Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?

So I made it back from New Orleans [unfortunately]. I was there April 19-30, and it was even better than last time.

Now I'm back in Wisconsin for May, trying to get school done once and for all. There's still so much to do, and so little time. The next two weeks will be pivotal, before graduation May 27th. But then I've got to get back to New Orleans as soon as possible, hopefully around June 1st.

Since New Orleans found me in November, nothing else has really mattered, and that feeling has gotten stronger with each passing month. To feel fulfilled, to get rid of this restlessness that's been present for nearly half a year now, the thing I must do is Reiki. And the place I must do it is New Orleans.

On Monday the coolest thing happened. I was in the Black Cat by great coincidence of Jannette letting me borrow the car after getting back from May Day in Minneapolis the night before...it was a perfect peaceful morning back in Ashland and I was feeling like myself again. My phone rang, and the area code said 504. "Who's calling me from New Orleans?!!!" And it was this lady, who had heard there was Reiki at the clinic and got my phone number from them, and was calling to make an appointment! I sure would have loved to if I wasn't in Wisconsin right now! But I said I'd give her a call in June as soon as I get back. I could hear New Orleans in her voice. She talked about her pain and the storm and the ongoing chaos. Yet another story out of those hundreds of thousands of stories that have the same threads, similar shades of color, all that weave together into the one big STORY of NOLA & Katrina. Sitting on the back couch in the Black Cat, missing New Orleans, I was elated to get this call and be a part of it again for a few minutes; I look forward to hearing the rest of this lady's story when I get back. No one's ever called before, sought me out that much; I guess she knows she needs Reiki real bad. I hope that lady knows she made my day.