Episode Ninety-Two: The Interview-Helen Noakes

Helen Noakes is a writer, poet, play-write and Reiki Master. Hear how, as a child, she knew things before they would happen. This gift helps her today...and? In this episode hear how the Archangel Micheal always has her back.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 92 of Bite-sized Blessings.

This week I interview Helen Noakes,

Who among many things is a writer,

A playwright,

A poet,

An editor,

An artist,

And a traditional Reiki master.

She is a true creative and I think sometimes,

As you'll hear in this podcast,

Sometimes when you channel the energy of the universe,

Because that is the only way that I can state this,

Helen absolutely has a connection with spirit,

With God,

However you define that energy,

And she just absolutely channels it.

And in this podcast she does say when she does her healing work,

When she does Reiki,

That it's not her that's doing it.

And it's similar to those healers in Puerto Rico from Maria Benedetti's episode.

They just say it's not us who's doing the healing,

They are just conduits,

They are channelers for that energy to come through to heal other people.

And I think that's a theme here on this podcast,

That a lot of the healers,

The writers,

The poets,

The creators,

Those who are truly loving other human beings,

Who are loving on this earth,

On this planet,

They're just channeling that energy,

That healing energy,

That energy of pure love.

And so Helen is another excellent example of this,

Quite honestly.

And for a lot of those healers,

It starts very early in their life,

And I think when you hear this story of Helen's,

You'll understand that it was the same for her.

And so now,

My episode with the inspiring and lovely Helen Noakes.

My first intimation of something,

Of a sort of awareness experience,

Was when I was 12.

And it scared the daylights out of me.

We had friends,

The lady was taking care of her husband,

Who was very,

Very ill and invalid.

And we would visit her,

She was a Russian lady,

Very nice,

And I loved it because she had two wonderful dogs and I could play with them.

We didn't have a car in Japan,

We used public transport,

So when we were leaving,

And my mother and my grandmother were walking with,

I was walking with them towards the tram and we were waiting for the tram to come.

My grandmother said,

Oh you know,

I don't think he looks too good,

I don't know how long he'll last.

And I just came out with,

He's gonna die tonight.

And they all looked at me,

And I,

When I,

After I said it,

I felt like cold,

You know.

And he did die that night.

If you were to go to a party and introduce yourself,

Or a conference,

Or introduce yourself to a new friend,

How do you self-describe?

Who are you?

Well,

You know,

That's,

That is a very difficult question to answer,

Because we're made up of so many different parts,

You know.

But I think basically what I can say is,

I'm a universal traveler.

I feel as if my life has been a series of very interesting journeys,

And that there was a power beyond me that would nudge me in a direction or another.

If I resisted,

I got into a lot of trouble.

If I just went along with it,

Even though I'd go,

Huh,

What?

I'll just go along with it,

Then something would happen.

And underneath it all,

I think I am an empath.

I've been an empath in my healing work.

I am empathic with other people.

I love to learn about people.

I love to learn who they are,

And cultures,

Etc.

I did travel a lot in my life,

Physically travel.

And always,

Even in some very dangerous places,

I connected with people who didn't even speak my language sometimes.

Sometimes,

You know,

You're just a smiler,

You know,

A lot of sign language,

And you get across the point,

And they'll laugh,

And I'll laugh,

And I'll go,

I don't know how to say this,

But I hope you get it.

I,

This is a very strange and convoluted story.

I was born in Shanghai,

China.

We left Shanghai when I was four years old,

When Mao Zedong took over Shanghai.

Shanghai,

Mokpo is the last city.

My father was imprisoned by Mao,

And my mother had to buy him out of prison.

And my aunt,

My maternal aunt and maternal grandmother were in Japan,

And they sponsored us to come to Japan.

So we went to Japan,

And I grew up in Yokohama.

We left Japan when I was 14.

I went to the only European school,

Because we were not American citizens.

We were,

It was a Catholic school that was run by French and English nuns.

I learned French at an early age.

And then we came to the United States when I was 14,

And consequently became an American citizen.

So it's just this big,

Long story.

And I think maybe that's why I'm so open to all these other cultures,

Because I grew up in all these other cultures.

And I found,

You know,

As a child,

I adapted very quickly to them.

In my 30s,

I left for Greece,

And I am of Greek origin,

And lived there for 10 years.

And I did a job that took me to very,

To a lot of parts of Europe.

And I also had to do some work in the Sudan in Khartoum.

And I have to say that was one of the most amazing countries,

Because you had the worst and the best right there in front of you.

And the people,

You know,

They were starving,

Basically,

They were in just in really terrible conditions.

And yet,

Their spirit was so open and so beautiful and so lovely.

I just,

I kind of fell in love with them.

