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By Kristina Bak
When Jane Meyers gave us a list of “Networking Questions” at our February NEW meeting, the one that struck me most was How is your work connected to what you were like growing up? Our earliest child selves are our Essential Beings, who we are before we shape-shift to meet our culture’s expectations. In that essential being lies the seed of our dreams, later nurtured or obscured by life experience, so the question is an important one. I was surprised by the connections I found as I reflected on it.
I was an only child. For my first seven years I lived on a farm with my parents. At night the only lights we saw besides our own were the moon and stars, until 1957 when the Russians launched Sputnik, which we could sometimes see moving like a tiny alien spark across the sky. Once a week or so a propeller-driven plane flew over the Cascades toward Yakima, and we would stop whatever we were doing to watch its silvery form, hardly less alien to us than the Russian satellite. We had no telephone, no TV, only a floor model radio in a wooden cabinet with a round face. My mother was a country- western musician who sang on live broadcasts from the local station. I’d press my ear against the radio’s speaker to catch her voice amid the static.
Pre-school was unheard of, and kindergarten too far away. My playmates and best friends were a huge oak tree, a herding dog who believed he was my personal bodyguard, a black cat, a blind chicken, a pinto horse, a red milk cow, an ever-changing assortment of wild creatures, frogs, and (yes) fairies. I painted, I drew, I read, and I explored.
From the age of four I was free to wander alone between our place and my grandparent’s ranch a mile or so up Ahtanum Creek, and to roam Indian reservation land on the ridge to our south. My Slovak Greek Orthodox grandmother was a beautiful woman who talked with birds and let large spiders nest in the ceiling corners of her house as friends and allies. We saw few people outside the family except our Yakama Indian neighbors and an old guitar-playing cowboy and his wife who lived further up the creek with kerosene lamps and hand-pumped water. Until I caught the yellow school bus for the long ride to first grade, that was my world.
When I asked myself Jane’s question, here are some of the connections I found between the work I do now and the lessons I learned in those early growing-up years:
Counseling––Understanding communication beyond and beneath words.
Energy Healing––Using awareness of invisible, but tangible, energies as tools for healing without the need for human-created devices.
Qigong––Engaging embodied comprehension of natural cycles for physical, emotional, and spiritual health, and finding joy in free movement and strength.
Teaching and Intuition––Respecting the unique character and dreams of every individual, connecting on a soul level, and appreciating diverse ways of being in the world.
Art––Loving the power of beauty to inspire, creativity to heal, and art to reveal the true beneath the obvious.
When you renew your acquaintance with your own Essential Being, you’ll find insights into dreams that help you become ever more your full Magnificent Self, and certainly much to be grateful for.
I look forward to seeing you at my May Showcase table where you’ll learn how my work can help you reach your dreams, and a 15-second meditation that can literally change your life.
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