I started out as a child.....(old Bill Cosby line). Actually, I am a native Houstonian, a rarity these days. I graduated from Waltrip High School in 1970 (yes, that's what I said). My dad's claim to fame was being one of the original "Heights Hoodlums" which today sounds pretty lame. I figure his "gang" was the equivalent of being accepted by "The Fonz". My mother was born and raised in Tennessee, Nashville to be more correct. Two years after I was born, my little brother was born. His name was (and still is to me) Billy, although some refer to him now as Bill. My job as a big sister was to torment him as much as possible. He survived childhood in spite of me. We became very close the first time he turned around and beat the ____ out of me......
After my mom died of cancer in April of 1987 I began a "quest" to find out the meaning of my life. I began by taking sign language classes and working with deaf children in the Cy Fair School District. It didn't take long for me to realize I needed more training, more skills than just being able to sign. I wanted to help. I went back to school and in 1994 received an Associates Degree in Mental Health from Houston Community College. Up until November of 1998 I have worked almost exclusively with those who suffer from chemical dependency. I am a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor for the state of Texas. I would someday very much like to work once again within the Deaf Community.
My concept of spirituality did not become apparent to me at an early age. I went to church because it was "right". However, my church was near the water, Galveston to be exact. I didn't know why and didn't share it with anyone because I felt it was unacceptable and I felt guilty. Everyone was suppose to enjoy church, weren't they? But somehow, watching the colors of the sunset, the life and depth of the ocean calling to me was what brought me my peace and serenity.
It wasn't until the early to mid 90's that I was able to understand the difference between religion and spirituality and that my connection with God was of a spiritual nature and did not necessarily fit into an organized religion. I respect the religions of all others and I respect my own. I have been able to relieve myself of the guilt I have carried for many years and have developed a spiritual connection much deeper than I ever would have imagined.
I will close with these words I recently wrote:
I have experienced bits and pieces, sort of like Asneak previews@ of the spirit world and prefer it to this one simply because of the love that flows so abundantly and through all things. However, while here on this physical plane, I am here to love others as well as myself, to incorporate and teach that which I have learned and to learn that which I still do not understand, what I struggle with...
How I got started. I have always felt connected to the spiritual world but struggled with organized religion. I was baptized Catholic and went to a Catholic grade school and high school. I didn't seem to get it. I couldn't understand why to honor the Creator they would build a building and pray inside and remove themselves from the Creator's work. To me, if I wanted to connect with the Creator, I went to His creation, nature. I felt connected to Native American spirituality because I believed that they understood and honored the Creator. They understood and honored nature. That is where I most feel at home.
I received my Bachelor's Degree in Psychology in 1979 and then went on for my Masters Degree in Rehabilitation Counseling. I have since become a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor. All of which is part of my path to help people heal.
In 1984 I began working in substance abuse treatment centers with both adolescents and adults. My primary focus was helping to start the family on a path of healing. Then in 1991 I got a job as a teacher in the Human Service Program (back then it was called the Mental Health Program) at Houston Community College. I am still there today. So, I have been a teacher and healer now for the last 16 years. Roles that I feel are part of my path.
As far back as 1985 I knew that I wanted to help people in a more traditional/ancient way, a more spiritual way. I wanted to open up a healing center. A place for people to go to get reconnected to their inner selves, nature and the Creator. A place where people could go if they were sick and wanted to seek forms of traditional, ancient healing. A place to treat the mind, body and spirit. I did not have anything more concrete than the idea itself.
Part of my being a father was to become an assistant scoutmaster for my son’s boy scout troop, which I enjoyed. It took me outdoors on a monthly basis. In December of 1993, during my first winter camp I was tenting with another assistant scoutmaster, Bill, when our conversations took us to a variety of topics. He spoke of astral travel, metaphysics and of healing. He mentioned Reiki to me as he was attuned to Reiki. That conversation was the first of many that the two of us have had. It started to open my mind to another world...the spiritual world.
I liked the idea of sending energy to help a person heal. To have a pure intent seemed natural to me.. I started to meditate and to focus on sending energy through the palms of my hands to heal people. I seemed to be able to tell where the energy was going. People would tell me that they would feel a variety of different sensations. I only did it infrequently and pretty much kept in the closet about it. After all, what would people think? It was my beginning of doing energy work to help heal people.
