Reiki, Saffron and Staph Infection
In the center, is Mary, 55, from Auburn, Maine. Mary is a physical therapist by profession, but by vocation is a Zero Balance practitioner and Reiki energy worker. Maleah on the left, 19, an architectural student and Lindsay, 32, a second grade math teacher, accompanied us on this quest.
Mary and her visiting friend from the mainland, approached me a while ago and emphatically insisted that their treatment was mandatory for me. Unsolicited, they had felt something adrift in my auras. Since "energy" work is so ubiquitous here, why not take advantage of a session with people that had 30 years of experience in such matters? After all, my Christian indoctrination as a young man taught about holy ghosts, halos/auras, visiting sprits in the form of angels, both good and bad, Jesus/God as light, and that if one prayed hard enough, one could feel His "energy". Isn't prayer really just a form of meditation?
After all, in Mr. Shelor's 10th grade introductory chemistry class at Episcopal High School, didn't he present atoms with their attendant electrons, protons and neutrons, as the primal, immutable, original universal energy not dissimilar to OM? Why not check it out?
So I went to an isolated massage tent in the jungle one afternoon and lay down on the massage table. Mary was at my head taking out stale, useless energy with Reiki and her friend was putting fresh, absorbable energy back in with zero balancing. Mary told me that I could sleep or do whatever I wanted. They were hands placed on various energy centers and plenty of straight ahead massage. Folks, being that I have always been a competitive napper, having the talent of being able to catch twenty winks just about anytime, anywhere, this was not an obstacle.
One thing that has vexed me here, both in serious massage and energy work, is when the practitioner is finished, sometimes they will just silently leave the room. I am usually in a kind of coma state but in my mind I am kind of anxious of when exactly has enough time passed that I can politely open my eyes? Usually, when I do come to, there is no one in the room.
In this case, after about an hour and a half, I sensed that they had finished and waited for what I thought was the appropriate amount of time and opened my eyes. They were sitting in chairs where they had started, silently watching me. Mary said "welcome back...you were gone a long time".
There were dreams and colors. Was it the treatment or was it a run of the mill Ted nap? Mary said I would know in about three weeks.
Since Mary and I worked in the kitchen together, she would check on me from time to time, asking how I felt. For a number of reasons, I feel great, so I couldn't really give her a definitive answer. Mary then reported that sadly, my chakras were "sodered" shut. Yes gentle reader, the decades of stress had caused the motherfuckers to be welded shut like a bank vault. Drastic action was required. Lava....live lava.
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Mary said she needed some live lava. She would then act as a conduit, pulling the energy from the lava through her and into my apparently permanently sealed chakras. Being an amateur geologist I said I would do some research and get back to her. After going to a few US Government Geological sites, I found some live lava had flowed out of Pu'u O'o vent as recently as July 29. A crack on the side of the larger Kilauea cauldron, Pu'u O'o was the source of the lava that buried Kalapana in 1992.
Everything I read on line said that both choices of hikes to the vent were extremely dangerous, due to the cauldron continuously melting and collapsing on itself, as well as the capricious shifting of poisonous gases. Just hiking on the above creviced and buckled lava flow is precarious enough and it was a 16 mile round trip. If fact the whole area had been closed for several years. If you went in there and got into trouble, no one was coming a looking.
Nah, take a pass on that one.
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Instead, I suggested that we go to where the 1992 flow repaved Red Road, known locally as the end of the road and wander and ponder until something happened. We walked for a while and came upon this house. A man stirred from within and came out to check us out. He was not a rightfully angry Hawaiian, pissed about some haoles trespassing on his land; he was not a hermetic poet. HE WAS GARY SLEIK, A LAVA EXPERT AND REIKI MASTER. What are the chances?
Gary agreed about the safety of our hike, and pointed to some palm trees in the distance, that marked the site of a four year old lava river. He should know because it burned his house down. We all agreed that, at least in geological time, four year old lava would have retained enough energy to safely satisfy our energy needs.
