Happy New Year 2021

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Out With 2020

Wow. It has been a year. A year of challenge for everyone.

The pandemic burst into our lives, marched into all our dwelling places and made itself at home, settling into every room of the house, as if it would never leave.

Loss Moved In

There was a great deal of loss. Loss of friends, family, and animals. Loss of homes, jobs, and income. While we struggled under the weight of the pandemic, any type of loss seemed even more intense, heart-aching, harder to bear.

There was a loss of vacation travel. On a more somber side, there was a loss of travel to see loved ones, family and friends. We missed holidays. birthdays, births or deaths. We felt the loss of being close together, a hand shake, a kiss on the cheek, a long hug.

We are picking ourselves up now. Everyone holds out hope for an end in sight. Perhaps the vaccines along with community exposure will lift enough of us into a sort of herd immunity.

Silver Lining For Other Creatures

While we lived in lock-down, the planet breathed a sign of relief while it had a break from our incessant activity and pounding on the Earth. In nature reserves, birds were able to relax and have the security to build nests, lay eggs and hatch their young. People were not trampling on their nesting grounds.

It makes one wonder if we couldn’t allow our national parks and nature reserves to have a month or two each year without any of us stomping through them.

Less air pollution was markedly visible above the cities worldwide. Water quality improved. In Venice alone, the lack of cruise ships promoted cleaner water. Noise pollution decreased. While not everything was perfect, poaching increased during the pandemic, we could perhaps look at what was beneficial and see how we could mimic that in normal conditions.

Students Of TRT®

We had a post about Meditation In A Pandemic and touched on how The Radiance Technique® (TRT®) supports us through these challenging times.

When lockdowns become less and our activities ramp up, we may find that we have less time for a complete hands-on session. Then, certain hands-on positions are helpful. For example, if we are experiencing worry, hands-on in Head Position #2 and Front Position #3 is supportive to help us release our fears.

As we experience sorrow, we may find that hands-on in Front Position #1 and even a combination of Front Position #1 and Front Position of #3 can help to ease the pain and heartache. Another position is Back Position #4, to get in touch with our survival and our natural reaction to “hold on” to everything. We can release our grip on outer materialism and touch into living light.

For those who have studied The Second Degree of TRT®, you are able to direct universal energy to those you have lost, whether recently or long ago. In such a strong environment of loss, past wounds of loss can open again and become tender.

Directing TRT® to those you’ve lost, you are connecting to their inner light and that is forever. Directing energy supports both of you. It’s never just about directing energy outwardly. You are always a participant, an observer, a vital exchange of radiant energy expressed. As you give, you also receive universal energy.

A Blessing for The New Year

Let’s welcome a blessing for the new year. What is a blessing? The dictionary defines it as:

– the act or words of a person who blesses:
– a special favor, mercy or benefit:
– a favor or gift bestowed by God, the invoking of
God’s favor upon a person:
– praise devotion, worship, grace said before a meal:
– approval or good wishes.

Another fun fact regarding the definition of the word blessing – whenever animals gather in groups, they are identified with a collective noun, like a pride of lions, a gaggle of geese, or a swarm of bees.

If you should ever stumble upon a group of unicorns, they are formally named… a blessing of unicorns.

As we say goodbye to 2020, we offer this blessing – a poem by John O’Donahue. Beannacht is the Gaelic word for blessing and currach is the word for boat.

Beannacht, by John O’Donahue

On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.

And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.


Be sure to take a few moments to listen to Mr. O’Donahue recite his poem. His voice and accent capture the wild, sea-whispering Celtic wind.

In With 2021

As we enter 2021, we lift our eyes to this new cycle and we’re filled with hope that this year will be softer and kinder. We invoke a well-known blessing of our own:

May the longtime Sun shine upon you and guide your way home.

Radiant Nursing wishes you and yours a new year filled with healing and love. Stay safe. Stay healthy.

Happy New Year!

Our Great Ocean Blue

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World Oceans Day

Each year, on June 8, we celebrate our planet’s oceans. It’s a day to call attention to this vast resource and the importance of restoring and keeping its ecosystem healthy.

Here’s a quote from the World Oceans Day website:

“A healthy world ocean is critical to our survival. Every year, World Oceans Day provides a unique opportunity to honor, help protect, and conserve our world’s shared ocean.