You know,

It was just one of those wonderful things.

And there was an exam,

I was an interior designer then,

And I had to speak to a carpenter who was Sudanese,

Who didn't speak English,

And I didn't speak Sudanese.

But I was doing drawings and sketches.

And he was this bright little man.

And he,

Oh,

Yes,

He got it.

And he draw it back.

And he'd go like this.

And I go,

Yeah,

Yeah,

Yeah.

And he looks at me and he goes,

And I said,

What does that mean?

And one of the gentlemen who was interpreting part of it said,

He likes you.

He says,

You're his own.

I was a woman traveling into a Muslim country on business.

And one time,

The person who was supposed to pick me up didn't show up on time,

And they locked me up in a cage.

I was sitting there thinking,

Oh,

My,

I was praying to my protector,

You know.

And,

But the guards were very nice.

They just said,

You have to sit there until the next flight comes in the morning,

You know,

You go.

And the guy showed up late and apologize,

Apologize,

Apologize.

I said nothing until I got car and I blew up and said,

That was a scary kind of experience.

But in the end,

You know,

It was just,

It was okay.

That was what was so interesting.

It scared me because of my prejudice.

I thought,

You know,

This is this is a scary place.

And being in a cage is scary.

But,

You know,

Once the guys were very,

You know,

They were guards,

They had to do their jobs.

Okay,

You know,

They did their job.

But it was very,

It was enlightening.

I,

You know,

As a child,

To be honest with you,

The only thing I remember,

Mostly about my childhood with my mother was terror,

Because she was abusive.

She had,

She was diagnosed later as being bipolar.

And so she was,

You know,

Having a hard time.

The people who are wonderful to me were the Japanese people.

They love children.

And we had a lady who was living with us who was Japanese.

She was a very sweet woman.

And she,

She would just take,

She'd take me under her wing,

She would take me to the ofuro,

Which is the public baths.

And I thought it was a pool,

You know,

Playing and they're all laughing,

You know.

They were all they thought it was so funny that here I was this little foreign kids speaking Japanese to them.

You know,

I don't remember my Japanese very well.

But you know,

At that time,

It was easy.

I was just,

You know,

And they were spoiling me and she would dress me up in a kimono and they would do this thing where they put this white powder down your nose.

And my father,

Who was always joking,

Said,

Is that just to say you're done?

You're washed?

No,

It was so my nose would grow straight.

And I had a wonderful great uncle who was,

He was an amazing man.

And he spoke to me.

From the minute we arrived in Japan,

He lived in Japan.

And the first thing he said to me,

He carried me into the garden,

He immediately took to me,

Carried me into the garden to look at some chamomile daisies.

And I still remember this.

I was four years old,

But I remember it.

He said,

Do you see that flower?

And I guess of course I saw the flower.

And he said,

You're looking at the face of God.

And somehow,

You know,

I understood what he was talking about.

And he would tell me all kinds of wonderful things.

Every time he'd see me he would,

He was the one who really he was the one who saved me.

My first intimation of something of sort of awareness experience was when I was 12.

And it scared the daylights out of me.

We had friends,

The lady was taking care of her husband who was very,

Very ill and invalid.

And we would visit her.

She was a Russian lady,

Very nice.

And I loved it because she had two wonderful dogs and I could play with them.

We didn't have a car in Japan,

We used public transport.

So when we were leaving,

And my mother and my grandmother were walking with,

I was walking with them towards the tram and we were waiting for the tram to come.

My grandmother said,

Oh,

You know,

I don't think he looks too good.

I don't know how long he'll last.

And I just came out with he's going to die tonight.

And they all looked at me and I when I after I said it,

I felt like cold.

And he did die that night.

It was one of those weird things,

You know,

I,

I began to understand later,

It scared me and I didn't want to touch it for many years.

It was maybe when I was 20 that I began to say,

Okay,

This is not something to fear.

It could be helpful to others about that first journey to Greece that where I was at various sites in Greece,

And it was at that turning point in my life.

And every sacred site,

The gods would speak to me,

There would be something there.

It was really amazing.

Was that I write about it,

Because I think that I,

You know,

I was afraid to be so honest and open at first.

And then I thought,

Well,

I was a woman who went from an abusive mother to an abusive husband,

And I broke free.

And I think there are a lot of people of every gender who go through experiences similar to this,

And maybe they need to know,

No matter how scared you are,

How unsure you are,

You can do it.

If you listen to that inner voice,

That powerful inner voice,

I had an experience and I know it's one of your questions where did you did you have a sort of magical experience of some sort,

I was still married,

I would have these terrible,

Terrible nightmares.

When I was sleeping in the bed with my husband,

And it would feel like something was coming in through my toes.

