{"id":740,"date":"2011-09-15T07:09:36","date_gmt":"2011-09-15T11:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.katrinakenison.com\/?p=740"},"modified":"2011-09-15T07:09:36","modified_gmt":"2011-09-15T11:09:36","slug":"touch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/touch\/","title":{"rendered":"Touch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I am always a bit melancholic as summer gives way to fall, and this year has been no exception. The change of season reminds me that the first anniversary of a dear friend\u2019s death is looming. The boys have gone back to school, I have a birthday around the corner, a deadline to meet, a season\u2019s worth of commitments made long ago that are now upon me.<\/p>\n

A week ago, I could feel my own personal dark cloud settling over me like a cloak. And then, almost on a whim, I enrolled in a two-day course on Reiki healing. Last fall, hanging out with my friend Diane, sipping tea on the couch and chatting through the early autumn afternoons, I often found myself wanting to put my hands on her \u2013 as if the simple power of touch might somehow bring some small solace to us both. Sometimes, I gave in to the urge and rubbed her feet, or held her ankles in my hands as we talked.<\/p>\n

But we are a hands-off culture, and to reach out in this way, human to human, hands to body, almost always means crossing some kind of barrier. We may feel free to talk<\/em> about anything, but to lay our hands on another person is not something most of us do regularly or casually. For me, the impulse to heal through touch has always been there; what I lacked was any belief that my touch might actually be helpful or welcomed.<\/p>\n

Two days of hands-on Reiki and I still don\u2019t know if my hands are of much use to anyone but me. But I have learned this: simply settling into a quiet space with another person and allowing our hands to speak for us, to say to a friend or loved one, \u201cYou matter to me,\u201d invites a sense of well-being. There is nothing quite like the gift of time and a loving touch to communicate caring and compassion \u2013 that became clear as I took my turn upon the table on Sunday, while my fellow students laid their hands upon my body and invited their Reiki energy to serve the highest healing good. It was so simple. So quiet. So practical. So wonderful.<\/p>\n

And you know what? That elegiac case of \u201cthe blues\u201d that visits me like clockwork every September has pretty much vanished into thin air. I\u2019m not certain I\u2019m cured, but it certainly seems as if some sort of healing has been going on here. Out for a run, I inhale the soft scents of the late-summer woods and give thanks for the fleeting beauty of the season. Each time I pause and put a hand upon my own heart, I\u2019m almost absurdly pleased to feel it in there, beating steadily away. Laying Gracie out on the bed and laying my hands on her old arthritic haunches, I am filled with gratitude for all the years of walks we\u2019ve shared, for all the mornings she got me up out of bed and out the door. She thumps her tail upon the mattress: could it be that she\u2019s grateful, too? Sliding my palms against my husband\u2019s sore back and breathing with him, I think how lucky we are, to have known and loved and shared one another\u2019s bodies for a quarter century now. \u201cThat was nice,\u201d he says, \u201cthank you.\u201d His back may not be better, but we<\/em> are, reconnected by touch. Out in the garden, my hands at rest on my neighbor Debbie\u2019s shoulders, I watch a hummingbird hovering over the petunias and am struck by the way this tiny, vibrating being embodies words we heard in class: \u201cAn invisible but palpable life force energy infuses and permeates all living forms. This energy is infinite, limitless, and pure.\u201d Visiting a sick friend, I can tell she has no energy for conversation. But we can still spend time together in companionable silence as she reclines on her porch, my hands gently cradling her aching head.<\/p>\n

I am a beginner, with four days of Reiki experience under my belt. Sitting with my hands cupped in my lap, drawing Japanese symbols in the air in my imagination, whispering strange words to myself, envisioning the highest healing good, I\u2019m not quite sure whether I\u2019m praying or meditating, or just opening myself up to forces already at work in the universe. Maybe it doesn\u2019t matter. Maybe what\u2019s important is simply to live in a state of awareness, and to give ourselves and others the opportunity to take a few moments each day to move back into balance and harmony with our souls, our bodies, our environment, one another.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am always a bit melancholic as summer gives way to fall, and this year has been no exception. The change of season reminds me that the first anniversary of a dear friend\u2019s death is looming. The boys have gone back to school, I have a birthday around the corner, a deadline to meet, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,24,26,29,30,31,32,39,40,43,45,14],"tags":[209,354,445],"class_list":{"0":"post-740","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-acceptance","8":"category-connection","9":"category-faith","10":"category-friendship","11":"category-gratitude","12":"category-grief","13":"category-healing","14":"category-midlife","15":"category-mindfulness","16":"category-practice","17":"category-reiki","18":"category-soul-work","19":"tag-healing-2","20":"tag-reiki","21":"tag-touch","22":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/600x600.png?fit=600%2C600","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}