My book, "FAMILY SIN: How Reiki Helped Heal My Life" is currently in the 'design' stages of production and I couldn't be more excited! It's the first book I've written and it's due to be published sometime in the Spring 2018. This has been a long process for me, but I'm excited and looking forward to sharing my story with all of you. My hope is that if my story helps just one person navigate their own past traumas and discover peace within themselves it will have been worth every moment I've spent writing it.
I'm going to share excerpts with you here on my blog every week. This week, we'll begin with the first chapter. It's entitled "Growing Pains"
From Chapter ONE: "Growing Pains"
When I was about seven years old my parents rented a camp on Unity Pond in Burnham for the summer. The Sixties was an era when women were beginning to flex their ‘independence’ muscles and I was certainly no exception. My older brother has eighteen months on me and my younger brother is only thirteen months younger. It has always been my inherent duty to keep up with them, therefore; it wasn’t surprising to see me outside playing baseball, kickball, football and climbing trees as well as either of my brothers or any of the other boys in the neighborhood.
One day out at camp I concocted an idea with my younger brother. I thought it was imperative that I climb to the ‘crow’s nest’ of a huge pine tree adjacent to our camp. The ‘crow’s nest’ was a term my brother’s used to describe the pinnacle of a tree where four branches meet to form a little ‘seat’. Me and my bright ideas!
One day out at camp I concocted an idea with my younger brother. I thought it was imperative that I climb to the ‘crow’s nest’ of a huge pine tree adjacent to our camp. The ‘crow’s nest’ was a term my brother’s used to describe the pinnacle of a tree where four branches meet to form a little ‘seat’. Me and my bright ideas!
My younger brother and I bantered about who could climb the highest and naturally being a year older than he was, I had to show him that I had it in the bag. Hands down! My seven year-old hands grasped the bottom branch, sticky sap and all. I hoisted myself up onto the first branch and began climbing with confidence and ease. I’d climbed so many trees that this seemed as though it would be a piece of cake. I ascended up and through the heavy foliage of that huge pine tree, dropping a pinecone every now and then as I zipped ever upward. Once, I stopped and watched as a pinecone bounced from one branch to another, making its descent to the pine needle-covered ground below. My brother was lagging significantly behind me.
I could see the lake from my vantage point in that magnificent tree. I noticed that the water had suddenly become angry and choppy. The wind started to pick up, cunningly surprising me with its abrupt ferocity. When I glanced up toward the sky, it appeared ominous and threatening. In my child’s mind I imagined Mother Nature looking down disapprovingly at me, a tiny speck in a huge pine tree.
The branches where I was perched, knuckles white with exertion from holding tightly were swaying to and fro in the wind. Without warning, I was laden with fear as thick and sticky as the sap that oozed from the branches I clung to.
“Mack!” I called out weakly, shakily. “Mack, go down! Go down and get Daddy! Please! Pleeeaaassseee!”
I was literally frozen in fear. I was stuck. I couldn’t climb down and I couldn’t climb up any further. The ‘crow’s nest’ was completely forgotten, a wisp of memory too vague to care about. I remained glued to that branch, clinging tightly like a burr to a wool sock. Presently, my father appeared far below me with my little brother. He called up to me to start climbing down and it was precisely at that moment that a dam of tears burst forth.
“I caaaannnn’t!” I wailed, woefully. My eyes were instantly blinded with salty lakes and my heart was filled with dread. I was blubbering as only a seven year-old can when she’s up against the obstacle of her Lifetime. Dad ended up having to climb the tree to fetch me and carry me down to safety. He admonished me for climbing the tree in the first place and made me promise not to attempt to climb it again.
Oh, no worries, Daddy dear. THAT won’t be happening again anytime soon!
Moments after my feet made contact with the ground, a loud crack of thunder threatened to split my eardrums. My brother and I dashed toward camp, squealing gleefully as the first drops of rain began pummeling us. Dad wasn’t very far behind.
I’d never been so frightened in my Life during the elusive climb to the ‘crow’s nest’ at the top of that pine tree. I never attempted to climb up to the crow’s nest of another tree, either. Not since that day, as I live and breathe. Reminiscing about it, however frightening it was to me as a small child, brings a faint smile to my lips.
And today, I’m allowing those smiles to linger much longer than I ever did in previous years. Despite the dark shadows that hung over me during the first part of my early Life; I have some fond memories from childhood. And that proves to me that every cloud clearly does have a silver lining.
