TRAININGS & RETREATS

I came into training feeling I had inklings of a spiritual gift, but had no container to explore it, and here I learned how to still my body & mind so that I can be a clear vessel for Reiki energy to flow.

And now a few years out, I’ve cultivated spiritual friendships from our retreat and I feel confident in offering the gifts I’ve learned from Marie. Given these times, I feel blessed and honored to be able to offer reiki at community pop-up healing clinics during these very difficult and challenging times.

I cannot express how powerful it was to be taught by a Queer, Japanese-American womxn, sharing similar identities as a Queer Pinay. I spent many years feeling odd and fearful of the gifts given to me by Divine and ancestors, but through Marie’s community building among other gifted QTPoCs and LGBTQ+ people, I felt seen, heard, and validated. I cannot wait to continue to work with Marie and continue to spread the healing. Blessings! Maraming salamat po, Marie –mahal kita!

She is completely intentional, focused and encompassing in what I have witnessed her undertaking.

I was intrigued and I committed myself to read the invitation thoroughly and to allow my “gut” to guide me about my next steps. Well, I awoke the next day and still felt a resounding inner “yes”, so I registered for the retreat. It also felt the perfect way to enter my 75th year of living on this planet, given that the retreat was being held in the area of California where my grandparents, mother, auntie and others first lived after leaving Louisiana 100 years prior.

The night before I left for the retreat I had a very strong and memorable dream. In the dream, I was driving with my mother in a car. Upon our arrival at our destination, we were greeted by smiling faces and open arms into a room filled with golden light. We were enveloped in Love! Well, that is exactly how my arrival felt when my fellow travelers and I arrived at Hestia Retreat Center... into the arms of Love and Light. It felt like a homecoming into the embrace of women, most of whom I’d never met as we were embarking upon a journey together...how magical!

The accommodations nestled in nature were completely comfortable and nurturing. The natural environment was a big part of the medicine of the retreat...rushing rivers, creeks, lakes, waterfalls, mineral waters, mountains, boulders and rocks, trees and local flora...Spirit as expressed in nature was our container. Mealtimes fed our bodies and souls...delicious and nutritious. Those times of breaking bread together in the universal tradition were as tasty as the food and hard to break away from. As important, however, I felt a spaciousness for my personal time and reflection throughout the retreat time. The schedule/program that was presented by Marie was thoughtfully crafted to allow personal grounding and purification, introduction to Reiki, hands on experience and practice, discussion, ritual and ceremony (including morning and evening meditation), experiences for practice and listening in nature with spaces for genuine connection with fellow participants through sharing, laughter and relaxation.

My personal take aways from the retreat are many. I was fed by nature in a place where my ancestors lived, worked and walked. It was my fourth return to the area. I was honored (not coddled, yet respected) as an elder from the indigenous memory and way of the women who were there. I made a connection with a relative from my longtime family of choice, and, perhaps, stimulated some of her ancestral memories. I had an opportunity to cleanse in the healing waters of Stewart Mineral Springs and to challenge my elder self to plunge into the icy creek. I was able to share in natural conversations, the history of my African American ancestors in Northern California (a lesser known history) with photographs I brought along and stories I had to share. I experienced personal balancing and healing through the medicines, and chakra work offered. I was able to apply my personal prayer practice, integrated with the new (novice) information of Reiki, for personal healing, on behalf of the Winnemem Wintu people and lands, and for my Loved Ones. I celebrated the eve of my 75th year in my pj’s, without makeup or facade, dancing in the Light in which I had been welcomed into the retreat. How Divine!!

Since the retreat, I have regained my daily meditation practice with attention to the importance of chakra balancing. I use the Reiki energy for my personal health maintenance and connect to the Universal Power to project Light and Love into this world where imbalance and separation is rampant. I humbly do my part with a worldwide team of Reiki practitioners