During that time another person was in my life that I worked with at school. She was also interested in the metaphysical and told me about the value of stones and crystals. She spoke of auras, energy fields and chakras, of the spiritual world and being connected to another dimension. She continued to cultivate my quest for knowledge. My world and my belief system continued to expand.
Later that year I took a trip to a conference in Tucson, AZ. where I attended a workshop on “creating ceremonies”. Part of the workshop included the participants picking up a variety of simple instruments. I picked up a Native American drum. They told us to just start playing. I did and I seemed to travel to another time. The workshop facilitators told me to start off since I seemed so in tune with the instrument and the others should fall in. I don’t know if they just said that because I had the drum or if it was true. I only know that I felt connected to the drum. I felt as if I was in another time.
My life was soon to take a dramatic shift - as if all the information I had acquired over the last year was going to be put into motion. On a Monday night Bill showed me a print that he had bought on his travels that summer. It was of a shore line with a rock. In the water one could see the reflection of a Native American man on the rock but if you looked at the rock on the shore, he was not there. Another person was walking by and asked what that was about. I quickly told him it was about the spirit that remains after the person is gone. I then looked at the title and it was “Lingering Spirit.” I was immediately connected with the print. Two days later on a Wednesday, my father died. All that remained was his spirit.
Around this time, I had two different people tell me to read the book Celestine Prophecy. I decided to listen to their advice and took it with me as I traveled home to my father’s funeral. The book opened my mind to look for people and events that cross my path so that I may learn what they have to offer me. The spiritual world places guidance of my path before me but it is still up to me to be open to it. I must make the choices to follow that path.
When I returned from Arizona, I found that my friend from school was trying to get hold of me. She told a mutual friend that she had been having strange visions and needed to get in touch with me. She found out that my father had died and I had left that day to go to the funeral. Upon my return she told me I had come to her in a vision during the night on Sunday and Tuesday before my dad died. She was sitting with her deceased relatives and I kept showing up! Finally, on Wednesday night when she was frustrated that I was intruding on her family she asked me in her vision “what was I doing there”? I told her that my father had died. My power of the spiritual world continued to open up in me.
I knew that I needed to order the print and proceeded to do so. I was having it shipped to my work since I knew that someone would be there to receive it. But it was Christmas break and I would have to wait until I got back. After Christmas break the print still had not arrived. The following weekend I was with the scouts and Bill. That night he told me to sleep with a crystal under my bed and had me listen to a special tape to open my mind up. That night I saw my print. I was angry because the print had a crease in it. I also remembered speaking to my dad. He told me not to worry, that he was alright. He was at peace. I can remember the clarity of the vision, he was so clear and vibrant.
Later that week I was in a meeting with my friend from school and was getting frustrated because my print had not arrived yet. The artist stated he mailed it. The post office stated they delivered it. But no one knew where it was. I started to doodle. I wrote “Where is my print? What am I suppose to learn from this? I need energy.” Within minutes, I received a page. It was my office saying the post office called and they found the print. I started to feel alive again. My friend looked at my doodle and told me that I was creating a lot of energy. I was drawing in my crown, third eye and throat chakra. I had heard of chakras but I didn’t know what I was doodling at that time.
Needless to say, when I went to the post office to pick up my print I opened it up there because I knew that the print had creases in it. Sure enough, they were right where I saw them in my vision. I sent it back and was able to talk to the artist and got to know the history of the print. He had never intended in putting the Native American in the water but something kept telling him to put him there. He finally gave in and drew him in the water. He told me that my story meant a lot to him and the picture now has new meaning for him. My mind continued to open up to the power of the spiritual world.
That summer I decided to teach a class on Native American Spirituality. The class did not have enough students (only two) to make, but I decided to teach it anyway. One of the students was Terry and the other was Tony. That summer we went through a series of exercises to increase our connection with Mother Earth, the Creator and ourselves. It was a wonderful summer.
One day Tony had a hard time getting to class because his car battery was dead. After class, before he went to try to start his car, I told him to wait. I held my hands over the battery and imaged energy going into the battery. I then told him to start it up. It turned over immediately. All three of us looked at each other and started laughing. Tony went on his way to get a new battery.
At the time I was sure that the battery had some juice left in it and that was the reason that it started. The next week Tony told me that the car needed to be jump started in the morning to get to class. Then on the way it need to be pushed started three times. When he did get to the mechanic to change the battery the mechanic wanted to know how he got it started. He was told all the cells were dead and it should not have even started with jumper cables. Again, my mind continued to open to the power of the spirit world.
