Shelley Easthope Healing Arts

12/26/2025

Celebrating Hawayo Takata.

Happy 125th birthday to Hawayo Takata! 🎂

This photo was taken at the Trinity Metaphysical Center, Redwood City, California, in December 1979 to celebrate Takata's 79th birthday. About two weeks earlier, she had recorded a series of tapes meant to be the basis of her autobiography. They begin:

"Well, I was born in Hanamaulu, Hawaii, on December 24, 1900. And when I was born, there were no doctors, so all these immigrants who came from Japan in the [1800s] had midwives. [...] [My mother] asked the midwife, 'What time is it?' and the midwife said, 'The sun is just coming out over the hills.' And my mother asked the midwife, 'Is it a boy or a girl?' and the midwife said, 'It is a little baby girl, black hair, and very, very strong child.'

So my mother said, 'Please give her a bath, wrap her in a new blanket, and face her [towards] the sun. And I want you to initiate her by putting your hand on top of her head and say, 'I name you Hawayo.' And say it three times.' And after that she said, 'Success, success, and success.' So the midwife did exactly as she was told."

12/24/2025

Yesterday we cut our tree and last night we decorated it. Sombra and the cats had so much fun they needed some quiet time after it. Every Sunday in Adventure we light a new candle and share something we are very grateful for over the past year- then have a chocolate. Now the candles are all lit and our hearts are full. Our stomachs too after a delicious supper of Pierre’s tortiere!

12/13/2025

So glad to see this…show gratitude for everything!

Waves opened to a new beginning
A sanctuary built with hope and healing
Whales finally breathe in true freedom

In the cold and pristine waters off Canada’s coastline, a historic moment has unfolded. The world’s first ocean whale sanctuary has officially been approved, creating a protected haven where formerly captive whales can finally experience real space, real ocean currents, and real freedom. For whales that once lived within concrete walls, this sanctuary is more than a new home. It is a return to life as nature intended.

The sanctuary spans vast natural waters where whales can explore, dive, communicate, and move with dignity. Care teams will provide long term support, watching over these animals while allowing them to rediscover instincts lost during captivity. Marine specialists say the transition will take time. Some whales have never felt ocean tides. Some have never hunted or navigated open water. Yet the project was designed precisely for healing, giving every whale the chance to recover at its own pace in a space built around compassion.

This approval marks a shift in how humans choose to treat the giants of the sea. It shows a growing recognition that intelligence, emotion, and memory live within these animals, and that they deserve more than performance tanks and artificial pools.

In this sanctuary the ocean becomes a teacher again and freedom becomes the foundation for every new story these whales will write.

12/13/2025

Hawaii Takata, my master’s grandmother. I am so thankful for your dedication to reiki.

Hawayo Hiromi Kawamura Takata (24 December 1900 – 11 December 1980)

45 years ago today, Hawayo Takata passed through the veil separating this world and that of the ancestors, less than two weeks before her eightieth birthday.

45 years earlier (11 December 1935), Takata was attending her second day of Reiki training at the Hayashi Reiki Kenkyūkai, learning the spiritual therapy to which she would then dedicate her life.

Her 45 years of devotion to Reiki transformed the practice from an obscure Japanese healing art to one poised to become a truly global phenomenon with millions of practitioners worldwide.

If Reiki has touched your life or the life of someone you love, take a moment to remember this remarkable woman and express gratitude for her hard work that made this all possible 🙏

photo taken July 2, 1974, Palo Alto, CA

12/07/2025

Would you like to travel and join some like minded people? This is a lovely way to meet other reiki students.

Save the date!
Details on booking to follow soon.

12/02/2025

I like to keep a little seasonal corner of the bench in the front hall to welcome guests or clients and share some of the beauty I find around me. I was setting up the December version and lo and behold— a rose from my garden on 1 December! Never before!
But the days are getting shorter and nights longer and soon the garden won’t sport roses…
“Don’t think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter. It’s quiet, but the roots are down there riotous.” — Rumi

May your roots be riotous this winter season.

11/24/2025

11/21/2025

I was all ready to spruce up my entrance for Christmas when I spotted this rose in my garden. The few sunny days we have enjoyed coaxed it to open. “A lily or a rose never pretends, and its beauty is that it is what it is.“ — -Jiddu Krishnamurti

10/20/2025

Usui Shiki Ryoho Reiki is a healing system I learned almost forty years ago and still use every day. It is simple and in its simplicity it is powerful and mysterious. I have many stories to share of the power of reiki.