Dragonfly Reiki

Happy Juneteenth! 💚♥️💛🖤

There is no joy I've witnessed quite like Black joy. Those of us who have taken our freedom for granted can't possibly know what liberation feels like. It's like explaining water to a fish. You only know it once you've been deprived of it.

And although Black bodies in the United States are still not truly free in every sense of the word, I do believe the ancestral celebration of that announcement on June 19, 1865 is a cellular memory in every Black American who can trace their bloodline back to someone who was once enslaved.

The work is far from being done. As we observe this Juneteenth, it's painfully obvious how much more work needs to be done to repair and correct the harms still being perpetrated daily by a white supremacist culture.

One of the things that drew me to Zen Buddhism in my late 20s was learning about the bodhisattva, an awakened or enlightened person who delays their own personal liberation to ensure the liberation of all sentient beings. This is a path that is open to everyone, and there are certain characteristics or qualities of someone on the bodhisattva path, including compassion, skillful means, steadfastness, and self-sacrifice.

For me, the bodhisattva vow is a daily reminder that real freedom cannot come for me or anyone else if I'm an "instigator of further chaos and misery in the world". It also ties in neatly with the Reiki Precepts, a daily spiritual practice where Reiki practitioners commit to reducing anger and worry by cultivating the "miraculous medicine to cure all diseases" through gratitude, diligent work, and compassion.

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"Sitting quietly, just breathing in and out, we develop strength, concentration, and clarity. So sit like a mountain. No wind can blow the mountain down. If you can sit for half an hour, enjoy sitting for half an hour. If you can sit for a few minutes, enjoy sitting for a few minutes. That is already good."
-Thich Nhat Hanh (Touching Peace)