Photo courtesy of Brenda Strong

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Reiki Helped Us MoveB Y B R E N D A S T R O N G

trying to sell your house, consider having aprofessional stager offer advice regardingstaging. I couldn’t believe some of thethings to which I’d become oblivious overthe years!) The second sign was that thehouse stager was a like-minded individualwho totally understood Reiki and energy.She was very reassuring and comforting asshe gave advice on how to prepare ourhome for listing. Other signs were alsogiven, but rather than list them here, letme continue with the chronology of the re-location as that better describes the entiresupport Reiki provided.

Things moved fairly quickly over thenext few weeks as we listed our house witha realtor and tackled the task of staging ourhouse. Thank goodness we had a barn inwhich to store all the boxes we filled with“unnecessary” items!

Having the barn as a place to collect ourpossessions, sort the items and stage them forselling was wonderful. I began the sortingprocess in July, before we’d even decided def-initely to move. Having lived on the farm for22 years, being a bit of a pack rat and havingtoo many places to keep things “just in case”meant there was plenty to be sorted through.The months of July through September flewby as I did very little other than sort stuff andpick and can tomatoes. In October and No-vember, as our plans became firmer, it waseasy to move items among the areas I’d des-ignated for “leave with the farm,” “giveaway,” “sell” or “move.”

Our first showing took place just oneand a half weeks after listing the house. Wehadn’t even finished the staging. Just threeweeks later, we had an offer on our house.There is no doubt in my mind that all theReiki energy I had directed at this processwas bringing everyone together for the sale.The next three weeks went by in a blur of

the beginning of tomato picking season. Asmentioned, gardening is my addiction, so Ihad four dozen tomato plants that requiredmy tending. Within a couple of weeks ofreturning home, the idea of selling andmoving was gaining in its appeal.

I am an inveterate list-maker. I gener-ated two lists: a list of everything I couldthink of that I wanted or needed in my newhome and a list of everything that I wantedthe buyers of our farm to be. Having livedon the farm for over 22 years at this point,we had invested a great deal of time, loveand energy into it. And we were leavingnine very-loved barn cats (our barn catswere actually just house cats that lived at abarn) with the farm. It was vital that theybe well-cared for by the new owners.

These lists received Reiki multipletimes a day, sometimes in a formal sessionbut more often through intention andprayer as I went through the day. Did Imention I was busy picking tomatoes andcanning? The lists evolved over the courseof the next month. As I gave Reiki to thelists, I always included the thought “orsomething better” since I didn’t want tolimit what might happen simply because Ihadn’t thought to include it on a list!

This would be a major life change formy husband and me. I was beset with anx-iety and doubt—was this the right decisionfor us? Many times over the next fewmonths, Reiki sent signs to show us thepath was correct. The first sign was win-ning a house staging at a charity silent auc-tion.1 (As an aside to everyone, if you are

WHEN you’re a Reiki practi-tioner, you know Reiki energyis always working on you and

with you. You’ve learned in classes thatReiki can make major changes in your life.Indeed, Reiki has changed me on so manylevels. But I hadn’t expected Reiki to getme to move from a beloved farm in Vir-ginia to Texas, and all within six months!

Reiki facilitated this move in manyways. In fact, it was during a Reiki sessionthat the idea of moving first came up. Priorto that Reiki session, if anyone had sug-gested that we would be selling our farmand moving, I would have laughed andreplied that we wouldn’t be moving foryears. Little did I know!

I had the pivotal Reiki session while vis-iting friends in Texas in June 2014. Duringthat session, I realized that while I loved ourfarm, I was tired. I was tired of feeling like aslave to the farm. If I wasn’t weeding, I wasplanting, or moving plants, or harvestingand canning the fruits of my labor. Thenthere were farming chores—cutting downdead trees, grinding them up for mulchingthe garden beds, fixing fences. This was amaster of my own making. Gardening is anaddiction for me. During the Reiki session, Irecognized that I had been feeling envious offriends who had free time to just sit and reador go on regular day trips. Even so, I wasVERY resistant to the idea of selling the farmand moving. I even tried to bargain (withwhom I don’t know) an agreement that wewould consider selling our farm in two tofour years. The Reiki practitioner listened—not offering advice—just asking questions tohelp me understand what I was feeling.

