Aaaahhh ... the kiddies are napping! Now I can tell you what I've been up to ... for myself.

My good friend and I both practice hands-on healing. She prefers to call it spiritual healing. I have my second level Reiki, but I feel like I have come a long way since I was trained, and I don't fully recognize what I'm doing as Reiki any longer. It's becoming much deeper ...

I have always felt that there is a chakra in the belly. While there is no chakra, apparently there is a large energy centre there. My good friend, I'll call her JO here., was speaking with another healer who mentioned that if you ground yourself, then open your crown chakra connecting to the universe ... try connecting your heart chakra and the energy centre just below your belly button. JO was told to see that energy centre as an emerald star. I tried this last night while lying on the couch. I fell into a meditative state very quickly - unusual since I have not meditated in months - I started to feel really good... Just like JO said that she did when she did this exercise.

I felt as though I were lying outside in the sun with my eyes closed. I recognize this feeling - I've felt it before. Like the afterglow of sex. I remember the first time I felt this too - NO not my first time having sex, pervert. :o)

I was 11 years old. I was at church, because we had to go when I was a kid. The minister was talking about letting Jesus into your heart - let him save you from your sins .... you get the point. I had heard this a billion times already, but that day I was listening, really listening. I opened my heart and asked "Jesus" to come into it. I felt my heart open up and I felt that beautiful warmth, that magnificient strength enter into it. Then I realized that something profound had just happened to me. The next thing I realized was that all the "sins", the "damnation", the "salvation" - those people had it all wrong. I knew that I didn't need to go to church to get to "heaven".

Shortly after, I told my mom I didn't want to go to church anymore. I know she was not happy about it... I never told her what happened until just a few years ago. My mom did the right thing exposing us to religion though. Being in a spiritual place gets you thinking. In all likelyhood, i probably would not have had that experience had I not gone to church as a child. I will not take my kids to church however, because that's not what I think spirituality is about. I won't go into a rant about organized religion ... if you're still reading this, I'm sure you have your own rants about organized religion.

Well, this got a lot longer than I expected it would today. I'll sign off here. I am going to try another short meditation, because it just feels good to be "plugged in". Bye!