I quizzed Gary for a while about volcanos and he quizzed Mary about her Reiki training. Everyone satisfied, he provided us with towels to protect us from the lava glass that was everywhere and hats for the ladies and off we went. Mahalo Gary for your hospitality!
What is left of Gary's house; this was the fresh water catchment.
blah blah blah
The treatment begins.
Here is Mary with her OM tuning fork driving the OM primal vibration into Ted's heart chakra. The energy in this tuning fork was channeled by Edna Doane, a sound healer from Maine to this Hawaiian lava field. This channeling, all the way from Maine to Hawaii and who knew, is creating healing energy by sound and vibration in the old boy.
Here, notice gentle reader, that I am holding two spherical crystals, in contrast to the pyramid quartz that is under the tuning fork on my heart chakra, that have been blessed by a Cherokee Chief outside of Ashville, NC. These crystals were soaked by the Chief from healing waters throughout the world including Lourdes. The pyramid quartz on my chest was from Paris, Maine, and differs from the spherical ones in my hands because it directs the rainbow spectrum into concentrated beams creating prisms of light throughout the body.
After who knows how long, I come to.
and pretty much ready to carpe diem.
We then went to town and had lunch and then hiked to this beach. Mary captured me a ponderin': was it a nap or was it the Reiki?
Recently, I hosted a cooking class for guests and volunteers.
I of course chose to make my perennial stand by, paella. I first learned how to make this in 1978 while attending the University of Valencia, the reputed birthplace of paella. I considered my 40 year relationship with saffron. Was was it Donovan that sang "I'm just mad about saffron, she's just mad about me...they call me mellow yellow?" Paella was a big seller at Chef Ted Catering and my voice mail greeting sounded as follows: "Thank you for calling Chef Ted. Sorry we are back in the kitchen, checking the bouillabaisse...ah looks like it needs a little more saffron. Please leave a message. Some would leave a message back :"checking the bouillabaisse...dude you ain't out of bed yet".
My treatment on the history of azafran, seems to be a source of amusement to Chris, 24, a world traveler.
Guests and volunteers get with the cooking. Notice the $230 bag of saffron in the foreground.
Kenny, 30, and a kitchen manager, is helped by Leigh 32; she is charged with maintaining the integrity of the Sangria bowl. You met Kenny in one of my first Hawaiian posts.
The final product is coming along.
While Corey left, 29, a family therapist in Boston, Leslie, the HR manager for Kalani and from Oahu and Jenn, 29, in grad school in speech and language pathology, help with the final garnishes.
Decade after decade....perfect paella.
Leigh on the right, who you have met before, was under strict and probationary orders to maintain the integrity of the sangria bowl. I ran into her an hour or two after the cooking class and kinda surmised how it had gone. I briefly considered charges of dereliction of duty.
A special shout out to Bob Girard, the provider of these t-shirts. I followed Bob's band at the time he was known as Johnny Sportcoat while attending The University of Virginia in the late 1970's. We kept in touch, as he continued to make music as recently as the time I left for Hawaii, and our paths crossed at many catered events. He also made my t-shirts for many years. Each order/gig of course, may have included a excursus on existential despair over a plate of BBQ.
Bob recently saw his handy-work modeled by Leigh, 32, who you met earlier as a horse trainer and Meredith, 19, a special-ed college student from Austin Texas. Bob reports that he wants to be these t-shirt's.
How often does Emil, 38, a tree surgeon from Oahu, show up to the back door of the kitchen, with fresh coconut water for the whole ohana?
I recently burned myself in the kitchen and it just did not heal. Eventually this staph infection developed. Staph is not uncommon in this damp environment.
The time for Noni leaves had long passed and a trip to the Hilo clinic was scheduled.
We made a day of it and hung out at various beaches a while.
Hawaiian boys growing up a lot different than most of us did.
and the Hawaiian doctor, resplendent in his silver ponytail and Hawaiian shirt, solved the problem with a massive ant-biotic bombardment.
Thanks for stopping by
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