Are you where you want to be?

Lenten Mission

Self Nurturing: Sedona Massage

I received my first massage many years ago.  I was living in the UK at the time.  I believe it was sometime in the sixties and I discovered a small massage and facial salon had opened above a shop near my parents home.  I very tentatively booked an appointment and remember how my heart sang and I knew that I was hooked from the very first touch.  There is nothing quite like a massage for relaxation, de-stressing, pleasure, and coming home to yourself.  Massage does for the body what a deep relationship with God does for the soul.

I probably received one or two more massages during the next few years because I really couldn’t afford more than that.  Then, about five years later, I moved to Sardinia, Italy with my first husband and our two boys.  In 1970, we helped to open a large holiday village called Forte Village in the southern part of the island not far from the capital, Cagliari. 

There were many holiday agency reps working in the village and the two girls from the Swedish company, Vingresor, were extremely grateful for the “extra mile” that I went in order to help smooth difficulties for their customers.  They came to me one day and said they would like to show their appreciation in some tangible way and asked me what I would most like.  I knew they had their own massage therapist on call in the village, so I requested a massage.  They were gracious enough to gift me with a series of four massages, and my love affair with receiving massage was rekindled. Since then I have received many massages and eventually, when I was fifty three years young, I trained to become a massage therapist myself.  I feel as much joy giving massage as I do in receiving them.

Fast forward to April 2011.  As I mentioned in my previous posting Traveling-  Las Vegas & Sedona Rich and I enjoyed a wonderful visit to Sedona, AZ.  I knew that I wanted to receive a massage in Sedona because it is a place of natural healing and there are many alternative therapy healers in the town.  As Rich and I were settling into our condo, he checked out a file of information about various activities and points of interest in the area, and called my attention to an advertisement. The wording in the ad from Sue really spoke to my heart and soul, and I knew that this was who I would book my massage with.

A few days later found me in Sue’s studio.  Little did I know that I was about to have a very significant and life-changing experience.  For the next two hours Sue worked intuitively with my body.  I have never received a massage quite like it.  She used many different modalities during the course of the massage and I knew that something very special was going on, especially when she started chanting as she worked my heart chakra.  I remember thinking, “I hope she is going to tell me what that was about”, as I felt a kind of a “whooshing out” feeling from my chest.  Then shortly afterwards, as Sue worked on my lower abdomen, I could feel “something” going on and a great deal of heat.

At the end of the massage, when Sue gave me some water to drink,  she asked me if I wanted to hear her perceptions.  My heart lifted and I said I wanted to hear everything.  She checked first of all if I believed in past lives and also asked me if I was familiar with any of the ancient civilizations such as the Mayans or the people of Atlantis.  When I assented, she shared that while she had been working on my heart chakra she was drawn into a vision where she saw me as a tall, regal person, dripping with golden jewelry, and knew that I was one of the ancient wise ones.  She felt that I was royalty of some sort and told me that whenever I walked into a room people were enveloped in a sense of tranquility and felt healed.  I told her that many people told me this today also. 

She then went on to tell me that it was no longer enough to just “walk into the room”, that I was “being called to more”.  She said that I needed to be ready for more work and not to be afraid.  I remembered Kevin’s words just a few weeks earlier at the Lenten Healing Mission.  Sue then explained that while she had worked on my lower abdomen she had felt “something birthing”, and she encouraged me to be ready, to prepare myself for some new work that I was going to be called to undertake.

As I left Sue’s studio, I felt very blessed.  I was filled with a sense of peace and yet was also aware of a very heightened sense of energy.  I felt like I could have run for ten miles.  I was very grateful for this because later that afternoon Rich and I went to experience the energy vortex at Bell Rock and I was able to climb about three quarters of the way up the rock formation without feeling tired. 

I will always remember my massage experience with Sue with much gratitude.  My main personal work since that time has been to quietly prepare myself for whatever work Spirit wants me to do.  Just two weeks after this experience, I attended a Qigong event in Orlando and a complete stranger there repeated the message: “Margo, you are being called to more.  Do not hold back.”  I will share more about this experience in another posting.   

Musings: Unblocking Again

I have been in a “dry spell” again:-(.  And yet I have so much I want to write about.  So many things running around my head.  But it all seems stuck inside and I haven’t been able to release it.  It is so frustrating. So let me start somewhere and see if I can unblock something.

So much has happened in my life in the last couple of months. Oh nothing monumental or earth-shattering – just life.  But it has been so much more than the various bouts of sickness that I have had to contend with.  Towards the end of February we had an amazing Lenten Mission at our church.  A man fired with the Holy Spirit, Fr. Jim Curtin from Wisconsin, came and woke up a new spirit in our parish.  I will eventually write a full posting about that.

One morning in March (fortunately in one of my healthy periods!!), my husband suddenly experienced chest pains and was hospitalized.  I discovered through that experience that I have a weird way of dealing with unexpected shocking news when it involves my loved ones.  That’s another posting too.

Easter and the celebration of the risen Lord came around again.  With each year I become more and more aware of the passing of the seasons and the special church and State feast days and festivals.  And each one seems to come around faster and faster.  I am sure that this has something to do with what happens internally to us as we get older.  Food for another posting.

At the end of March we had the joy of a fleeting visit from my eldest son Marco.  He was flown from Naples, Italy to DC for a conference.  That was a chance not to pass up and so he came a couple of days early and we flew him down to Florida so we could snatch some time with him.  It was a happy time, yet tinged with sadness:  his ten year relationship with the love of his life is seemingly at an end.  The culprit? Words – those said in anger and those left unsaid.  I know in my heart that I can write something about that.

And then came my birthday.  Thank God by then I was done with being sick and I was able to celebrate with joy.  Dinner with friends one day.  Lunch with “the girls” another day.  Cards and telephone calls from family across the sea as well as those close by.  And wonderful gifts that showed just how much people cared.  Beautiful flowers from my husband.

Celebration followed celebration as Mother’s Day came just a week after my birthday.  What a day of bitter-sweet emotions.  Mother’s Day this year occurred on the fourteenth anniversary of the passing of my own mother.  I miss her so much.  I still have times when I want to telephone her to share a special moment.  I often think how she would have enjoyed a visit to my home here in America.

Again I received calls from my sons overseas.  My husband showered me with more flowers and a lovely card.  And of course my “baby”, my beautiful daughter Melissa, also telephoned.  I was out in the garden and had just seen three butterflies in quick succession.  They are my special connection to my mother but almost always cause the tears to flow. 

I shared my memory of my mother with Melissa and we both cried some together.  Between the tears she said, “I wish I could spend the day with you Mum”. But we both know that while she makes the choices that she makes today, that cannot be possible.  And my heart is broken all over again.  Sometimes being a mother just plains sucks!!

In the last few days I have realized that much of this being blocked, of my inability to write, is connected to this particular heartbreak.  I have to put so much energy into staying upbeat, into not walking around looking miserable, that I have no energy left for play dates with my internal Muse.  By the end of the day it leaves me totally exhausted physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

So now I have to figure out a way to break through this situation so that I can reclaim my inspiration, my time with the Muse.  Perhaps I have taken a small step in this direction this week.  I have found a support group that may help me to walk through the difficulty in my relationship with my daughter.  Then I hope to free myself and my energy and move back into daily regular writing.     

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