An Unexpected Gift

Staying in the hospital over the week-end is trying.
Our fifth day at George Washington University Hospital so we have had time to learn the drill. And more time to get antsy and bored and chomping at the bit to go home.

What do you do when you are not the patient?

Stay out of the way.

You sit and watch.

Catch up on emails and business when the hospital Wi-Fi is on. Would you believe they cut it off on Saturday?

Watch TV - and learn about the eccentricites of Direct TV. When the wind blows it moves the dish around and you only receive the
second-rate stations and no movies. Its weird and someone with paranoid tendencies might take it as a personal persecution.

Read. Jim is completing a spy novel and I have finished Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke and am now re-reading her InkHeart before
the movie comes out this summer. With all the reality I am dealing with sweet fantasy feels just exactly right.

Eat - meals are an excuse for an excursion into the wider hospital world. The food is like any cafeteria - edible. And regrettably
fattening. Its hard to stay on a diet esecially when you are eating for comfort or to fill time.

The cafeteria is also a great place to watch folks and occasionally meet interesting people.

Thursday a woman in a bright green cotton hospital shirt sat down at the table with me. We struck up a conversation over the soups. She told me she was a volunteer - a reikki practitioner. She sees people on request when the nurse or physician suggests a reikki session might be a help to the patient.

What a coincidence. Karen and Monica and I once took a course in Reikki - so I understood what she was talking about. I don't believe I have the healing gift but Monica, Jimmy's wife, does - she has "hot' hands when she puts hands on to heal. Marcia assured me I just needed to practice. That was encouraging.

We chatted like old friends for about fifteen minutes, then shared an elevator. When I told her Jim was having a procedure later in the afternoon she asked, "do you think he would like a reikki session? It helps with healing."
'Yes." I said. A blurt that felt good.
"Ok, I will come right up."
When I told Jim aout this "gift' he was open and had just agreed when Marcia tapped on the door.

The session lasted about 15 minutes. She placed one of her hands on Jim's head and the other on his abdomen. Quiet. No talking at all. Toward the end she motioned for me to come closer. She placed a hand on my arm and I put my hand on his shoulder. I felt the energy connect us. Aftewards, Jim and I both felt calmer and positive.

Marcia left and we were most grateful she had been there.

A gift.