Our visit over, this crazy Reiki-session-thought of selling and moving was much-discussed during our 16-hour drive back toVirginia. Our arrival home coincided with

1 House staging is the act of preparing a private

residence for sale by consciously arranging the

contents of the living spaces to make a home

more appealing to the highest number of poten-

tial buyers. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_staging.

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cancel the sale of our farm? What about allthe items we’d already sold, like the trac-tor? Could we get it back? I had a completemeltdown that evening. My very goodfriend and fellow Reiki person sat besideme as I cried, channeling Reiki and talkingto me. She described her journey to findher dream house where she was currentlyliving. In order to buy that house, she’d hadto stretch her finances far past her comfortpoint. Each and every day she woke up andwas grateful that she had endured that mo-mentary stress because she was now blessedwith her dream home.

My husband had been lookingthrough the real estate book and found ahouse that interested him. It was aboveour budgeted price but had virtuallyeverything else on our wish list. Myfriend’s story about stretching the finan-cial comfort point was well timed—an-other Reiki-guided moment. Looking atthe online photos, the house looked ex-tremely promising. The next day wedrove through the neighborhood andlooked at the house. It was the type ofneighborhood in which we were inter-ested in living—larger lots, lots of matureoak and pine trees and well-maintainedhouses with a slightly rural feel.

The next day, we went with our realtorto look inside the house. Years before,when we were looking at properties in Vir-ginia, the moment the realtor drove downthe driveway of what was to become ourfarm, my husband knew that it was theplace we were meant to live. I had the samereaction the moment we walked throughthe front door of this house. This was MYhouse. It was the house in which I’ddreamed of living. We had appointmentsto see three other houses and so were un-able to spend more than 30 minutes insidethis one. We looked at the other three, butwere both pretty certain about the housefrom the real estate book, and so we madean offer on it that very day. Never in ourlives had we spent so much money with so

prior to our trip, I’d spent hours searchingonline, coming up with a list of almost 50houses. As a testament to how strong thehousing market was in Tyler, 15 of thosehouses were sold by the time we got there.We had a few days before we would belooking at houses with our realtor, but wewere intent on narrowing the search to thetop contenders only. No one has the stam-ina to actually view that many houses!

On our first day in Tyler, my husbandand I drove around looking at the outsideof the houses on our list, checking out theneighborhoods. Moving from a farm with56 acres to a subdivision house on a quar-ter acre seemed doable when we were look-ing online. Early in the day, we were bothupbeat and confident that we’d find ahouse we were interested in seeing. Driv-ing through the relatively high-densityneighborhoods of the houses on our list, westarted to wonder about our decision tomove. I made a mantra out of the thought,“This move is meant to be; Reiki is guid-ing this move.” Exhausted and stressedfrom our first day of driving and looking,we returned to our friends’ house to relax.

Our second day of driving seemed notmuch better than the first. We were look-ing at properties a bit farther out fromTyler, so we were now in a less densely de-veloped area. We weren’t interested inmoving from one farm to another; surelythere was a compromise somewhere?While we were out searching and driving,we stopped at a convenience store in an at-tempt to locate a map of Tyler. Apparentlyonly dinosaurs know what maps are thesedays as we were unsuccessful at finding one;however, there was a stand outside the con-venience store that had those real estatelisting books that are so common. My hus-band picked up one to peruse. Little did Irealize at the moment that this was anotherReiki-guided action.

We returned to our friends’ house thatevening, exhausted, stressed and definitelyquestioning our sanity. Was it too late to

stress and busyness. Before we’d eventhought about selling and moving, my hus-band had arranged to travel to Alaska forwork. I had arranged a week’s trip to NorthDakota to visit my mom. Coinciding withthese two trips were the negotiations forthe sale of our beloved farm. Daily self-Reiki was essential to keep me focused anddecrease my stress level.