The ocean is important because it:
Generates most of the oxygen we breathe
Helps feed us
Regulates our climate
Cleans the water we drink
Offers a pharmacopoeia of medicines
Provides limitless inspiration !”

World Oceans Day started out with encouragement from Canada in 1992. This country is acutely aware of the our oceans as it has three different oceans on its borders, a feat no other country can mimic. For example, while England is entirely surrounded by an ocean, that ocean is essentially the same one.

In 2008, the United Nations officially recognized World Oceans Day. Today, it’s an opportunity to celebrate our oceans and to learn how we can protect our natural resource.

Our Wide Oceans

Over 96% of all of Earth’s water exists in the oceans. If we expand our awareness, we see that even our oceans are in flux and constant change. It’s just that we’re so tiny and our perspective so limited, we don’t perceive it. This quote from USGS reveals that our oceans are, indeed, in flux over wide expanses of time.

“Of course, nothing involving the water cycle is really permanent, even the amount of water in the oceans. Over the “short term” of hundreds of years the oceans’ volumes don’t change much. But the amount of water in the oceans does change over the long term. During the last Ice Age, sea levels were lower, which allowed humans to cross over to North America from Asia at the (now underwater) Bering Strait.

During colder climatic periods more ice caps and glaciers form, and enough of the global water supply accumulates as ice to lessen the amounts in other parts of the water cycle. The reverse is true during warm periods. During the last ice age glaciers covered almost one-third of Earth’s land mass, with the result being that the oceans were about 400 feet (122 meters) lower than today. During the last global “warm spell,” about 125,000 years ago, the seas were about 18 feet (5.5. meters) higher than they are now. About three million years ago the oceans could have been up to 165 feet (50 meters) higher.”
— USGS

We don’t how many different species call the ocean their home. Currently, scientists know of around 226,000 ocean species. 

It could be that more than 90% of the ocean’s species are still undiscovered. Some scientists estimate that there are anywhere between a few hundred thousand to a few million more to be discovered. Well, that’s quite a range!


The Beginning Of Our Oceans

You have to go back in time, far, far, back in time to find the origins of our oceans. In fact, you’ve got to start with alien origins. Our oceans fell from the sky, but not as rain.

We truly all are star-dust.

Those little molecules of two hydrogen and one oxygen atoms that make up water were floating in a planetary nebula into which our Sun was born. The water molecules came together by chance on carbon and silicon dust grains. Our precious water fell to earth in frozen lumps from space. (Just as a reference, the rings around Saturn are composed of dust and ice.) Our planet was also pummeled by comets and asteroids that were rich in alien water.

Planet Earth is the original Goldilocks story. In relation to the Sun, we’re in the perfect place to maintain our oceans.

Unlike Venus which is too close to the Sun. The solar radiation tears apart the water oxygen and hydrogen molecules. Hydrogen slips off into space. Goodbye, water.

And unlike Mars which is too far from the Sun. There isn’t enough solar radiation to keep water moving. All the water there turned into runaway glaciers.

We’ve got just the right balance to maintain our oceans. Not too hot, not too cold.

To read more about the watery space journey of our oceans to Earth, please click on this link: Alien Origins of Earth’s Oceans.

Connect To Our Oceans

Students of The Radiance Technique® (TRT®), can focus on the ocean in their meditations and reflect on our deep connection to salt water, all the way down to our own bodies which are filled with saline water.

Students of The Second Degree of The Radiance Technique® can direct energy to Earth’s oceans. You can also take the time to direct to specific oceanic mammals and creatures – there are many to choose from. How about starfish, seahorses, whales, deep ocean creatures that don’t see the light because they live so far down in the ocean’s depths?

All of our oceanic animals could benefit from our loving support.

Celebrate Our Oceans

On World Oceans Day, we remind everyone of the major role the oceans have in everyday life. They are the lungs of our planet, providing most of the oxygen we breathe. 

June 8 is a day to celebrate together the beauty, the wealth and the promise of the ocean. And to remind ourselves to care for the oceans, every day, throughout the year.

Brave and Beautiful Bees

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World Bee Day

World Bee Day arrives with fanfare on May 20, but of course, we know that EVERY DAY is world bee day. These little pollinators are our life blood. Bees provide our daily bread as they seed pollen throughout the plant world and our crops.

“Why a World Bee Day?

By observing World Bee Day each year, we can raise awareness on the essential role bees and other pollinators play in keeping people and the planet healthy, and on the many challenges they face today.”

