My Reiki Origin Story

My Reiki journey, much like my spiritual journey as a whole, began in the shadows. I had just moved back east from Arizona and I was having a hard time accepting the return and settling into life back home. I was a different person. I didn’t want to come back to the same habits. I didn’t want to come back to the lifestyle I had left behind.

My safe space was the woods. Brego and I would go every day after work, which at that time meant around 5 pm. It was late October and the sun was starting to set earlier each day. The longer we stayed in the woods, the darker it got, but we needed that time. We had grown so comfortable being alone in Arizona - alone time was hard to come by - but in the woods, it was just the two of us again.

My spirituality was on the rise alongside my creativity. Those walks created space for contemplation, deep reflection, and a flow of poetic writing that I couldn’t find elsewhere at the time.

Massive healing was taking place as well as a shift that I could feel, but not necessarily identify.

One night, in particular, Brego and I faced an unexpected trial. We had hiked a familiar path. It was darker than usual, nobody was around, but such solitude often brought us comfort and clarity.

I remember gazing into the darkness of the woods and feeling like it was the only place I could see clearly. I remember fully trusting that no danger could come to me in there.

It was quiet except for distant birds warning of predators passing by and the wind calling upon the moon. It was cool and dry. I could feel my breath emerge from my chilled throat.

Brego stopped in front of me with his ears perked up. I stopped behind him and looked ahead for signs of what made him stop.

About 20 yards in front of us stood the silhouettes of 4 coyotes or wolves or some sort of northeast hybrid of the two.

I told Brego we were going to turn around, but he had other plans - I could tell.

Just as he bolted towards them I reached out and took hold of his harness, he would not run into the fray that night.

Once we turned around and made our way home, the stars began to show. The night remained beautifully silent and the breeze continued to refresh our spirits.

Just before the exit of the woods, we saw something else we had not expected to see, a meteor blazing through the sky.

When I got in my car I checked my phone only to find a message from a Reiki Master who enjoyed something I had written.

I think I was so focused on my own healing, particularly the healing that my creativity was providing for me, that I did not answer the Reiki call until about a year later, but that Reiki Master became a source of information and a valued friend. When I decided it was time to study healing, I knew exactly who to go to.

When I look back at the poem that was written that night, the night I faced the wolves and learned of Reiki, it feels like this was always my path.

The poem can be found on page 65 of my book, but I’d like to share it with you here today:

By day we see the forest in all of its beauty,

by night we are encouraged to feel an unfamiliar truth,

that there is comfort in the dark woods.

Let me tell you what I have learned in nature.

It’s never so dark that you cannot see.

One meteor burning the November sky

followed by two days of awakening introduction to the reborn self.

Finger nipping murmurs warning of standoff.

In confidence, three steps to four silhouettes in the wolf den,

and even the tiger knows when to retreat.

The shamans will tell you that your shivers are shared,

that spirits of malice activate when scared.

The warriors will tell you, a sighting alone is valiant and rare,

that predators look you in the eye and project their own fear to die,

but

I have faced the wolf and he neither trembles nor roars.

Approaching shadow with light and flame

soon becomes nothing

and everything.