Autobio By Reverend R Clark <clark@acceleration.net>
Originally written under the title "Way-lated Introduction"
Sent to healingtoday@yahoogroups.com: Wed, 25AUG2K4
Online version Updated Sun, 16OCT2011.
Greetings Folks!
I belong to Many listservs, mostly I hold membership on music and drumming listservs and have done since coming online and going live in 1998, at the request of my Ethics professor at Santa Fe College (SFC). I moderate for Djembe-L since JAN1999, and later was invited to do so for Rhythm Healing, Learn the Djembe, and Spirituality and Wellness, in addition I own and moderate Drumming_Peace all of them listservs on Yahoogroups. For Djembe-L and the extended community of all hand drummers I created and maintain the "Djembe-L WebRing" since AUG1999.I reside in Gainesville, FL, my hometown. I hold the Third degree in Usui Shiki Ryoho Reiki as Master/Teacher and am currently am open to all teaching/learning situations. I've put together a promotional package to explain my stance to students and especially the terminally ill and those with chronic conditions interested in taking part in their healing process by becoming their own Reiki practitioner. Part of this project included coming up with a reasonably comprehensive listing of the various and ubiquitous forms of energy healing and researching Reiki in general for educating my students.
From 1APR1998-12FEB2K7 I provided care and advocated for my birth parents Philip (12OCT1912-20MAY2K), and Olga (18APR1916-13JAN2K9 ) easing their transitions back to the realm of Spirit. In 2K5, I rescued a WoKi (half Wolf, half HusKi, half something completely other worldly) companion named, by the folks that raised her the first couple years of her life, Wizda (wisdom with no dumb what so ever). After my parents no longer needed my direct care, on 19FEB2K7, I accepted a position working as a Direct Service Worker (DSW) in a group home for developmentally disabled gentlemen run by the local ARC of Alachua County (Association for Retarded Citizens). I worked with them for a bit over four months, until the home was to be closed and the residents scattered out to other living situations when I transferred over from the Residential department to what is called the Adult Day Program in the position of a "floater." This proved to be wonderful as I got to work with a much larger group of people, potentially everyone in the workshop daytime programs. In November, 2010, due to failing health, I took a lateral position change to working 1:1 with an intellectually challenged individual and continue to do so at this time.
Like many of Ya'll, I too have health issues having never totally recovered lost ground from a car wreck, Christmas of 1994, where I had every bone in my chest broken multiple times, a broken tricuspid valve in my heart (on 23NOV2010, I had this valve replaced), both kneecaps shattered and both legs broken. I stayed in the hospital for over two months total, three weeks of which were spent on a respirator and then two more months in a nursing home because I hadn't a leg to stand on, followed by ten days inpatient and several months outpatient rehabilitation. I was practically reborn needing to learn how to breathe and walk all over again.
This sustained contact with the healthcare system, convinced me that there is little health and very little caring going on in this market driven, bottom line conscious, mechanistic industry as practiced here in the USA. It galvanized me to return to school for Pre-medical professional courses so that I might offer folks alternatives to this impersonal and rather myopic allopathic medicine model. This "system" saved my life and most assuredly did not recognize or preserve my human dignity or personal power.
Many people it seems enter this field for the right reasons and lose their dreams along the way, while others are unabashedly motivated by greed. Burnout, can take many forms and some ones use the ostensible title of "doctor, nurse, therapist" to do what amounts to abuse of their power over others. 'Tis not the best time to be ill in America especially in light of the shameful ranking, according to the World Health Report in Y2K, of the 191 countries in their study, the U.S. spent the highest percentage (13.7%) of its Gross Domestic Product on health care but still managed only to achieve an overall ranking of 37 worldwide, and when compared to 14 western nations ranked 13th, ouch.
Actually, it is my belief there are no accidents, going through all this 'twas truly one of the most wonderful and blessed experiences of my life. For I now have direct experience of many things where I formerly had only an intellectual concept. For example --everything and everyone is one thing, seamless and of "whole cloth," not a "patchwork quilting" of things. Also, having been to "Heaven's Door" revealed to me there is nothing to fear in death or otherwise, because all pain and suffering are most assuredly in this world and that as 'Spirit having a human experience' we are ultimately Safe. Plus I value each day I am given since the crash and feel that I continue to be here for some higher purpose as I had many opportunities to leave my broken vessel and the material world behind.
People hear my story and the near universal response is, “Wow, you should be grateful with all those injuries you are lucky to be alive!” Are not all who are alive in possession of this same luck and hence responsible for the same degree of gratitude? Sure there was and is a lot of pain surrounding my wounding, and pain is inevitable and suffering optional in my book. Pain is my friend, and tells me quite clearly when I overstep my physical bounds, “Do this differently.” I don't suffer much and wish to help others out of their unnecessary suffering by allowing them to benefit from my experience and training them to access the JAH given blessing of Reiki.
JAH (god) Loves us. JAH gives us blessings only. If we have a problem with a particular blessing due to its being well "disguised" guess where the problem is. This is so encouraging as we need only change our mind up to be in alignment with JAH, love as JAH does, to find ourselves in Grace. For rather like riding a horse, if we are in alignment with the horse (JAH) and moving in the same direction and speed as the horse, then we can steer a bit (co-creating). If we are "somewhere else" or out of alignment with "what is," then we will find ourselves abruptly in the "weeds and brambles." This is not vengeance or retribution on JAH part merely a natural consequence of our own hubris. JAH way works, my way does not. Just as with the dittys “When Ego goes Reiki Flows” and “Reiki Heal, Reiki Flow, Reiki Knows Just Where To Go,” it involves trust, faith and getting ego out the way.
Carl Jung brought forward the concept of the "Wounded Healer" pointing up that where our wounds are is where our "gift" or "calling" lies. Since I sustained the greatest blow in my heart area, I feel that what my challenge and opportunity for service is, is beyond question, solidly in the realm of Love and loving.
Enough of me talking about me, what do you think of me <Grin>?
“Underneath anger is always fear and underneath fear is always longing.”“Fear is a marvelous motivator. It is never a solution. It is always the cause of any discomfort, of any pain, of any illness.”
- "Emmanuel’s Book II: The Choice for Love," Rodegast, Pat and Stanton, Judith [Compiled by] Friend’s Press, 1989“Work on good prose has three steps: a musical stage when it is composed, an architectonic one when it is built, and a textile one when it is woven.”
-Walter Benjamin, critic and philosopher (1982-1940)
“I am grateful to You, Giver and Sustainer of life, for having granted me another day of life. Your love and faith in me is truly overwhelming.”
- Rabbi Terry Bookman, "The Busy Soul"
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Copyright (c) 1998-2011 R. Clark - clark@acceleration.net .
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this publication (www.acceleration.net/clark and all children) provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.
