01/16/2025
What do you see in this painting? It hangs in the Paloma Wellness treatment room, and often receives a strong response from my clients.
Some people see a lion. Some people notice the taller figure. Some people do not see the woman and girl walking together, at least not right away.
I clearly see me and my mother, walking together on the beach. Iām gazing up at her, and she is facing me. We are connected to each other and to nature, living in the moment. Love in motion. We are nurtured by each other and by the earth.
My mother, Clelia Cardano Sheppard, actually painted this painting, and the little girl is me. We used to walk for miles together along sandy shores that have long since eroded into the Chesapeake Bay. But the memory of feeling that connection remains.
The healing we do in this room at Paloma Wellness is often about finding a safe place within our memory or imagination. Itās about allowing our nervous system to create new pathways of calm. Itās about reconnecting with our inner child, and finding out what she needs.
So often what she needs is reconnecting with feminine energy, and allowing herself to be nurtured.
So many women do so much nurturing for others, but rarely receive it themselves. Some did not receive much nurturing from their mothers or other caregivers when they were children. The result can be a deep-seated feeling of emotional or physical neglect that can create anger, lack of self-care, lack of boundary setting, over-giving, and difficulty receiving in relationships.
I love helping women heal this wound, and heal their relationship with themselves, their mothers, their daughters, and others in their lives. Trauma can be passed down, but so can healing and beautiful memories. The chain of positive connection continues through the generations.
Reiki is the same frequency as the earth, at 7-8 hertz. It feels different for everyone, but some have described it as love warmly filling your body. I might describe it like this painting: walking on the beach on a summer afternoon, feeling loved, gathering up the beauty of the world.
