World Animal Reiki Day: My Two Favorite Animal Reiki Experiences
World Animal Reiki Day falls on February 5th. For me, “World Animal Reiki Day,” started before work, spending a beautiful morning, sharing Reiki with my dog, Jasmine, a friendly herd of deer in my backyard, and with my wonderful animal friends at Catskill Animal Sanctuary. I saw many animals at CAS this morning, including sheep, goats, cows, and even a donkey, Daisy, but I wanted to share two very special sessions with you today.
It was a very cold morning, but sunny as I began my visit at CAS. The morning sunlight rained down gorgeous rays of light giving the Sanctuary a Spiritual glow as I walked down the path towards the Turkey house for my first Reiki Share with the wonderful turkeys! One in particular really enjoyed our morning session as he moved closer to me and fell into a Reiki nap, a few minutes into the meditation. He would open his eyes, in sync with the ebb and flow of the Reiki energy and then fell back into sleep again. It was hard for me to end the session, because when I started to say goodbye he would start making cute turkey noises, but I had to, so I had time to share Reiki with other animals. This little guy would of had me all to himself for the rest of the day if he could! We were able to spend about 30 minutes together. The bird house was very noisy until the Reiki started to flow and then a total silence came over their house. Even the geese across the path stopped honking and hissing and enjoyed receiving Reiki too! I love sharing Reiki with the turkeys as they are so sweet and open, creating a beautiful "heart to heart connection," that I feel whenever I share Reiki with them.
My next share was with two beautiful souls Rowdy and Colette. Two horses, male and female, that share the same pasture. The dynamic between these two is really fun to witness! Rowdy is dominant and always protective of Colette and also the more outgoing of the two, when it comes to my visits. He usually blocks her view of me when I walk over to their pasture so he can get all of the attention, especially when sharing Reiki. They were both munching on some hay when I started to walk up the path to their pasture and said hello, but today Colette began to walk towards me first, when she heard me. When Rowdy saw this he hurried up to meet-up with Colette. First he stopped between us, walking in front of her, stopping so she couldn’t see me, and then walked on to go back to the hay, as if he gave her permission to go first. She stayed, standing sideways, ready for Reiki. I began sharing Reiki with her and she stayed standing, looking very relaxed. Every now and then she would chew a little, shift her wait from side to side, and closed her eyes. After about 15 minutes or so Rowdy came back in the picture, and stood facing her, maybe 20 feet apart, mirroring her body language, ready to receive Reiki.
I could feel the beautiful connection with them as the session progressed, and both of them showed several signs of relaxation including chewing, and hip cocking (changing the weight of their bodies over different legs, positioning their hooves with only the front on the ground like a ballerina would on point shoes.) After about 30 minutes or so, Colette did a bow with her head in what feels like a gratitude nod to me, and walked off to get some hay. I thanked her for sharing her beautiful energy with me. I continued sending Reiki to Rowdy. When Colette walked away, Rowdy began to walk towards me to the fence. I’m not allowed in the enclosures when I am by myself, for safety reasons. There is a wooden railed fence between us with a wire fence between the rails that has large square-shapes, open in the middle. Rowdy put his big beautiful head over the fence and put his nose into my chest and I began to stroke his face and cheeks, brush his bangs away from his eyes, speaking softly to him, telling him how special he is, and how beautiful he is, and more. He loves our quiet talks, together, and so do I. What happened next really surprised me. He began to lift his right front leg and kept placing his hoof in the wire fence and kept bowing his head down, like he was pointing to his knee. Intuitively, I felt something was going on with his right knee. I asked him several times is your knee hurting you? Did you hurt your foot? Everytime I asked him, he would raise his foot and place it in the fence, then bend his head down to his knee. I was so surprised. In my heart, I knew that he wanted me to place my hand on his knee and share Reiki, so I did. He was close enough to the fence that I was able to bend down and gently place my hand on his knee to share more Reiki with him. His knee felt warm to the touch and I felt a lot of Reiki energy in my hand when it was placed on his knee. Rowdy stood very still, while I kept my hand there for a few more minutes, until I felt the Reiki subside a little. I was so amazed with what just took place, I still can’t stop thinking about it! My total session with Rowdy and Colette was approx. about 45 min or so. I told Rowdy I would ask someone to take a look at his knee. Rowdy gave me one more nuzzle with his big, beautiful face, before he turned and walked off. I thanked him for sharing Reiki with me and for my “lesson.”
But that’s not all that surprised me. The cutest thing was, when I started to walk away after a few steps, I turned around one more time to make sure he was walking ok and when I turned around I saw that he had stopped walking, and had turned around and was watching me walk away. I couldn’t believe it! My eyes welled up with tears. I thanked him again for being such a great teacher and for being such a beautiful, bright light, in my life, and told him I will be back soon. It’s hard to express how much I have come to love this horse after only getting to know him this past year, and how much I appreciate everything he has taught me about patience, trusting my own intuition, letting him lead and allowing him the space to come in and out of the session with the ebb and flow of the Reiki energy and not stopping the session too quick, and also being open enough to understand the different signs of communication between the horses and with me. I am truly grateful for all of this.
I took a couple of short videos and pictures of Rowdy’s behavior to show them to one of the animal caretakers who I’ve gotten to know, and asked her if she knew if anything was going on with his right knee because of what I witnessed and what I felt with the energy during our Reiki session. She confirmed to me that Rowdy had developed arthritis in his right knee and that they are aware of it.
I can’t stop thinking about our Reiki session together and how smart Rowdy was to show me his knee and communicate to me that he would love more Reiki there.
Before Reiki, I never would have thought I could connect with a turkey or other birds in the way that we do, when sharing Reiki. What beautiful, sweet beings of light, they are too!
All and all I had a great, first, World Animal Reiki Day!
All animals love Reiki! Inside we are all the same. "We are all connected. Always have been, always will be!