Friday 4 April 2014

Reiki Flowers

As I was buying flowers for my recent First Degree class in Ludlow, I was reminded of a lovely thing that happened during the weekend when I learned Reiki.  I have always enjoyed having fresh flowers around, but at the time I learned Reiki this wasn’t often possible because I was unemployed and didn’t have spare money to buy flowers.

As I was walking to the Reiki class on the Saturday morning I noticed a wallet lying on the pavement.  I picked it up and as the police station was just across the road I just had time to drop it in.  I left my name and address as this was requested, but didn’t expect to hear anything further.  I went on to the class and in the excitement of learning Reiki completely forgot about it.

On the following afternoon, after I had finished learning Reiki, there was a knock at my door.  When I opened it I found an elderly man and a young woman I didn’t know.  They asked for me by name and it turned out that it was this man’s wallet I had found.  He was delighted to have it returned to him and said “Thank you. Buy yourself some flowers with this.”   So saying he took out £10 and gave it to me.

At the time I would never have considered spending that amount on flowers, but I was so pleased with the suggestion I spent most of it as he suggested (probably the rest went on chocolate!).  So the very beginning of my Reiki journey was blessed with flowers.

Later when Alec and I started organising Reiki classes for our Reiki master Martha she would always bring flowers for us.  Now I do the same for those who organise classes for me.

Flowers and plants continue to come to me in beautiful ways through my Reiki life: last year Phyllis brought me some Dutch Spring bulbs which are now beginning to flower in my garden.  Recently a student kindly gave me some snowdrops – something my garden has been missing – so I look forward to them coming up next year with a promise of Spring.

There have been many other gifts of flowers and plants over the years from students and clients and they are always deeply appreciated.

Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh suggests in his book “Being Peace” that if you can’t find a smiling happy Buddha to put in your room a flower will do just as well.  He says “A flower has Buddha nature”.  Buddha nature is one of compassion, so to have flowers in the room can inspire feelings of compassion when I look at or smell them.  I always find my heart opens and I feel more joyful when there are flowers around.  They are a way of bringing a bit of nature inside too.

So I feel it’s no coincidence that Reiki has brought more flowers into my life, which continues to be a blessing and delight to me!  May your life also be blessed with Reiki and flowers!