Soul's Calling

As I walked this morning - a nice long walk on a glorious spring morning - I was thinking about the way life has unfolded in the past 11 months.  I could not have predicted the turn in the path my life would take although I had been dreaming of a different lifestyle for a while.  I was just not convinced it would ever happen for me.

Like many people, I was earning a living and supporting my family doing what was beginning to feel like a soul sucking job.  The work itself was not terrible, and (for the most part) my colleagues were people I did not mind spending 8 hours a day with.  BUT I was finding it more and more difficult to remain engaged in my work. I felt a strong desire to do something more meaningful and personal.

Despite this desire for a change I did not do anything about it other than "wish" and buy lottery tickets.  Not the best way to make a change!  

As "fate" would have it the universe had other plans for me. 

In the middle of May I broke my ankle.  The broken bones lead to a series of events that would end up with me having a break from my job that would become permanent.  It was a roller coaster ride of a few months while the band-aid was slowly ripped off.  During this time I had to consider what was next for me.  In my heart I knew that I wanted to do something that would answer my soul's calling - providing more personal fulfilment as well as helping others, but I was unsure of how I would accomplish this dream. 

It dawns on me now as I write this that I have been travelling along this path for much of my life - albeit with the occasional wrong turn or dead end along the way.  

I was instructed in transcendental meditation at a very young age, and although there have been times when I did not practice meditation I came back to it again and again.  Meditation is something I rely on to keep me grounded and centred. 

Soon after my second marriage ended I decided that I wanted to take yoga instructor training.  I had no imminent plans to teach, but I wanted to learn yoga for myself at that level.  I had in the back of my head that it was something I could do later on in life when I retired.  Learning yoga was one of the best gifts I have given myself.

This past autumn while my bones were still healing, and the band aid was still partially adhered, I had the inkling to take my Reiki Level I training.  I had been having Reiki treatments myself for a few years and I felt drawn to seeing what it was all about from the practitioner perspective.  Once again, I did not have any thoughts of being a practitioner, but merely wanted to gain knowledge.  When I received my first attunement to Reiki I was overcome with emotion and gratitude for the gift that was bestowed upon me.  I knew then that being a Reiki practitioner was something I needed to explore more deeply. This feeling was further confirmed when I did Reiki for my brother while he was in hospice and I continued on to complete Reiki Master Level III.   

It seems to me that the gifts of healing that I have been slowly learning most of my life are not just for me.   My soul is calling me to share these ancient methods of healing with others and to help others just as they have helped me cope with emotional, mental and physical illnesses.

Though I have no concrete idea of exactly when or how it will all come together I must trust that I have been drawn to this for a reason and that it will happen eventually - the bricks of knowledge building into something - slowly but surely.