Yesterday was my birthday. It is not one of those big ones, just a number. Birthdays never meant much to me because during my long dysfunctional marriage, my birthday was rarely celebrated. I suppose now I can chalk it up to his mental illness which I didn’t really have any comprehension of at the time. But whatever, that’s a thing long past, and I don’t want to give it my time and energy. I bring it up to contrast those years, with the two I have spent with Dan, who makes it a big deal and loves to shower me with attention and gifts.

This year, a couple of weeks before my birthday, he began researching gongs. I am still looking for a gong bath down here. I hear rumors, but they never pan out. I have begun to talk about buying a couple of them that are affordable, and some singing bowls, maybe a drum or two, and perhaps holding my own gong baths here. I feel confident in my knowledge of sound/vibrational healing. I only needed a gong to begin with. Dan found some that were hundreds of $$, as opposed to the thousands of $$$ that I had thought. So I began to plot ways to earn the money to buy one.

But the next thing I knew, one was being delivered to my door. A beautiful 30” symphonic gong. And a stand to hang it on. We set it up and began just fooling around with it, and the sounds it can make. I began a couple of on-line courses on how to play one, as well as other sound/vibrational instruments. While Dan doesn’t really buy into my spiritual path, he is totally respectful of it. He really enjoys the sound and playing of the singing bowls. I have owned a Tibetan bowl for a long time, and we also have a crystal one. He enjoys playing the gong as well.

So I am embarking on a new journey. A sound healing facilitator. It’s kind of ironic, because I have always been terrified to get up in front of a crowd. But I don’t feel any fear of this. I believe in it, having done so much good healing work myself through the gongs. I know with some practice I can bring that to others. I feel I can start with my two groups that I meet with regularly, my writers group and my spirit girls. I can bring them into my house and practice on them, and I’m pretty sure they will love it. I know of a couple places that I could rent space fairly cheaply, or I can just have small groups of 4 or 5 in my house. I could even do individual sound healings if I got a massage table for someone to lie on.

I’m also looking into learning different modalities of energy healing. Here in Florida, you have to have a massage therapists license to practice reiki. It’s a stupid law, reiki has nothing to do with massage, there is no manipulation of muscles or anything else, just a gentle laying on of hands as most of you know. But if I can perform a different modality of energy healing, and combine it with the gongs, I might be able to make some extra money at it, and I’d be doing something I love and believe in.

So, it seems, my birthdays have gotten much lovelier, and my life is beginning to head down a path that I am pretty excited about. The picture at the top is my gong from Dan. How lucky am I?

Love and light to all.