Years ago when I was living alone and doing hospice work in New Mexico, I went to my meditation room to do a shamanic journey.  For those unfamiliar with the term, one listens to a monotonous drumbeat (or other sound) which then sends one into a mild trance during which one can “travel to other worlds.”  Traditional shamans all over the world have this ability, but folks like Michael Harner and Sandra Ingerman have brought this tool to the modern masses.  Each of us has the ability to do this – to travel to other realms to gain insight.

Anyway, I was alone, so I used a CD of the drumming to help me along.  I traveled to the Upper World, to see if I could make contact with some guides.  I found there a circle of elders, of grandmothers, and they invited me to come into the center of the circle.  They had me lie down there in the midst of them and then they ministered to me.  They laid loving hands upon me and sent me healing energy.

There, alone in my room, alone in my home, I cried and cried and cried.  I hadn’t realized how badly I needed to be cared for.  I had been spending a large portion of every day attending to the needs of others and I had allowed myself to become depleted.  But here in this sacred circle of loving grandmothers, I was the recipient of all the love and nurturing I could want.

It was a profound and deeply moving experience.

Are you being taken care of?  Or are you constantly taking care of the needs of others?   Or maybe you just work really, really hard.  Please, please remember to take care of yourself.  Not many of us are blessed with a circle of grandmothers to attend to us, but perhaps you could let yourself receive a massage.  Being touched by someone with skilled and caring hands is an incredible gift.  Or find friends or a therapist to talk with.  Or take a day off and go to a beautiful park.  It is so essential that we find ways to nurture ourselves.

It is not being selfish to do this.  It is what enables us to fully function in this world.  If we do not allow ourselves adequate self-care, we cannot do well the work we are meant to be doing in the world.  It not only serves us, it serves the people around us when we remember to be good to ourselves.  If we do not care for ourselves, our well becomes empty, and when we give from a place of emptiness, we become ill.  It is absolutely necessary to fill the well.  Often and regularly.

May you be infinitely blessed and exquisitely loved.

So be it.