And if it got to my heart,

It would take it would take it would kill me,

It would take me.

And it was so real.

And I would be fighting to wake up.

And I knew it was a dream.

And I had to wake up.

It was really not a dream.

I never had that after I left him.

But this one night,

I was just in such a state,

I guess I woke my husband up and he said,

What the hell?

And he woke me up.

And I sat up.

And then he just jumped off the bed and he stared at what at me.

And I could feel this huge light behind me.

Immense light in this dark bedroom.

I mean,

The lights were turned off.

We were in the back where there were no streetlights.

And he said,

What the hell are you?

And when I turned to look,

The light went away.

And I had a wonderful psychic friend who said to me,

You know,

You're protected by Michael,

The archangel.

And I thought,

Was him.

And I've had experiences with his protection over and over and over again through my life.

It wasn't until I was injured very badly.

And I went to this lady,

I hurt my sciatic nerve.

And I could hardly walk.

And this woman who taught Pilates in Athens,

She was a very wonderful English lady.

She took me through the exercises and I'm able to walk because of her.

I mean,

It was,

You know,

One of those things.

And but she called me one day and said,

Do you know,

I have a Reiki teacher,

A Reiki master who's coming to teach Reiki one,

I wondered if you'd be interested in taking the class.

And I said,

Yeah.

So I went,

I took the class thinking it would help for me to heal myself.

You know,

What happens to me when I start the first of the four initiation steps in the first class,

She did the first initiation and my hands started burning.

I was I was wearing a little belt with a metal buckle.

And I still we were,

You know,

Working on each other on the floor.

And I straighten up because my back was hurting after bending over someone and I went like this to my buckle and I burned my hand.

And that's when I knew,

You know,

I think I have my answer now.

And it took all this stuff,

As I said,

It's some of the strangest ways that the universe takes us to something,

You know,

You don't turn your back on it,

You try to see it as a lesson.

I'm a Reiki master,

I call upon the energies I work with,

I work with the archangels,

I work with the Christ energy,

I work with goddess energy.

So I call on them,

I'm not the healer,

I'm the conduit,

You know,

So when I call them,

I say,

Okay,

Here I am,

You know,

Help me with this person,

Help me to do the job right,

To say the right things.

And always,

They're there,

They're there,

They never,

They never turned me down.

I got pericarditis in Santa Fe,

I didn't want to leave Santa Fe.

And you see,

When you don't do what you're told.

So there was one night when I thought I was going to die.

And literally,

And I had my little dog.

And I thought,

Okay,

I'm gonna leave a message for my friend.

I had a friend called Michael,

Who took care of my little dog whenever I had to travel or something.

And I called him up.

And I said,

Would you check up call me on on tomorrow morning?

And if you don't get an answer,

Then have the police come in.

He said,

What are you talking about?

And I said,

Please just do this.

And please,

If you would take care of Picasso,

That's what is my dog's name,

I will leave some money for you and and take you know,

Whatever you need from the house you can have and just as long as you take care of them.

And he was all upset.

I'll come I said no,

No,

No,

No,

No,

I need to be by myself.

But I lay there and I said,

All right.

I said,

If it's my time,

You know,

Fine.

I just want to make sure that he's taken care of and I'm ready to go.

And wow,

This presence just came into the into the room and it was Christ's energy.

And he I've had him come see me once before when my father was dying.

And he put his hand on my forehead and said,

You've got more work to do.

So stop this.

And yeah,

Okay,

So yeah,

So obviously,

I didn't kick the bucket.

You know,

He's not he's very loving,

But he's not gonna let you get away with murder.

Yeah,

He's very pragmatic.

I had one experience in Santa Fe that was really,

It left me gobsmacked.

Say,

When I first arrived,

I really,

Really wanted to go to go stretch.

I had a friend,

The psychic friend I was telling you about who told me about Michael,

He was a friend I knew from college.

And he introduced me he wanted to introduce me to this lady who was an anthropologist who worked with the local tribes,

The Indian tribes in the 50s.

And she knew Georgia O'Keeffe.

And she was,

You know,

Really very interesting lady.

We had dinner,

John invited her to dinner.

And I had one of my incredible experiences with Reiki,

Actually,

The energy stuff,

She was sitting next to me.

And I started to burn my fingers,

My I started to turn red.

And she said,

Are you all right?

And I said,

Kate,

When I ask you a question,

And please don't get upset.

I explained,

I'm a Reiki master.

And I said,

Do you have a blood disorder?

And she looked at me and she says,

I have leukemia.

And she just said,

I'm like this.

And I said,

Well,

You know,

I've since gave her some treatment.

But she told me about ghost ranch and made some so interesting that I decided at one one one day to go.

