Region 7 Newsletter

Spring 2010

A new year is starting

So here we are again, another year and another newsletter. Bryan Timms and the gang have been kept busy re-establishing the Trust's presence at shows and Kevin Doe has been doing sterling work supporting your views and dealing with issues. We have two new healing groups in the region - in Brentwood and Westcliff-on-Sea - see the listings. Diana and Alan Bylett keep our website up to date where you can download current newsletters and retrieve information on events and training. We do need more reviews though, so if you have read a great book or heard a wonderful piece of music, do get in touch with them.

Penny has written a thoughtful, sensitive article on giving, receiving and the changes that come with age; something which many of us are facing in one way or another.

Most importantly for us, we have the AGM coming up which promises to be a laugh, (see below). Gill Wilson is standing down as Chair, Jan Dicks as Secretary, and I as Editor. I will have left the Region before the AGM, so we need an editor by the end of March though articles can still be sent to me in the meantime. These are important roles, but not difficult. The Chair is required to be a full member. Please contact either of the Gills or Jan for more information.

With love and light for your future growth

Gill Pettitt - Editor

RTO REPORT

Give and Receive

The request for the New Year article for our newsletter came at the time when, like all of you reading this no doubt, I was up to my eyes in Christmas shopping lists, wrapping paper and sellotape so the theme of giving and receiving seemed a very apt subject to look at. It was not the giving or receiving of gifts from the shops that came to mind but more how we need to learn when to give of ourselves and when we need to sit back and receive.

As healers we are all encouraged to heal ourselves before we think of healing others and that means accepting healing for ourselves rather than always giving it, especially at those times when we are ill or vulnerable. This allows us to restore our own energy levels so that we can go out and give again. This seems to be common sense doesn't it? But how often do we become the Rescuer, rushing out to give of ourselves for the benefit of others without realising that we could be taking away their own sense of esteem by doing it for them? Are we are not really setting out to give to others at this time just to bolster our own neediness? Always giving and never letting ourselves receive can render those we want to give to, powerless to give something back and thus rob them of the joy of giving as well as their sense of self esteem. It can be addictive to be needed, valued and looked up to, to feel that we are essential to another's health and healing but unless we are mindful of maintaining the essential balance between our needs and those of others then we are not giving anything to anyone and their energy reserves can run as dry as our own.

Pride can often be a problem to receiving too - we become too proud to accept help from others who we have traditionally given to as it seems to hint at a weakening of our own abilities, which heralds itself a fear of change. This can often be seen with the role reversal that naturally comes between parent and child as both age, where the 'child' has to become the 'parent'. With dementia affecting 1 in 3 as we age this is something many of us are having to face or will have to face in the future.

Perhaps we need to be aware of the natural process of change and embrace that change with dignity and grace? Whilst I am the first to stress that we owe it to ourselves to keep ourselves physically, mentally and spiritually healthy and active for as long as we can I am also keen to stress that we need to be able to acknowledge when to 'let go' of activities that served us once but which now no longer do so. To everything there is a time and a season and we are spiritually blind if we are unable to recognise the time to move on and let go of something - to stop giving and instead sit back and receive gracefully.

Perhaps we need to be aware that although we may have been givers of our time, talents, creativity, expertise in the past, a time may come when we will perhaps need to give up some of those things and allow others the opportunity to do what we have done, in their own way - they will then grow, as we did, through being the givers and it will be our time to receive.

Change like this can often be frightening - a sign that anno domini is marching on, leaving us feeling perhaps that there is no point to our lives anymore. We have identified ourselves by our 'doingness' rather than our 'beingness' and when what we perceive as our usefulness begins to dissipate, through age or infirmity we experience a deep sense of loss and a state of panic can set in at what we sense we are losing. But perhaps we need to change our mind set and create a different reality. Rather than fearing what we are losing, embrace instead what we are receiving, accepting with grace the place that we inhabit at that moment, knowing that all things come and all things go and that each moment of our life is a truly wonderful gift, if only we are able to view it that way.

May the New Year bring us all many such gifts and may we all have the grace to receive them with open arms.

Penny Gillman

Healing in Layer Marney, Chilford and Bury

The weather on the day was very wet to say the least and personally I didn`t expect many visitors. However I was pleased to be proved wrong as there was quite a large footfall through the Long Gallery. It was pleasant to have a large open fireplace in the middle of one wall with a good log fire burning. Layer Marney Tower is quite interesting; started in the 1520s by Lord Marney and his family who left in 1523. Completed by later owners, it is still a privately owned estate with a pet farm, shop, and a tea room in the stables, in which the stalls are still present. We had enough people experiencing healing to be able to break even plus £1, so all in all not too bad a day.

Our next date, in November, organised by Suzanna Trowsdale was at Chilford Hall. Laura Nina Zealey said, "It was really worthwhile. Suzanna did a lovely job of decorating the booth and organizing helpers. Also a lot of healers came to help and enjoyed the interaction with each other and the public. A few signed up for training. Our booth is an important statement to the public to let them know that healing is on offer, has supporters and works. Thanks to everyone who came and made the event the success that it was. I certainly enjoyed being at the stand and the joy of healing, especially those for whom it is a first experience." Suzanna also wishes to say "THANK YOU to all the wonderful healers who came to help at Chilford Hall. The stand had a lovely atmosphere and we reached out to a lot of people."

The last event of the year was held at the Athenaeum in Bury St Edmunds. Unfortunately, due to the Christmas Fayre held previously and a visit from the Duchess of Windsor on the Sunday, the footfall through was rather thin. We had a lovely spot upstairs in the quiet area which is put aside for therapies, and although this was not a very busy time it should be much more active in May 2010.

Bryan Timms