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You heard it here first! and here’s the url to prove it! http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/31/us-catholic-bishops-reiki

Proving how scared they are - particularly of empowered women healers and leaders, I expect - Catholic bishops in the US are banning Reiki. Here’s a quote from the story: “Reiki, an alternative Japanese therapy with a growing band of followers in the west, is “unscientific” and “inappropriate” for use in Catholic institutions, according to America’s bishops.

Guidelines issued by the committee on doctrine at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops warn healthcare workers and chaplains that the therapy “lacks scientific credibility” and could expose people to “malevolent forces”.”

I haven’t seen the story on this side of the pond - the link a friend sent me is from the Guardian in the UK.

I wonder what the nuns at Mt. St. Joe who teach Reiki are going to do about this…. that will be interesting to see. And I’m wondering about the mental weirdness involved in call Reiki ‘unscientific’ and then talking about exposure to ‘malevolent forces’.

This is, of course, exactly what happens during a paradigm shift. For a long time, the old forces ignore the changes coming into the culture. When they notice (always too late), they begin to attack. The nice thing is that this attack will bring a lot of attention to Reiki, and even more people will experience how easy it is for us to heal and be healed by each other, without the intervention of big institutions.

And then one day, the world shifts. And instead of being outside the mainstream, Reiki becomes part of the everyday healing spectrum, used by medical personnel and all the rest of us. With, probably, the Catholic Church bringing up the back of the Bell curve.

I have a wonderful cousin who went marching off to Mt. St. Joseph in what was then far-away-Cincinnati nearly 60 years ago to become a Sister of Charity. So it was that we were invited to join in a celebration of the Mount’s 200th Anniversary Celebration for families of Sisters on March 14.

Son Brian and I drove out to the Mount after marching in the St. Patrick’s Day parade, to join in the mass and the reception that followed. A number of other members of the extended family attended from around the region as well, so we were from several months old to nearly 8 decades.

I don’t remember having been in the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception before. And it is quite a chapel, seeming larger than our parish church in Springfield OH, lo those many years before - though looking a great deal like that church, St. Raphael’s, used to. Mass itself was a joyful celebration, full of the sisters’ creativity and grace. It opened with two nuns dancing/gliding down the aisle, with long banners wafting out over those of us in attendance. The singing - those wonderful high voices - was meditation-inducing, as it had always been, and sent me straight back to the past.

A strong and gentle priest, Fr. Jim Shapelle, officiated, but otherwise the entire celebration reflected the values of those strong women at the Mount. It was a truly powerful ritual.

And then followed time to eat assorted wonderful hors d’oeuvres, drink (pink lemonade, with or without sherbet), and be merry - always easy for our crew. We also got to visit Sr. Rose Elizabeth’s (Betty’s) very self-contained and well-organized apartment, and the lounge / gathering area for the 11 other sisters in her part of the Motherhouse. There was a jigsaw puzzle going on one of the tables, so I felt right at home. It’s clearly been a great life for Betty, and she remains one of the happiest folk I know.

We managed to see the last night of August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean at the Ensemble Theater. This is the first play of Wilson’s Century Cycle, set in 1904. His stories of African American life are rich and complex, with information coming out piece by piece, and the entire puzzle only revealed at the end - or sometimes after musing on the ending after it’s all over. There is sadness, pain and the ability to just keep on in each of these plays. This play is the penultimate in writing time, but the first in chronological time.

I very much appreciate the Ensemble’s continuing to bring us Wilson’s plays, following up on Radio Golf (set in the 90s), the last play, served up last year. I saw Jitney (set in the 70s) last year as well, at the Madisonville Art Center, with producer and actor Lyle Benjamin featured. (Whenever you have a chance to see Lyle act - just take it. He is excellent!) The other one I’ve seen, at the Playhouse years ago, is Fences, set in the 50s.

The power of the mysticism in Gem is amazing, as well as the story of the bucket of nails as it is unraveled. And it introduces Aunt Ester, whose story weaves in and out of the cycle. I have been mesmerized by each of the Wilson plays I’ve seen, experiencing them not intellectually but viscerally. So I can’t tell you what to think about them - I can tell you to go experience them any time you can.

I love Gail Collins’ column in the New York Times twice a week. Very smart, a bit wicked and sneaky in her notations, sometimes downright funny - she stands well back from the fray while telling deep truth to power in a way easily heard. Perhaps the fact that she was raised in Cincinnati gave her this discerning eye.

She was the speaker in early March at the 10th Annual Woman’s City Club National Speaker’s Forum, held at the Millennium Hotel downtown (which is back in vogue for gatherings now). Her talk, titled “Scorpion Tongues: Gossip, Celebrity and American Politics”, was very good, excellent, in fact. But not nearly as good as her writing. Which is interesting to me, since I always think that if you can write, you can speak.

It was a great and fun evening, however, since nearly all of Cincinnati’s liberals were there, and we all got to catch up with each other. Good thing it was a big room - since there are so many more of us than there were just a few short years ago.

What a treat! And I bought Gail’s book from 2003, America’s Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines. Which turned out to be the right choice from the pile, since her new book, about how we American women have fared since 1960, will be out in the fall. I’ll report out on 400 Years soon. And her writing is exquisite!

Have you noticed? Already we seem to be heading into a drought-y situation. We get lots of rain predictions, and not much rain. All this week, the predictions have been just of showers, some of which have arrived. But no real slow lengthy rains, which is what we need to build the water tables and keep our land green and healthy.