Terry and I kept our quest for spirituality going. I would send her a “color” in a meditation and she would see if she could pick up on it. I went on a trip to another conference in St. Louis and did a lot of meditation. My connection with Terry grew stronger. Then over a period of three weeks the two of us were sent on a whirlwind tour by the spirit world.
The connection and love between the two of us manifested in a way that both of us had been trying to avoid. We decided to trust the spirit world and go for it. On November 9, 1998, we came together. Both of us knew that we were suppose to be together to help bring healing into the world.
I had met Emily Laurel (Bill’s Reiki teacher) at a health fair. Terry was interested in being attuned to Reiki and I suggested she call Emily about an attunement date. In February of 1998 Terry was attuned to Level I & II.
My time came in August of that year. I went through the Level I & II attunement. The Monday after my attunement I called Emily to ask her what I needed to do become a Reiki Master. She told me that I could join a Master class going on at the time since she knew and I had been doing energy work for some time. She told me to come in to get caught up and two weeks later I became a Reiki Master. I knew that my path included teaching others about Reiki.
On September 12 of 1998, Terry and I were married. For my wedding gift to Terry, I attuned her to the Master Level. I could not think of a greater gift to give her than the gift of Love from the Creator; the gift to help heal and the ability to share that healing gift with others.
In November of 1998 we held our first attunement weekend together. We continue to hold attunement weekends, spreading the gift of healing to the world. What once was my dream of having a healing center, is now a dream that the two of us share together. We continue to move towards our healing center. We continue to move forward on our path.
As my spiritual path continued to unfold a new chapter opened up unexpectedly. I found that when people would start to talk about loved ones that had transistioned, I would feel a wave of energy come through me. I would then be shown images or have words pop up in my mind. I would ask them questions based on what I was being shown and I found out that the images and words had to do with the people that had crossed over.
It was happening on a more frequent basis so I decided that I needed to learn more about it. At the time a medium, John Edward, was on TV in the evenings. I started to watch him to get a better understanding of the process. I ordered his tapes to try to develop the gift even more.
Then in the spring of 2001 Terry and I took a trip out to Davis Mountains. I looked on John Edward’s scheduled and found out he was going to be in Albuquerque. Terry and I got tickets. A few days prior to I felt an energy come in and give me some information. I was told I was to present it when we went to see John Edward during the question and answer period. I thought to myself, that would be nuts to do. No way was I going to stand up and ask John Edward “does this ... and that ... mean anything to you.
Well the day came and we were on 6 hour trip to Albuquerque to see John Edward. When we got there it was not like his show, it was going to be in a convention center with over 2000 people. I felt the presence again and this time with more information. I asked if they really wanted me to stand up and tell it to John and got a resounding, Yes! I thought, oh well, I would be safe because of the large crowd.
We took our seats in the back half of the room over on a side section. John came out and he so was far away we had to see him on the big screens on the stage. He said that he starts out by opening it up to questions. I dutifully raised my hand along with 100+ other people. Someone asked a question and while he was answering that question a lady walked up to me and put the mike to my face for the next question. Go figure, the spirit world has it’s own agenda. I was more nervous than the proverbial cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I blurted out what I was given.
John just looked at me with a puzzled look and said “Are you reading me. This could make a skeptic out of a psychic” I told him I didn’t know what was going on only that I was suppose to present the information to him. All of a sudden a lady in the center go up and said it was for her.
John was now the go between, I would give him the information and then the lady would verify what it meant. All of it fit. I got to understand more of what I was shown when she answered how it fit. At different times during the event when John was struggling with a person who he was working with he would look out over to me and say “Are you sure you want to do this?”
Afterwards I was swamped by people wanting a reading. One women needed to hear from her father because she thought her stepmother has poisoned her father. The desperation in her voice and others scared me. At that time, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to do this. I wasn’t sure if I was ready for the responsibility. As time went on, I have chosen to take on the responsibility.
So that leads me to where I am today. Learning to continue to connect to the spiritual world while in my physical body. Moving forward in my belief that the connection to the spiritual world is everyone’s birthright. That part of my path is to help others learn how to have their spiritual self connect to the spiritual world on their own. We are all spiritual beings, live your path.