Bees In History

Thousands of years ago, the Egyptians gave honor to our bees. Bee drawings are found on obelisks and in hieroglyphic representations. Pots decorated with a bee and filled with honey were found in the tombs of the pharaohs.

If you have an Instagram account, you can connect with Ben’s Bees, a delightful beekeeper in Australia. He loves to share all things bees: honey, history and fun facts. in this photo, he talks about bees in Egypt and how they were revered.

An Egyptian writing describes how working bees fall from the tears of the Sun God Ra. Well, that sounds about right, doesn’t it?

The Bee Shortage Is Real

My parents lived in Washington State and their home had a large lot where they had raspberry vines and apple trees. One summer they told me that they didn’t have any apples or raspberries, because there were not enough bees to pollinate the flowers. I was horrified and couldn’t believe this was really happening. My heart was crushed.

I suggested getting a beekeeper to place a hive or two on their property, but they were in their 80s and sadly, the process had already started for them to move to a smaller place. Their house was sold and they moved away. I still wonder what happened to their wonderful raspberry vines and apple trees. The beautiful apple pies and homemade raspberry jam that my parents carefully crafted are cherished memories of delicious family-shared treats.

Help Our Bees

One thing we can do is support local beekeepers. Buy local honey. Yes, it costs more, but you also know you are getting pure honey and not honey laced with corn syrup that’s been imported.

It’s been said that eating honey from your local environment helps provide positive exposure to local pollens and can help to lessen hay fever allergies. We’re not sure how much of that is scientifically true, but it’s a lovely idea.

If you have a backyard, plant some bee-friendly plants. You can also do this on a balcony with potted plants. Eliminate or decrease the amount of pesticides or herbicides that you use. Consider having a wildlife-friendly backyard.

For students who have studied The Second Degree of The Radiance Technique®, you have the opportunity to direct energy to bees and beekeepers. Help support the inner fabric of the world of bees and help build their strength and immunity to adverse conditions.

We can also direct energy to the decisions made by humanity to use fewer pesticides and herbicides that threaten our insect world.

Students of both The First and Second Degree of TRT® can apply TRT® hands-on during a meditation with the bees and expand their awareness of how they contribute to the life cycle. Expanding your love for bees is beneficial for all. Spend extra time in Front Position #1 for your meditation.

“Today, bees, pollinators, and many other insects are declining in abundance. World Bee Day provides an opportunity for all of us – whether we work for governments, organizations or civil society or are concerned citizens – to promote actions that will protect and enhance pollinators and their habitats, improve their abundance and diversity, and support the sustainable development of beekeeping.”

As we celebrate our bees every day, we hold in our hearts that there will be a great planetary awakening that recognizes and protects our precious bees.

Love live our Bees!

Earth Day Inside Our Homes

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Celebrate Earth Day

It’s April 22 and today we celebrate Earth Day! Except this year, much of it will be spent inside or practicing our new activity of social distancing, so gathering together for Earth Day events won’t be quite the same of past years.

We Belong To The Earth

We are reminded in this quote that our human lives are tied to our planet. Even if you succeeded at living on Mars, you would not just run out the door of your house for a walk in the park. Firstly, you’d need to climb into your spacesuit that would provide oxygen. And heaven help you if your unit failed.

No oxygen? It will only take a couple of minutes for that to no longer be a problem. As in, you will have expired and oxygen will no longer be needed for your lifeless body.

Well, on that cheery note, let us give a moment of thanks to our trees and plants that contribute oxygen to this planet.

Oxygen = breath = life. Our precious breath that allows us to be here. It’s the cry of a newborn baby as his lungs fill with life-sustaining air. It’s our breath in our meditations. Our lifeline to this planet is our breath. We are deeply connected to our precious earth.

Ideas For A Locked-Down Earth Day

Rainier Fruit from Washington State put together some ideas for creating Earth Day habits that we can do at home and that extend throughout the year. Because, truly, Earth Day is not just a day. It’s a way of life.

Rainier’s ideas are easily translated into our daily lives. Do you remember your parents telling you to turn off the lights if you’re not in the room? That’s an easy one.

Leftovers are a great way to decrease waste and to help your budget. Make an initial investment in some reusable containers to store leftover foods in the refrigerator. Glass is great for tomato or oily based foods. For plastic containers, make sure they are BPA-free.

