A Journey to Self

When asked about her journey to opening Hands of Light Reiki studio Kimberlee’s first response was, “Where do I even start! I’ve been on this journey for much longer than I knew.”

She mulled over many starting points before settling on, spending New Year’s Eve of 2020 in the White River Medical Center in Mt. View. “My husband and I were out delivering magazines, yes this very publication, and my left arm and jaw began to ache. I decided, better safe than sorry, and walked into the ER telling the receptionist I might be having a heart attack.” The staff flew into motion following protocol and giving her a thorough going over. She was admitted for observation and would meet Dr. C. Adam Pearrow, DO the next morning. The good news is her heart was and still is just fine, anxiety was the culprit and this was not the first time it had sent her to the ER.

Dr. Pearrow was there to see another patient, named Kimberly Thomas. Coincidence?

She told me, “There are no coincidences or happy accidents; there are only synchronicities, Divine interventions shining light upon our path.” Dr. Pearrow would schedule her for a follow up the next week to work on unhealed injuries from an auto accident in 2010 he discovered during his exam. It was during this follow up that she would experience great emotional release from the memories of past traumas that were trapped within her physical body. Dr. Pearrow works on the body’s myofascial layer, this is the multi-layered connective tissue in your body that holds, stabilizes, and connects everything. Without it we would just be a blob of bones, muscles, organs and skin lying on the ground. “I was simply in awe of how the body could hold onto past emotions, packing them away to be forgotten until they manifest into illness,” explains Kimberlee. It was during that visit and several follow ups the ember that would grow to illuminate her path was coaxed to life.

2020 would hold many endings for Kimberlee. She would seasonally close her beloved froyo shop, Unique Nosh, to discover she could not reopen due to the arrival of Covid. July would bring the loss of her son in-law, followed by the loss of her step-father in September. All of these losses were unexpected and left her feeling overwhelmed as how to help herself and her loved ones navigate life beyond the pain and grief of such losses.

She began looking for answers; her faith in something, someone greater than herself was solid.

“God, as he is lovingly referred to by so many, although He also answers to so many other names, was always at my side. I knew as long as I was looking within the Light, I would find the answer.” It was in the strength of this faith that she searched for ways to heal herself and those around her. Her determination, love of self and others would lead her to the answer.

Enter Reiki. This is a word that would begin to pop up during her web searches and in conversation with friends. Soon, as is the way with social media, Reiki information began to appear within her feeds. Kimberlee shared, “It was as if it was raining Reiki! Everywhere I looked there it was.” She would spend hours researching, reading, watching videos and attending healers for herself. The more she experienced the more she wanted to share with not just her friends and family but with everyone, “I discovered that our Creator bestowed upon us the ability to heal ourselves and one another. Reiki is just one of those ways. It is the way that I am drawn to share.”

Reiki is a Japanese energy healing technique that promotes relaxation, reduces stress and anxiety, and provides a sense of well-being to the recipient. Mikao Usui developed reiki in the early 1900’s, deriving the term from the Japanese words rei, meaning “universal,” and ki, which refers to the vital life force energy that flows through all living things. Reiki is now being used all over the world, including in hospital and hospices to complement other forms of health treatments.

Reiki practitioners use their hands to deliver energy to your body, which improves the flow and balance of your energy to support healing. Kimberlee notes, “As a reiki practitioner, I act as a conduit between the client and the source of the vital life force energy. The energy flows through my hands to the client.”

Reiki treatments typically last about 50 minutes, “During a session, the client will lie on my massage table fully clothed. I will gently place my hands, palms down, on or just above the client’s body in specific energy locations. The length of time I leave my hands in each position is determined by the flow of energy through my hands being received by the client.” Kimberlee says, the client is always in charge of how much energy they receive, their energy field knows how much to take to balance itself. Reiki differs from other touch therapies in that there is no pressure, massage or manipulation involved.

You may be wondering what reiki feels like, “You may experience the energy in the form of sensations like tingling, pulsing or heat where I place my hands. There are times when people feel sensations moving throughout their body. Other times people seem to feel nothing. It can sometimes be a very emotional experience with laughter or tears. However, most everyone feels very relaxed and peaceful during reiki treatment, some even fall asleep.” Kimberlee says not to worry, as the vital life force energy knows what the client needs and is still working even as they are resting.

We live in a world that is often unkind; physically and emotionally. We suffer from traumas that, left unaddressed, take up residence within our physical and energy bodies. Left unattended, they become illnesses that can present as physical or mental. Kimberlee explained that, “Reiki is a healing modality that provides a pathway for riding ourselves of these ignored traumas, and restoring balance. Through my own experience with Reiki and other energy healing modalities, I have been able to heal from traumas associated with my childhood as well as guilt and many other emotions that I’ve collected through my adult years.”

There are many health benefits of reiki. Studies show it promotes relaxation, stress reduction, feelings of peace, security, and symptom relief to improve overall health and well-being. It has also been shown to: Bring on a meditative state. Foster tissue and bone healing after injury or surgery. Stimulate your body’s immune system. Promote natural selfhealing. Relieve pain and tension. It also supports the well-being of people receiving traditional medical treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, and kidney dialysis. If you are already in good health, regular reiki treatments can enhance your ability to respond to stress and serve as a form of preventive medicine.

