My Journey with Reiki: Part 4

Balancing Priorities

The irony of receiving any promotion in corporate America – is that you are rarely allowed to delegate any of your previous responsibilities. In other words, in addition to performing your new job, one usually ends up performing one’s old job as well.

In my case, this was true. I was performing all of my old responsibilities as well as my new ones. If my memory is correct, I believe at this point I had 3 or 4 different job titles. Although my paycheck was larger, it was not even close to 2x my previous salary.

I put in a lot of hours on the job. My boss made it clear what my objectives were…and what initiatives I needed to develop & implement. Even though it was clear what I needed to accomplish, I kept looking for an exit point….a safe place to jump off the rollercoaster that became my life.

Approximately two months after I received my latest promotion at work…and coincidentally two months after I received my Reiki Master Teacher attunements…I received a telephone call from my 70-something year old mom. She was calling from the Emergency Room of a local hospital. It seems she slipped & fell at an outdoor gear and camping equipment store. Evidently she seriously broke her ankle and would require emergency surgery.

My husband & I drove into town, moved her car from the store’s parking lot to her home, returned to the hospital, made sure her paperwork was in order and kept her company and gave her Reiki for a while.

The next morning she checked out of the hospital and I spent the next 5 weeks shopping for her groceries, checking her mail, making sure her bills were paid, and giving her Reiki every single day.

Although my life was chaotic during this time period, spending this time with my mom and giving her Reiki performed a significant grounding function for me. It helped me to remain focused on what was really important and not take the stress at work too seriously.

I took my mom to her 5 week check-up with a local orthopedic surgeon. This was supposed to be a standard check-up to see how she was progressing…take some x-rays, maybe give her a new cast, etc. They x-rayed her ankle and puzzled over it for a while. The x-ray technician said, “I can’t see any break or fracture…it’s gone…”

Next she met with the orthopedic surgeon. He took a look at her x-rays and gave himself a pat on the back for his good work. He said with a bit of amazement that her ankle was completely healed. They took off her cast and said that no physical therapy or rehab needed to be scheduled.

Before we left his office, I asked the orthopedic surgeon, “Normally how long does it take for a 70-something year old woman to heal after a break like this?”

Without missing a beat the doctor said, “A minimum of 3 months in a cast followed up by significant physical therapy.”

I told the doctor he did excellent work! ;-)

With regard to my job, by this time I figured out that I had enough money in my nest egg to take at least a 6 month sabbatical (in other words, quit my job and not have another job lined up). Lucky for me, my husband was also supportive of my decision to take some much needed time off work. I wrote my letter of resignation and had it on my computer at work. All I had to do was change the date on the letter…when the time was right.

This was not something that I was going to be flippant about. I took this decision very seriously. My decision to quit was going to affect a lot of people. I wanted to make sure that I dotted every “I” and crossed every “T” before making my exit.

A week after my mom got the “okay” from her physician, and after all the initiatives my boss asked me to create were implemented, my husband I took a long vacation. The morning I returned to work…lets just say I was slammed with multiple problems before I even got to my desk to log on to my computer. The first thing I did was open MS Word to bring up my letter of resignation. I changed the date on the header, and turned the letter into my boss.

It was the best work related decision I ever made!