“Well, that was a totally unanticipated outcome!” offered up Ronnie after the elevator doors closed, recasting her gaze intently at Tim. The elevator began its descent with a slight jolt, the drop leaving the visitors with the feeling their bodies had just shed 20 pounds.

Moments before, Ronnie and Tim left Susan Woodward’s hospital room, one they initially entered with trepidation, fearful of the backlash from Tim driving drunk and seriously injuring Susan – an injury resulting in her hospitalisation.

Instead of facing the expected wrath, Susan chose to speak of forgiveness, of love and light, and actually asked if the Salstons wished to get together after the hospital released her from care – she was concerned about Tim’s well being. Both Ronnie and Tim found Susan very personable and sincere, and readily accepted her invitation. The plan called for Ronnie and Tim to bring dinner to Susan’s house on the following Saturday.

For his part, Tim felt another lesson just passed his way, and he intended to grasp and hold onto this lesson for dear life. “Ronnie, there are days when I feel things I once accepted as givens have morphed into uncertainties or unknowns. My entire outlook is in play, or perhaps is in the process of reshaping. I am resorting what is important, looking for what should guide me. Lately, I have felt so very lost, almost stripped and bereft of spirituality. In the midst of this, along comes Susan…”

“Tim, since when have you been spiritual? We have never ever gone to church, and you have never suggested we go to church. So what gives?”

“On some level inside, it feels like some guiding mechanism suddenly failed – one I’ve taken for granted in the past. I cannot explain it, Ronnie, but when I heard Susan talk about reiki, I wished to learn more. Something inside signalled ‘this is important,’ and I had a sense of awareness of what she was talking about, of having some prior experience with it – yet for the life of me, I cannot understand why. I have never in my life talked with anyone on reiki or anything like it, I have never even heard of it, so how would I feel some prior understanding?

What I do know is, if I am going to find my way through the issues that are mucking up my life, reiki might prove a huge help.”

Tim was sharing thoughts with Ronnie he would not have shared even a year before. Ronnie considered this progress, a nice step in the right direction, something where any improvement felt like a newly discovered goldmine.

She concurred that reiki was a nice pathway for Tim, a way for him to wrap his thoughts around something that would help him focus and find his way through. In the end, Tim had to find his way; this was not something anyone else could do for him. Moreover, there could be no more repetitions of being out of control. One person was lucky to be alive. If not for helping Tim, if nothing else, finding his way would be beneficial to others, most especially his family.

Since Ronnie and Tim were cooking dinner at home and bringing it with them to Susan’s, they decided to prepare something rather simple, opting for a mandarin salad and eggplant lasagne – a recipe passed down to Ronnie by her grandmother. While her mother never cared for it, eggplant lasagne was a favourite in the Salston household.

Ronnie and Tim weighed bringing Addison and Serada to Susan’s, but in the end decided the girls would spend the night with Ronnie’s mum. Both felt the discussion might get rather heavy, something their daughters would find as boring. They both loved staying with their gram, and so there would be no issue with Addie and Serry balking at this option.

Susan called on Thursday to share she was now home, and that she was looking forward to their visit on Saturday. In response to Ronnie’s query, Susan and Ronnie agreed on arriving at 6 pm.

On Friday, Ronnie sent flowers to her home, a nice spring arrangement that would cheer up the most melancholic, though she knew Susan possessed a joie de vivre that rendered this state an unlikely occurrence.

Ronnie’s mum arrived at 4 on Saturday, loaded up the various items Addie and Serry wished to bring, and headed back home. With their daughters gone, Ronnie and Tim turned to dinner preparation, Tim handling the salad, Ronnie the lasagne.

While the lasagne baked, Ronnie showered, chasing Tim away from the television and into the shower as soon as hers was complete.

They arrived at Susan’s more or less on time, each with an armful of dinner dishes and accompaniments. Susan again was gracious, first helping them with their burdens, and after everything was safely on her dining table, reached out to hug her newfound friends.

Each went to work in taking dinner to readiness. The lasagne returned to the oven for a final 15 minutes of heating (Ronnie had deliberately undercooked it). By agreement and common purpose, the threesome would not include alcohol in their get together, precluding any wine as dinner accompaniment.

Once seated to dinner, conversation turned toward reiki. “Susan, I’ve looked online, finding a few websites that explained reiki. As I’ve already explained to Ronnie, I’m very interested in this – I’d never heard of it until we met you.”

Susan smiled, knowing she was as intrigued as Tim was upon learning of reiki. “Perhaps we should give you a treatment after dinner,” she suggested, an offer Tim enthusiastically accepted.

After dinner was finished, the table cleared, and dishes loaded in the dishwasher, Tim stretched out on Susan’s reiki bench, a blanket covering the length of his body. Ready to go, she dimmed the lights in the room. Susan followed her usual protocol prior to giving a treatment, and then placed her hands upon the crown of Tim’s head. She began a repetitive but intermittent chant, her hands channelling healing energy into and then through her body, continuing into Tim.

After a few minutes, Susan, who stood with eyes shut, began to see flashes of colour, and then images passed through.

A half hour passed until Susan brought the session to a close. With the lights back on and Tim now off the bench, Susan shared and explained the various things she had seen during the session. “I saw several music references – especially writing music. There was a boat – a fish, like a dolphin. Oh… there was a rock, a big one, I’d guess 6 feet or more long, 3 feet high, covered with moss, but a very vivid green moss.

I could feel a heavy energy flow toward an emotional – and physical – blockage. That will take many treatments to clear; Tim, you really should do this. The physical blockage is extensive; I have never felt anything quite like it. No wonder you were in that bar on that night, you poor dear.” Susan feared for Tim, and rose to offer a huge hug in encouragement.

This one would be a priority for her, if only he would agree. Susan never charged for practicing reiki, she practiced only among a few friends and family. She would willingly donate her time and effort to helping Tim find his way through this crisis.

What Susan did not know in that moment, what she could not see or anticipate, was what happened after the combined efforts of Susan and Dolores actually began to work. Sometimes a cure could change a world.

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