There is no reason to detail the ups anddowns, the stress, the questioning, the griefand the anger that went along with the ne-gotiations as that is past. Thankfully, mymemory tends to dim that type of negativeexperience. We learned a few more life les-sons during the negotiations. I tried might-ily to keep a Reiki perspective of our buyersand not judge them in a negative manner.They made our realtors work very hard withthe back and forth negotiations. But Reikihelped me see that this was just a salestransaction. They weren’t trying to take ad-vantage of us; they weren’t being unappre-ciative of the farm and the property.

When we listed our house in Virginia,we contacted a realtor in Texas to begin oursearch for our new home. We were advisedthat houses in our price range were sellingvery quickly in Tyler. Certainly, we couldconfirm that from our internet searches.Properties we were interested in sold withina week of being listed online. We hadagreed on a selling price with our pre-ap-proved buyers and arranged a trip to Texasto house-hunt about a week later. Here wasanother bit of support from Reiki. We wereten miles from home when our realtorcalled to inform us that the buyers’ financ-ing had fallen through and they were tryingto arrange different financing. From mypoint of view, the timing of the call was di-vine. We were 15 minutes into a 17-hourdrive. How fortunate we were able to justturn around, go home and wait until thebuyers had their financing straightened out.

Once our buyers’ financing was settled,we again headed to Texas for our house-hunting trip on October 30. In the week

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little time spent looking at the product.We’d gone through the house so quickly, Ihadn’t even opened a single cupboard inthe kitchen! As we made an offer, I prayedand sent Reiki to the situation. Exhilara-tion and anxiety were the two emotionsthat were so prevalent in this transition.Reiki was my constant resource to quell theanxiety and reassure me this was a Reiki-and God-guided move.

While the negotiations with our buyersin Virginia had been contentious andstressful, our negotiations in Texas werevirtually non-existent. We made an offer,it was accepted and we had bought ahouse! Over the next month, throughemail, we got to know our sellers a bit andeven purchased some of their furniture.They were wonderful, generous peoplewith whom it was very easy to work.

I began writing this story just sevenmonths from the start of this adventure,and I have been amazed at the power of themind to “erase” the details of discomfort.As we progressed through the phases of thisrelocation, at each stressful point, I re-minded myself that it would all pass shortlyand gave myself Reiki consistently. In themoment, there were times when every-thing seemed horrendous. However, in ret-

rospect, those moments passed so quickly.Within six months, we had progressed fromno thought of leaving our farm to actuallyliving in a different state. Because of theemotional tie both of us had with our Vir-ginia farm, I am certain that this was theonly way for us to move and that Reikiknew it. Akin to ripping off a bandage, wehad to separate quickly from the farm, ourfriends and our Virginia life or we wouldnot have done it at all.

But Reiki wasn’t done changing my life.One of the Reiki people that had beenteaching classes in the Tyler area had somelife changes and had stopped teaching justabout the time we moved there. Accord-ing to Aristotle nature abhors a vacuum, sobecause of this I could see I was beingplaced in a position to fill that vacuum.Through some prodding by one of my newReiki clients, I taught my first Reiki class.

Reiki guided me in developing my Reikibusiness and provided the opportunity forme to teach multiple Reiki classes last yearand more this year—and I have yet to be“told” what I’ll be doing next year. Reikihas continued to support my growth as apractitioner and a teacher by providingclients and students through a variety ofpaths. My personal growth and healing

with Holy Fire Reiki fills me with gratitudeeach and every day.

Living life guided by Reiki may haveits challenges, but with faith and time,each challenge is met, growth happensand life expands. 1

Brenda is an Usui/Holy FireII Reiki Master and a HolyFire II Karuna Reiki® Mas-ter. She has completed nu-merous Rainbow Reikiclasses and is an animalcommunicator. Brenda also

has a Master’s degree in Parapsychic Science.Brenda has been seeing Reiki clients for over10 years, first in Virginia and now in Texaswhere she also teaches Reiki classes. She hostsa monthly Reiki Share that includes meditationand educational components in addition toReiki. Brenda also makes wire-wrapped jew-elry, which can be viewed and purchasedthrough her Facebook page, Reiki For All Be-ings. Brenda can be contacted by email atBrenda@ReikiForAllBeings.com, through herwebsite www.ReikiForAllBeings.com or byphone or text at (540) 875-9652.

Karuna Reiki® is the registered trademark ofthe International Center for Reiki Training.