And I drove down there all excited.

I checked in,

I knew better than not to I checked in with their guards over there.

And he said,

Do you know what a rattler looks like?

I know,

We've got one you can take a look at.

And she says,

You be careful of them.

Because you're at the right time where they're,

You know,

They have their eggs and they're aggressive when they're protecting them.

And said,

Oh,

Okay,

Stay on the path.

Do not go off,

You know,

Whatever.

So off I trot with my little water bottle,

And my hat and my camera.

They you know how they have those maps,

The on the on the boards,

And I went to look at the at the route to get to the to the ranch.

And out of nowhere,

Comes this very tall,

Very thin man,

White,

White hair,

Young face,

Blue eyes,

Wearing sort of grubby shorts and t shirt and running shoes.

And he's running in places.

Have you done this before?

And I said,

No.

And he says,

Well,

Listen,

I'm going to run along the mesa.

And you keep checking up and and if I see anything that's dangerous,

I'll let you know because I know where the dangerous things are.

And I said,

Okay.

And he says,

Which what are you going to do?

You're going to go?

I said,

I want to see the rocks at Georgia.

Okay,

Then he says,

Okay,

Okay,

I get it.

You know,

He was just very dismissive of that.

He didn't care.

So I thought,

Okay,

You think so.

I'm a crazy lung,

But that's okay.

I am.

So he went off,

And he's running now.

And I'm walking and the way you know,

What is that?

I still remember the Carol Burnett guy who used to say and she's walking and walking.

That's the way I was walking because I was looking at things going,

Oh my god,

There's the hill and there's the mountain and there's the rocks are really that color.

And all this crazy stuff.

I'm taking pictures.

And then I remember to look up and I see him up and he waves and I wave and you know,

Said I kept going and we get to the ranch and he came running down.

And there was a gate there and there was another direction to go to the main building and I was going to go there to get some water and use the loo and all that.

And he said everything's fine.

And I said,

Everything's fine.

And he disappeared,

Gone.

And I'm standing there like,

What just happened?

I'm not kidding you.

And he disappeared.

So I am just like,

You know,

Going down my spine and I'm,

I'm tootled over to the to the ranch thing and I you know,

Get the some more water and all that.

And I was sitting there going,

Oh my god,

Was that Michael?

Or was that something some angel he sent to protect me?

I was a protector.

He was watching over me the entire time.

And then I was thinking,

You're walking slowly.

He was supposedly running and every time you looked up he was running.

So he should have arrived way before you.

No logic worked.

I mean,

I was so overwhelmed by it.

It was such an amazing thing to happen.

You know,

New Mexico,

That area,

It's magical.

It really is.

There's a lot of wonderful things happening there.

I have a friend who's a Jungian analyst and she she she died some time ago,

Just a year ago.

It was heartbreaking.

She was in her 90s,

One of the brightest,

Most wonderful people I knew.

Anyway,

She told me she said,

I don't know,

There's something you were given a gift and you know,

You need to pay attention to it and be grateful for it,

Which I am every single day.

I'm always saying thank you.

She said,

You know,

Because a child who's gone through what you went through would not be so hopeful.

And for some reason,

Yeah,

You know,

I went through the pain and I did a lot of grieving over it.

But I always knew there was something else,

That there was a universal mother who loved me.

There was an energy that was loving and caring and healing.

And I think it was because of my great uncle.

He had spent several years in a monastery in Tibet.

And he was a very spiritual,

Very wonderful man.

He wasn't religious.

He never went to church.

But he was very powerfully spiritual.

And I think that's what kept me going.

He opened my eyes,

You know,

There's the face of God in this flower.

And I think from that,

From that moment on,

He put this idea in my head that God is in everything.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Bite-Sized Blessings and my interview with the beautiful Helen Noakes.

She reminds me that healing is possible.

Hope is around every corner and that we should keep our eyes open for the magic and the mystery that's out there.

I need to thank the creators of the music used for this episode,

John Bartman,

Frank Schroeder,

Raphael Crux,

And Sasha End.

For complete attribution,

Please see the Bite-Sized Blessings website at bite-sized-blessings.

Com.

On the website,

You'll find links to other episodes,

To books,

Changemakers,

And artists I think will lift and brighten your day.

Thank you for listening.

And here's my one request.

Be like Helen.

Be hopeful.

Be a healer.

We might not all be given gifts,

Like being a Reiki master,

But we can compliment other people.

We can pick up trash on our hikes out in the woods or wherever you go hiking.

We can all do little things every day that make this world a better place,

That heal it.

We all have that capacity.

We all have the capacity to heal.

So be like Helen.

Go out there and heal the world in whatever way that you can do it.

And I'll see you next week.