Can’t stand eating the same meal two days in a row? Make use of your freezer. Divide leftover meals into single-serve containers. Let them defrost in the refrigerator and voilà, a meal you can enjoy a week, or even a month, later.

Eating-up your leftovers has the added benefit of decreasing your time spent cooking. A little reheat on a stovetop or in a microwave makes a quick and satisfying meal.

Just say NO to plastic, one-time use water bottles. Klean Kanteen is my go-to for sustainable bottles, but there are a lot of different companies that fulfill this purpose. You can also get reusable, insulated containers for when you visit your favorite coffee shop. Decrease your use of single-use coffee cups.

I carry my 8-ounce coffee container into Starbucks (double espresso, touch of milk) and have never had a problem with them taking it. I even get a 5¢ discount for using my own container. Hey, every little bit helps!

If you like big coffee drinks, hot or cold, the insulated mugs come in all sizes to accommodate various caffeine-concoctions.

In Touch With Nature

For those of us stuck in small apartments where it’s difficult to get out, our need for nature looms more strongly than we ever realized. It’s easy to take nature for granted until we can’t be in it.

Given how much our planet sustains us, we want to make sure it’s cared for in a responsible way. Sometimes it can feel overwhelming. This big planet – I’m just a small human, what can *I* do to help?

Each of us can help in very small ways. If you never leave a piece of trash on the highway or in the park, that is one less piece of trash. If you put into practice just a couple ideas this year, and then add to that next year, and so on, when it’s all added together, we begin to make a difference.

Enjoy and connect to Planet Earth today and every day!

Happy Easter

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It’s Easter Sunday

“The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is inside of you.”
— Joel Osteen
 

A New Dawn by John

It’s Not Outside Of You

Powerful words from Joel Osteen. He speaks of an active participation, your participation, not something unattainable floating in the sky out of reach. He calls to the resurrection, a renewal, within you.

Don’t be fooled be the world of outer appearances. It’s not outside of you, it’s inside you. You are not just a materialistic thing, you are the living, breathing experience of your life, your heart, your inner light.

Christianity points to a resurrection, a coming into the Light. You have the power to step into it.

It’s a journey, that’s for sure. And yet, it’s one that each of us can make. Indeed, some say it’s the destiny of all humans, no matter how long or how many lifetimes it takes them to get there.

It’s Inside You

Easter and its promise of greater light, the resurrection of our heart – we can relax into the rebirth that is offered to all of us. The light is within you.

Allow yourself some time to focus on this light, within and without, and share this holy day with Christians all around the world.

Easter is now and always.

Meditation In A Pandemic

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COVID-19 CoronaVirus

A virus from China has been unleashed across the world. People are getting sick and some are dying. Everyone living on this planet is aware of this. Draconian measures have been taken to try to contain it and mitigate the impact.

This is a focused post for our students of The Radiance Technique® (TRT®), Authentic Reiki® as a support for their meditations during this time of a pandemic.

Through the inner plane science of TRT® – expanded universal energy is focused in your hands and you then have Radiant Touch® – allowing you access to universal, transcendental energy. This post will focus on use of Radiant Touch® in the application of TRT® hands-on as a supportive process.

Many people find themselves sequestered at home, unable to work. We often complain about having to go to work, but suddenly when faced with not being able to work along with the lack of a paycheck, we actually wish we could get back to work.

It’s a time of uncertainty, stress and even deep-seated fear. There are ways to help yourself through this difficult time. With TRT® hands-on, we are able to access universal energy to help bring balance to our body, thoughts and feelings.

TRT® hands-on is a vital part of all degrees of The Radiance Technique®, so these suggestions apply to students of both The First Degree and The Second Degree of TRT®.

A Center Point Within

Many of us are being told by our local and federal governments to stay-at-home and to shelter in place. With extra time at home, it’s a good opportunity for a full TRT® hands-on session, from top to bottom.

An entire session promotes balance throughout your whole body-mind-spirit continuum. Commit to an entire TRT® hands-on session each day. You will connect to a flowering radiant energy that responds to your own needs. Over time, take notice of how it’s manifesting in your daily life. Perhaps a better perspective? More patience? Calmer? Clarity of thought?

It will be your own experiment and experience, unfolding naturally for you. There’s no need to force anything. Simply relax into your TRT® hands-on session.

