It is they who can exchange money for self-worth, by their thanks to us when we choose to give it.
Today there was a homeless man asleep by the front of my son's school. I had seen him by the grocery store in the morning when I drive to work after dropping off my boy. This was the first time I saw him where he slept. He hides well.
The teacher showed him to me. She had tears in her eyes, of compassion. She is not afraid of him. She worried because 'he has no place to go' and she 'was afraid he might not be breathing, it is so cold these nights.' I asked her if she gives him food. She said, 'yes. I put bananas and apples in a bag and leave them there. This is where he sleeps. Do not call the cops. He has no place to go.'
So many feelings washed over me at that moment.
Here are some of them:
1) protect the kid. He had just run out that door to go back to the car to get his jacket, and run in, never seeing the lump in a sleeping bag by the door. I took him by the hand, and kept repeating out code word for 'danger--be alert' and pointing to the homeless man. I said, 'Listen to your teacher and do what she says.'.
2) comfort the teacher. How little she knew about the ways of spirit. Her heart was in the right place. But that man was in the right place at the right time for him. Doctor Usui gave Reiki for free to people just like him for seven years. In Japan, they had to get healed to clear their name and take part in society. Towards the end, he began to see familiar faces. Those he had healed grew tired of the responsibility of a house and family and career, and came back to the streets. Doctor Usui discovered two truths--the desire to be healed, and the energy exchange. Initially, Doctor Usui, a Christian, taught at a Christian University as Professor. His students asked him, 'Do you believe in the Bible?'. The answer was yes.
'Well then, how could Jesus heal the body, and no one else on Earth knows how?' At the time, the Church focused on healing of the spirit, not the body. So, to keep his honor with his students, in his role as professor, he set out on a many year study to learn the true answer to the question. He studied in America, he studied the bible, he came back to Japan, and studied mystical Buddhism, learning to read chinese and sanskrit texts. That is how Reiki was learned.
I used Reiki and a hug to comfort the teacher. I knew instantly, her worry was not to have a home. And that she had seen rough times growing up, possibly because of war.
3. Annoyance at being late for work. What was I supposed to do, call in and say I was late because I stopped to help a homeless person?!? What a sad state for our society to be like this. Me and everyone else.
4. Not wanting to be bothered. Going into Doctor Mode. The probability and statistics of the outcome of intervention. Again, sad. I have seen too much. Two weeks and three days of vacation is NOT enough. I am getting burnout.
5. Familiarity with homelessness. I went to college in Berkeley. I saw the homeless everywhere. I volunteered to help. I also have taken care of many in my career. 'Three hots and a cot' are the ER doc's description of the homeless who come into the E.R. on the coldest nights and complain of chest pain. They know the drill...
Anyhow, this lesson has a lovely moral.
If it wasn't for the homeless, we would not know how regimented we are by the industrial military complex we call society. They are our wake-up call. If it weren't for these lovely souls who just 'don't fit' the system, we would go on paying our bills and buying things and pairing off and having babies and dying to know we have been brainwashed into what NORMAL is all about. They survive without the everyday things. Yes, there is addiction. Yes, there may be psychological impairment. But for what it's worth, they raise the question--is fitting into society a choice? Or a means of survival? They live our deepest fears every day.
What did I do? I added 'The Homeless' to my Groups and Organizations list on the Divine Peace Healing. And recently, we practitioners linked lists. So now it is on all of ours.
Namaste,
Reiki Doc