Kimberlee cautions, “Reiki treatment should not be used as a substitute for the consultation of a physician or a psychotherapist. However, reiki complements other types of medical and therapeutic treatments. It has been shown to increase the efficacy of other types of healing.”

Reiki works on the entire self; mind, body and emotions. “Reiki is vital life force energy and therefore may be successful in all types of emotional, mental, physical and spiritual healing: cancer, infertility, digestive problems, chronic pain, Parkinson’s disease, stress-related illnesses, depression and anxiety.”

Reiki can prepare a person for surgery and boost recovery afterward. “Looking back, I realize I used this modality in conjunction with meditation prior to my hysterectomy in 2019, back then I didn’t know it had a name, I was simply following my intuition.” She explained her stress level going into surgery was decreased significantly and her recovery was smooth.

“The knowledge of reiki has changed my life for the better,” she shared. There are 5 principles of reiki set down by Master Mikao Usui. At least for today: I will not be angry. I will not worry. I will be grateful. I work with diligence. I will be kind to every living thing. Kimberlee has these tenets taped to her bathroom mirror, so every morning and every night, she is reminded. “I read them daily and do my best, at least for today, to practice each one.”

Our journeys are our own and require us to be present in this moment. Kimberlee’s thoughts in closing, “If you are always looking back or always looking ahead, you will surely miss what is happening in your life right now. Be present in your journey to self. It is here where all the joy lives. Now, is everything.”

Kimberlee would like to invite you to find her on Facebook at Hands of Light Reiki Therapy and Instagram at handsoflight111. She may also be reached by email at HandsofLight111@gmail.com She is currently taking new clients by appointment only, at her studio space located at 311 S. Main Street – Suite 26, in Jonesboro. N

Book Review

In the Valley by Ron

Rash

Terrell Tebbetts has taught English at Lyon College for over 50 years.

Ron Rash has published an excellent novella following up on his 2008 best-seller “Serena.” He has titled this sequel “In the Valley” and has included it with several new short stories in a volume with that same title which he published in 2020.

In this new volume, Rash fills in a gap and answers a question left hanging at the end of “Serena.” In that earlier novel, it’s 1929 when the title character, young Serena Pemberton, arrives at the North Carolina lumbering operation run by her rich new husband George. Serena proves herself driven and ruthless, so ruthless that mysterious deaths follow in the wake of any serious disagreements with her. She deserves the sobriquet critics have given her: she’s a 20th-Century Lady Macbeth.

But by the end of “Serena,” despite all her successes, this new Lady Macbeth could not accomplish two murders she was set on. When she found she cannot have children, she determined to murder a young local woman and her child. Why? Because this woman, Rachel Harmon, had been George’s lover, and her child Jacob was the son she had before he and Serena married.

Serena is so determined that she even has George killed when she discovers that he has been protecting Rachel and Jacob. Yet in the novel’s epilogue set 50 years later in 1979, mother and son have escaped the knife of Serena’s henchman Galloway, and both Serena and Galloway are also still living when a man who might be Jacob executes a final form of justice.

That left a span of 50 years during which Serena would surely have had her henchman continuing the search for Rachel and Jacob, yet clearly Galloway failed to find them. So readers want to know why: how was it that Serena failed when she had 50 years to get the grisly job done?

Rash’s new novella answers that question. “In the Valley” takes readers back to 1929 and the lumber operation. George is dead, and Rachel and Jacob have just escaped, crossing the country by rail and ending up in Seattle, as far as they can get from Serena. But Serena still wants Galloway to find and kill them.

Galloway depends on his mother to trail them, for this aged crone has ESP that allows her to sense where to find people anywhere. Well, not quite anywhere. She has told Galloway that Rachel is too far away and they must head west to get nearer to wherever Rachel is in order for her to pick up the signal.

Always dressed in black, this ominous-looking crone represents the evil, prophesying witches in “Macbeth.” She has told Galloway that they must leave soon. But Serena has told him to wait until an approaching lumbering deadline that will mean a financial boon to her. That deadline will be soon enough, she says.

Rash devotes much of the novella to the men actually doing the lumbering, bringing one team of lumberjacks alive to readers. Serena has put them under terrible pressure to complete clearing the last mountainside before her deadline.

One lumberjack, named Ross, is different from the others. He’s a local man like them, but he had gone to college and had become a high-school math teacher. Yet when Ross apparently brought home diphtheria from school, diphtheria that ended up killing his wife and children but sparing him, he quit teaching and joined the lumbering crew, the hard, concentrated, day-long physical labor relieving some of his constant guilt and grief . . . and providing the possibility of “accidental suicide,” the death-rate among lumbering men being very high. The operation has its own graveyard, and one member of Ross’s crew and many men from other crews already lie buried there.

Ross knows about Rachel and Jacob, as well as about the mysterious deaths of so many who got in Serena’s way. And he knows that Galloway is her henchman and that the old crone is Galloway’s guide. Yet while others fear Galloway and avoid him, Ross repeatedly stands up to him, even after Galloway warns him that his time is coming. Ross tells Galloway that he can’t take anything from him that he values, and readers know that includes his life.

As the climax nears, readers sense that Ross must be the key to the survival of Rachel and Jacob. But readers of “Serena” also know that Galloway will still be alive in 1979, so Ross can’t be about to murder him. So what’s going to happen! How will this man grieving at the loss of his wife and children save the lives of a woman and child begotten by one of Serena’s recent victims, her own husband?

Read “In the Valley” and find out! N ratio

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