The Reiki Hall of Fame...

Being an avid baseball fan, I have been lucky enough to live less than an hour's drive from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown NY for my entire life. As is typical of most of my passions, I am not only a follower of current day-to-day happenings and contests in Major League Baseball, but am a devout student of its long history of legendary players, so the Hall of Fame is always a very spiritual experience for me.

Besides being a fan of baseball in general, I have always paid particular allegiance to the New York Yankees. My boyhood hero was Mickey Mantle, the Yankees' superstar outfielder of the 1950's and 60's, and "The Mick" is of course well represented in Cooperstown with lots of memorabilia bearing his energy (my year and half old border collie is named Mickey).

I could spend days pyrometrically exploring the stories in the many wonderful exhibits there. Examples that come readily to mind are the actual lockers of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, heros from an earlier generation whose legends still loom large over today's game. Simply placing my left palm on one of their lockers opens the door to an amazing clairvoyant journey.

But my experiences inside the Museum are not the subject of today's article, which concerns a much more grounded experience during a recent visit to Cooperstown.

Just for something to do on a rainy Spring Saturday a couple of weeks ago, my partner Bonnie and I decided to take a ride to Cooperstown. She's also a baseball fan and specifically a Yankees fan so I didn't really have to twist her arm. Along the way, we stopped at a small Native American shop near Cherry Valley NY to have a look. Bonnie has always enjoyed a special connection with Native American shamanism and animal medicine, so I thought she would enjoy this shop. I always enjoy browsing through all genres of spiritual offerings, and Native Americans tend to provide some of the most powerful examples.

Just last month, I attended a drum making workshop where I was able to make my own hand drum with an Elk hide head and maple shell...given my musical background, this was a wonderful experience. It has been on my "to do" list for a while now to write and record my own meditation and treatment music, and having a drum so infused with my own energy brought me one huge step closer to that goal. We went back to the studio where I made my drum just this week for a drumming circle with crystal singing bowls...what an amazing evening meditating to a soulful rythym, part of which was coming from my own hand made drum!

I've also had my eye out for a Native American wooden flute for a while but hadn't found one that called out to me yet...that is until we stopped at this shop in Cherry Valley.

The store had a small display of hand crafted "High Spirit" flutes by Chippewa craftsman Odell Borg, and beaming off the rack at me was a beautiful walnut 6 hole flute with a red hawk for the fetish. I didn't even have to play it or ask about the price...I knew this was the flute I'd been looking for and it came home with me. When checking out, the store owner told me she'd only had that flute for less than 24 hours! Formerly I would have chalked up such an experience to being in the "right place at the right time" as happenstance, but since I have embraced the Reiki lifestyle, these type of things seem to follow me around. Coincidence? There is no such thing!

The flute is beautiful both in appearance and tone, and I have learned to play it quickly so I should be getting that CD done soon. But again I diverge from the story...I should rename this blog to "Bob's Reiki Ramblings"...

Bonnie and I continued on our way to Cooperstown and when we got there, it being a Saturday and all, there was not a parking spot to be found. I pulled into the public free lot at Doubleday Field, the ball park associated with the Hall of Fame, and as I pulled in I said to Bonnie: "Reiki will find us a parking spot". Sure enough...the words weren't even completely out of my mouth when straight ahead was the only empty parking spot in the entire lot.

I quietly thanked Reiki for the gift and was grateful to have been touched once again by the wonderful way its energy orchestrates my universe. When we got out of the car, we noticed that the car parked immediately to our right had just lost its entire rear window...the casualty of a foul fly ball from a game going on inside Doubleday Field. If I didn't have such total trust in Reiki, it might have crossed my mind that perhaps the space I found was available since it was known to be in the "line of fire" for errant baseballs!

We then spent several hours touring the Hall of Fame exhibits, having a nice lunch in a local storefront diner, and walking lazily through the many small shops in historic downtown Cooperstown. We then returned to Doubleday Field to retrieve the car, and immediately noticed that in the same spot directly to the right of my car, a different car was now sitting with a back window shattered by another foul ball...yes...same parking spot...different car...both "hits" right next to my car which had been obviously guided to this spot and protected by Reiki.

Reiki is an awesome gift from our creator, and the little things it does every day to make my life better are simply amazing so I make a point to try to notice them and show gratitude for each and every one. This is just one very simple and earthly example of how bringing Reiki into your everyday life can bring benefits you could never imagine...some with huge life changing significance...and others as small as avoiding the inconvenience or cost of a broken window.

Be open and believe, and good things will follow you.

Just for today...be grateful!

Bob McGrath
Master Practitioner/Teacher
Pathways to Harmony