice in life (he probably went into fashion because his mother had).

Now, I'm not sure if it was a result of the reiki I've been sending him for a few weeks (I'd like to think so), or if he mis-heard me, or if his failing health has scared him, but slightly above the din of the noisy restaurant, I heard him say someting about "father and daughter" and feeling "bad". So I asked him what he meant, to make sure I was even hearing "feeling bad" wrong, as that would normally not be in his vocabulary.

But, I heard it wright. He said he felt bad because of how he treated me, and that he shouldn't have treated his daughter that way, and that he made so many mistakes and did so much wrong. Was I in shock. While he was on a roll, I thought I'd ask exactly what he remembered as haing done wrong, but he wouldn't go there, other than to say he did many things wrong. And he actually sounded quite distarught about it. The closest I can think of hearing someone so distraught in an apology was Schindler of Schindler's List (the movie).

It was quite amazing. So amazing that all I can imagine is that the reiki I've been sending him has been aligning him with his guides more, and aligning me somehow so that they can tell what I emotionally need, and that they came through him and helped him say what he was truly feeling deep down, as his whole tone of voice and being were quite different, almost like he was channeling someone in.

By the time we got back to the retirement home , about 20 min later, he was almost his old self, talking about how bad my skin looked, and being once again the father he apologoized for being.

But I like to think of that as his "demented" side and the other as his wise or "higher Self" side, and as he isn't reliable, this thought will be, and may sustain me for the rest of my days. Unless his apologies run deeper and provide me with more succor.

Reikiing my father

I began reiking my father, long-distance (well, from my house to him in his!), about a month ago. Since having chemotherapy drained down a tube and into a hole drilled into his skull a few years ago (because of lymphoma which spread to his brain) he's slowly been getting dementia. It got so bad, that a couple times he ended up in the hospital not really knowing who or where he was, then started acting normally there, and they released him again.

When I recently returned from BC to show him the new yoga book I'd published, he didn't even know what it was. Just flipped through it in the car and put it back on his lap. "What's the book about?" I asked him. "Oh, this and that," he said.

Then, at the restaurant, he wasn't even sure how to sign the credit card slip. I had to do it for him. That's when I REALLY knew he was in bad shape. So, since his wife keeps trying to put him in a nursing home, I thought I'd send him long-distance reiki every day as I did with my grandmother when she got really bad (that story is for another post).

As I've done this, he's become much more coherent and like his old self (good in some ways, not in others!), so much so that compared to the past few years, he sounds like a new person! The doctor's going to be shocked.

Doesn't sound like a zombie, remembers things, and is driving his employees people nuts again!

Stay tuned--he may even start cooking for himself, doing yoga and driving soon! Now, that would be scary!

Grinding no more!

Recently, the power of reiki has truly been confirmed to me by a little four year old boy. My friend's son has to go from one parent's home to the other parent's each week, and as his father has abused him in the past (and the legal system has once again failed), he grinds his teeth all night. I witnessed it. It's awful. Thankfully, the night I slept at my friend's apt., it finally dawned on me that I could try reiki on him. I've never actually tried to treat an illness, let alone teeth-grinding, but I thought I'd give it a shot.

So, while he slept in the living room on the air mattress with his mother's arms wrapped around him, I told her I'd try it and, in the air, I did the three key symbols above his body. Then, he stopped and sighed. While still asleep. It was the most astounding thing I think I've ever seen!

I had to do it the next night as he started up again, then he stopped again. And when I went home for his last two nights there, I sent it long distance, and that worked too.

So, reiki has been a blessing for both of us, not that I didn't think it worked anyways; I was just astonished that even giving symbols without a full reiki treatment would work. But it's all in the intention, I was reminded.

Off to bed now, and to do some more symbols over his beautiful etheric body.