Include a positive affirmation with your hands-on session if you’d like. One powerful affirmation is: “I am whole, I am well, I am free.” This is from the book The ‘Reiki’ Factor in The Radiance Technique® by Dr. Barbara Ray. She shares this positive affirmation with us in Chapter 15 that starts on page 112. This book is available for your immediate reference from Amazon as an eBook.

Fear In The Community

During the virus outbreak, fear pulsates through the awareness of people. We might be afraid for ourselves, or fearful for a beloved family member who is at high-risk. That fear connects to our survival and a fear of death. We’re reminded of our mortality.

Fear is contagious. You might find yourself wondering if you do indeed, need large quantities of toilet paper, when just the day before you were quite sure you didn't.

To help balance yourself, spend extra time with Back Position Number 4. This center, the root chakra or sacral center, connects us to our survival. Let yourself become aware of the emotions swirling around the planet and know that not all of them are yours.

The root center connects us to Mother Earth as well. If you have the ability to spend a moment on a balcony or in a backyard or park, inhale the air and know that the Earth is holding you even in difficult times.

This center also connects us to our immortality in spirit. Allow yourself extra time of 10 or 15 minutes of TRT® hands-on in this center. Relax into your connection in the light of spirit, your connection to the cosmos.

You can remind yourself of this universal spark while doing your hands-on with the words from Carl Sagan, “We are all star stuff.”

Loss of Control

Trying to fight an invisible virus can bring up feelings of helplessness. We experience a loss of control.

We can’t go where we want, do what we wish to do, or even provide for our families as we normally would. Many people experience emotions of imbalance, feeling powerless. Be aware of how you are connected to all these feelings shared by your neighbors and fellow citizens. All of us are a part of the vast body of humanity.

To help balance those emotions, spend extra time in Front Position Number 3. You could also do a combination of one hand in Front Position Number 2 and one hand in Front Position Number 3. This allows you to work with your solar plexus, a power center, and balance your own sense of radiant power and well-being. This is a great position to use while binge-watching any of your favorite shows. You can do both at the same time!

Spend extra time in Back Position Number 3. This helps to balance your adrenals, your natural fight-or-flight response and it helps to release pent-up stress.

Far Apart, Yet Close Within

In this time of “social distancing,” we may be feeling lonely or sad that we can’t be with loved ones. Being separated from those we love might bring up feelings of loss, even unrelated to the current situation. Maybe this situation emphasizes the loss of family members.

Spend extra time in Front Position Number 1. Here, you can meet your loved ones in the heart and know that we are connected, always, even when we’re physically apart. When you talk with someone on FaceTime or Skype, or on the phone, place one hand in your heart center while talking and listening. It helps to deepen the connection and lets you focus on the energy behind the words. Our hearts sing to one another across time and space. “Listen, listen, listen to my heart song….”

Remember, we will get through this. And we’ll get through it together.

Ring Out Wild Bells

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Call Out To The Wild Sky

It’s time to say goodbye to 2019 and a big hello to our new year of 2020.

Ring Out, Wild Bells

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
   The flying cloud, the frosty light:
   The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
   Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
   The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind
   For those that here we see no more;
   Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
   And ancient forms of party strife;
   Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
   The faithless coldness of the times;
   Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
   The civic slander and the spite;
   Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
   Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
   Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
   The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
   Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1850)

Happy New Year 2020

As we speed around the Sun of our solar system, another year has passed.. Whirling, stumbling, whisking ourselves into a froth as we count down, and then count up, another year, another decade.

We humans like to count things. We like to measure and and delineate our hours and days. It helps us to feel organized and to make sense of a wide world without borders that looms before us.

The cosmos whirs on without a thought of numbers or counting. What is a year to the universe? Does the universe count its cycles? Maybe it measures things in a universal breath. How long is a breath-in and a breath-out in the deep, dark vastness of outer space?

Inhale. Exhale.

The Light In Our Hearts

Alfred Lord Tennyson, coming from his Victorian background, rings in Christ who represents the light. Whatever our religion or spiritual beliefs, we keep the light burning bright in our hearts as we welcome a new year and move into winter.

For students of The Radiance Technique® (TRT®), we can bring to our hands-on meditations the ringing out of negativity and the ringing in of positive aspects of our lives. Students of The Second Degree of The Radiance Technique® can direct energy to one of the verses of the poem. We are able to direct energy to ideas and energies as well as concrete people and things.

The Winter Solstice has passed.

Remember, even in the dead of winter, the days are slowly growing longer, carrying us forward into spring. A little more light each day. Let that light warm your heart along the way.