There’s someone we lost far too young & far too suddenly. Our hearts will never be the same. He was our world. Marley was my daughter’s sidekick, always 3 steps behind her. Marley was full of curiosity & energy. He loved puzzle games & would eagerly await the games his best buddy had set up for the day. Our home will never be the same without him.
Without Marley, I couldn’t tell the story of how I embraced energy healing. I honestly doubt that I would have continued if it weren’t for him.
Marley is the one who showed me the power of Reiki. I knew from my own healing experiences that this channeling of source energy was profoundly healing & life changing. But I doubted it’s goodness. Reiki butted up against all that I was taught to believe. Healing was in my hands – how could that be?
Marley was just 7 years old when he passed following a sudden health downturn. Marley lived in so much fear, it destroyed his kidneys.
Lyme nephritis was ruthless. He went from healthy to direly sick overnight. We rushed him 2.5 hours away for his best chance of survival. He died in their care 3 days later.
Marley grew up side-by-side with my daughter. Her eyes lit up at just the mention of Marley. When we were gone from the house, she missed him desperately. They were inseparable.
Her drawings of Marley were adorable & delightful. She always talked about his floppy ear & his curly tail. Marley was a 9-pound Chihuahua/Maltese mix & undoubtedly the biggest ball of destruction to ever live under our roof. We love & miss him dearly. He was my little girl’s world.
His death broke her. It broke all of us.
Marley came to us at 5 months old. We do not know what this little guy endured. He likely came from a puppy mill. What we do know is that he was fearful of life, aggressive, & had tremendous anxiety.
Marley was a resource guarder, especially with his space. Petting Marley more than 6 seconds resulted in him suddenly attacking & biting without warning. The same went for being in his space more than a few moments. He seemed to enjoy being petted, until he let his fear of humans, of touch, of closeness take over.
Marley was most definitely not a snuggler in the first 3 years of his life.
I was Reiki 1 attuned in January 2018. During my first Reiki session weeks before, I experienced my own healing. I suffered from chronic pain & numbness from 2 bulging discs in my neck, as well as severe nerve damage through the left side of my body. Following that first Reiki session, I knew that my neck was healed. Read more about this part of my journey here.
When I was first beginning to do Reiki, I was unsure, doubting, scared even. A software developer by trade, this was way out of my comfort zone. Back then, if I couldn’t see it or rationalize it, I didn’t believe it. I was closed-minded & highly critical of the very things that I’ve become passionate about now.
Hope for life without chronic pain was my driving force in pursuing the “what if” this path presented.
In the 35 years leading up to this point, I’d collected traumas & repressed emotions like it was a hobby. My scars & my health issues were numerous.
Undoing 35 years of damage takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight.
Each dis-ease in essence builds upon a faulty core belief, our personal truths. These beliefs create patterns of behavior, habits, & ways of thinking. We also develop ways of existing in order to continue living life following any traumas we’ve endured.
Sometimes these beliefs & traumas are not even ours, but that of our parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents passed down through the family line. All of these patterns collectively create DNA changes within our body. This is the core of genetic dis-eases. We must restructure outdated negative core beliefs in order to live in full health.
Change those patterns & beliefs, heal your life. The good news is, in the same way faulty core beliefs were passed down & caused dis-ease, these new positive core beliefs can be passed through the family line & create health.
On a late spring evening in 2018, I sat in my living room doing self-Reiki. My dogs, Ziggy & Marley, leaped onto my lap & piled on top of each other. When I was done, they both hopped off the chair to continue their evening rituals.
This is the moment that I knew Reiki was truly good.
Dogs just know energy. A dog will go to a sad person or someone who is crying before they will go to a happy one. Likewise, they can sense if a person is dangerous. They are very tuned in. So in this moment, this was my sign to fully embrace my journey of energy healing & dive deeper.
You see, in this space & time, Marley & Ziggy would never occupy the same space, or be within a few feet of one another. Marley, the resource guarder, wouldn’t allow it. Honestly, Marley wouldn’t sit close to anyone back then, but here he was on my lap. This evening, as I did Reiki on myself, they both jumped on my chair to be as close as they possibly could to the energy.
This was a defining moment for me, to believe & know energy healing was good.
This was a defining moment for Marley, at the age of 3, to begin healing his traumas.
I began working with Marley daily. Dinner time was a nightmare. Ziggy & Marley would battle & needed to be fed separately. Marley would spend hours guarding his dish, but not eating his food. He’d absolutely lose his mind if anyone entered the room. I spent months sending him Reiki, while hand feeding him bits of kibble.
Finally, Marley ate dinner within a reasonable amount of time.
In time, this healing fell over into his demeanor.
We could now play with Marley & pet him. We could cuddle with Marley & carry him. He hated being outside so he was especially happy to be carried on hikes. He didn’t like the feel of dirt, & definitely not mud, between his toes (can you blame him?).
In the years that followed, Marley became the best snuggle buddy on the planet. He would sleep a solid 8 hours in the crook of my arm, peaceful as could be.
We all healed together.
The mental snapshot of defining moments is always with us. I happened to take the actual photo on this evening in 2018. The evening that changed my life.
Ziggy & Marley aren’t the reason I started on this path, but they are the reason I kept going when I was questioning everything about Reiki.
As I lay in bed doing Reiki to calm my allergies tonight, as always, Ziggy gravitates to me, reminding me of that moment from so long ago. Ziggy isn’t a long term snuggler, but he’s glued to my side & calm as can be any time there’s energy healing involved. He will snuggle for hours in these instances.
Ziggy has had his own physical healing that has left his vet dumbfounded. Will cover that another day. Today is for Marley.
We heal together.
What is your experience with energy healing? Tell me about it in the comments. I’d love to hear from you!
Love & light,
In loving memory of Marley. I wouldn’t be where I am without you buddy.
Unfurled Wings 
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