As always, at the beginning of 2019, I set out on my journey into the year ahead with a new diary. I don't know when, but at some point I wrote the words, 'A Whole New World' at its front. What was waiting was indeed, a whole new world.
I had been gripped by Devon, Dartmouth in particular only a few months earlier, in the Autumn of 2018. Just writing about it now seems a whole other life away, yet the promise it had revealed to me all those months ago is alive and kicking, right here, right now in ways beyond my possible imaginings.
Getting here though has had its challenges, many of which endure. Raising up everso occasionally to remind me that, whilst to others it might seem I am 'living the dream', there really is no such thing. Dreams are just that, dreams are dreams and life is life. Dreams are a tiny, if not precious part of the whole of everything else that together make life. Life as it is will always be challenging, can be a struggle if not out and out war. All of which has effect. No, I'm so not living my dream. What you are actually seeing folks is somebody living their life in ways that really suit them.
Here I feel I can be me. For example, I found Reiki, or to be honest, it found me way back in 2012. As we all know, these things take time to develop into a fully-fledged holistic relationship. However, the joy of having it in my life coupled with impatience, a priming to 'strike while the iron's hot' or sheer pigheadedness made me deaf, dumb and blind - senseless to the preciousness of its presence. That, along with living in a life where Reiki and its like had little or no breathing space made everything all the more difficult.
Prior to 2012, Reiki had been something that had always been there. Nameless, formless, it was just something I sensed from life itself. Plants, animals, minerals, and yes, people emit this nourishing energy in normal everyday living. It is a beautiful thing when we are open to receive as and when. I have also experienced and been open to the presence of spiritual intervention. Sometimes averting disaster, other times being tricksy. Beautiful wonderment indeed. However, being this way without effective defences can be disastrous.
I would say, on reflection, that is exactly what I have been doing throughout my life: developing my living relationship with everything life and living. Always hoping that I had something to offer in return, whilst striving (unnecessarily) to make that happen. A lot of love and goodwill - most of which, misguided!
So, where to now?
2019, although I didn't know it at the time was all about realising a whole new world. 2020, a whole new life. I'm still none the wiser whilst sensing, feeling and experiencing more than ever.
I love Reiki and it doesn't matter whether I'm sharing, receiving or giving in person or from a distance, when all parties have free reign it is nourishing. Is it natural? Is it 'just there'? Yes to both. However, living is so full-on, so busy and so complicated, we lose touch with it. I practice it to ensure it endures. To be honest, I can't, don't want to and couldn't imagine a life without its precious, beautiful, gorgeous presence.
There's a word that's resounding just now and that is, impermanence.
It is indeed the stuff of life itself.