One of the reasons the hurricane last fall did so much damage was because of the severe drought the year before - many limbs were just not as strong as they had been.

I think it’s been at least a couple of years since we had one of those rainy days that I remember from when I was a kid - the day-long rains, not battering and thunderstormy, but just gentle and persistent precipitation. Didn’t much like them then. Am praying for them now. Maybe we’ll have to invent a new rain dance.

What a treat to follow all the fun and interesting news from the White House these days. Michelle is truly the mistress of this house - in the kitchens with the chefs, having a great time at the parties that seem not to be so staid and boring as of yore, and last week out with her spade digging up the new garden.

And then Barack on 60 Minutes, showing off the kids’ swing set, talking about the new dog that will be coming, admiring his girls’ coolness in their new digs. And nearly every day, he’s signing a new Executive Order undoing some of the harm done over the last 8 years. So many great changes in such a short time.

I was blown away by the unique wonderfulness of creating a respectful, friendly and powerful video message for Iran’s leaders and peoples, celebrating one of their great holidays. And speaking Farsi at the end as though it were his language.

The craziness for me is the pundits / commentators / news folk, who think because Iran said it meant nothing that it really means nothing. Somehow we’ve all gotten out of the habit of understanding how growth and change happen. Ideas have to be put out into the culture, then work their way around for a short while or a long while - and then suddenly things change. The news media especially believes their own hype that everything is massively important right now, and that if Iran didn’t change in two days, it never will.

Change is coming for all of us every day - and for Iran when that respect and offer of friendship grow in Iranian hearts. Just wait and see!

Ran across a table full of old books in a community school early this year - borrowed an Agatha Christie: The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories, because I hadn’t read one of her mysteries for such a long time.

These stories were still fun, and since I didn’t remember whether I’d read them before, I still didn’t get the puzzles til near the end. Her take, her point of view, on her stories, and her so-real leading characters still make excellent reading. Many of my favorites are those inspired by her summers on digs in Iraq/Mesopotami and Egypt with her archaeologist husband. Death Comes As the End is tops on my list. I love all of Jane Marple, too, and who wouldn’t love Monsieur Hercule Poirot.

I read every word she ever wrote through the 60s to mid-70s. I love the worlds she created in what is now a separate genre called cozy British mysteries. What a treat to return to her and find the delight and interest still there. Thanks, Dame Agatha, wherever you are!

I read every one of the Animorphs, by K. A. Applegate to Grandson Patrick as he was coming up. By early teens, there was less of that and more of him reading on his own and telling me the stories. This story of this being weaves in several ways in and out of the Animorphs, who were teen kids who could become animals, using those disguises to overcome evil.

So I had never read The Ellimist Chronicles for myself, and several weeks ago it managed to fall from the Animorphs shelf onto the bed in Patrick’s old room. Aha, I thought - I shall read it.

Her stories are always full of great descriptions, lots of action and compelling characters. And so it is with the Ellimist, a gamer not taken very seriously on the crystal platforms where his people live above their planet. Yet he becomes he best gamer in the universe over endless spans of time and then…. Ah, but I won’t spoil it for you.

Science fiction and science fantasy are always about creating worlds to see how they work. This is the entire universe - with mostly bad guys as the major characters. There is beauty, though, and learning. Quite an interesting book to think about.

This is a very interesting deck a friend gave me several years ago. If you described it to me, I’d love it - every card has at least one shapeshifter - a person transitioning into a totem animal, adopting those characteristics to learn and to grow in each given situation.

Somehow, though, often the effect is jarring, not growth filled. And then there’s the fact that the author calls swords a fire symbol, and wands an air symbol. That’s jarring, too, and makes no sense to my right or left brains.

Playing with it last night, for the first time in a long time, while teaching a class, I did a little reading for myself. It turned out to be interesting and positive. As I looked at the three cards again now, preparing to blog about it, what I heard was ‘the end of sorrow’. That sure seems like a terrific idea!

And just a minute ago, another card leaped out of the deck on to the floor. Determined to get my attention, and make a comment. I’ll keep you posted if that card’s message manifests! : >

I love jigsaw puzzles. Almost always have one going on the dining room table. Love to have just the right puzzle for a particular season and / or holiday. Managed to find one last fall for Valentine’s Day - that was great fun to be working on just in the February timeframe. Have never yet found one for St. Patrick’s Day - think I’ll google to make that happen for 2010.

After the Valentine’s puzzle, full of pink, I was ready to do a puzzle I’d been holding off doing until spring. It’s a panorific puzzle, and I’d done several before. It’s 34″ long and 12″ high - or 15 rows high. My first one, several years ago, was of the Himalayas - included almost the entire range - with one tiny human summiting Everest - a gift. Then I found one on my own - New York’s skyline. These are super fun, very challenging puzzles, with lots of variation / shadings / color changes.

Machu Picchu was another gift, from a friend who knows my love for sacred spiritual places. An aerial view of the legendary ancient mountain top settlement in the Andes - full of bright spring greens and deep greens shading off into a brilliant cloudy sky. Plus the stone walls and pathways built so long ago. It took nearly 3 weeks! The most challenging one yet - but it did not send me off into despair. It always felt do-able - just required persistence.

And it looks great, laying on the table, all finished. I think it’ll be there for a while!