Community Off-Grid Living in Knowlsville, NB - with Aimee Cringan

Join us for an inspiring conversation with Aimee Cringan as she shares her transformative journey from Reiki practice to her life in the unique, off-grid community of Knowlsville, New Brunswick. Discover how Reiki and community living have harmonized to create a fulfilling and vibrant life for Aimee and her family, including their involvement in programs like Wild Child and the healing power of animal Reiki.

---

Aimee Cringan is a Usui/Holy Holy Fire III Reiki Master Teacher, a Vinyasa Yoga Instructor, and a Professional Member of the ICRT Reiki Membership Association. Her passion is holding space for clients throughout their healing journey with Reiki. She offers reiki sessions, classes, and sacred women's circles at the Healing Hive in Island View, NB.

Get in Touch with Aimee:
Email: healinghive@outlook.com
Facebook: The Healing Hive

Pam Allen-LeBlanc is a scientist, a businesswoman, and a Licensed Reiki Master Teacher (LRMT) with the International Center for Reiki Training.  She is the author of "The Reiki Business Book" and a co-author of ICRT Animal Reiki training.  Pam teaches Reiki, Animal Reiki, and Animal Communication online and in person in Canada, the US, and Australia.

Pam's ICRT Classes: 

• https://www.reiki.org/users/pamela-allen-leblanc#classes

Book a Reiki, Animal Reiki, or Animal Communication session:

• https://squareup.com/appointments/book/7dvtqlfp939e8g/LPSC51C92BN20/services

Order The Reiki Business Book : 

• Amazon.com The Reiki Business Book 
• Amazon.ca The Reiki Business Book 

A special thanks goes out to Music from Pixabay for the intro music and to Nate Miller for the meditation music.

Register for our newsletter!

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Youtube

pam@reikifromthefarm.com

Transcript

Pamela: 0:07

Hi and welcome to the Reiki from the Farm podcast brought to you by me, Pam Allen Leblanc from Hidden Brook Farm. I am a scientist, a businesswoman, and a licensed Reiki master teacher with the International Center for Reiki Training. Each week in this podcast you'll be entertained as you learn about a wide variety of relevant Reiki topics, helping you become a more knowledgeable and effective Reiki practitioner. We caution you though, this podcast may also dramatically improve your life, and we are so happy that you're here. On this week's podcast, I am talking with my friend Amy Kringen about community off grid living in Knollsville, New Brunswick. Welcome,

Aimee: 1:08

Amy. Thank you, Pam. Thank you for having me.

Pamela: 1:12

Before we get started, I just want to let you know some of what we have coming up here at the farm. Right now, we're in the middle of some animal Reiki classes. Monday and Tuesday this week is animal communication. And in January, I've got a full line up of all the Reiki courses. Animal Reiki, Level 1 and 2 in Master's, Reiki 1 and 2 in Master's, as well as Kaurna Reiki. And keep track of us, because also in January I will be doing a special event, January 18th, for the Fredericton SVCA. And at this event, It's a fundraiser for the animals for the SPCA. And at this event, it will be an understanding of the Rainbow Bridge, and how our animals feel about it based on the 12 13 years I've had with Animal Reiki and Animal Communication and teaching both and as well I'll be doing some live Animal Communication with some of the deceased pets that are chosen at the event. So that's going to be really fun and I want you to keep an eye out as well because I Our classes have been posted for Asia and Australian friendly time zones, which is also quite convenient here in North America. And these classes will be evenings in Asia and Australia, mornings in North America in February and March. So hopefully you can join us for those. Amy, do you have anything going on for classes or anything like that you'd like to announce?

Aimee: 3:00

Yeah I have a level one and two in so that's just Yosui Holy Fire in January. And then February I'm going to do a level one and two animal Reiki class. And I'm going to teach my first master class in in March. That's

Pamela: 3:20

exciting. Fascinating. When you teach your first master class, things shift. It shifts you and it changes you. That's

Aimee: 3:30

awesome. I felt a huge shift when I taught my first Level 1 and 2 class. I was like, what is going on here? And then I realized, oh, it's because I'm, yeah, the energy is shifting me.

Pamela: 3:41

Yeah, when you, William Wren talks about that, when you start teaching. thE energy works with you in a certain way when you're doing your self sessions. Begins working with you a little differently when you start doing sessions for others. But when you start teaching, William said there's a significant expansion and shift in the way that the energy works with you. You become a true Reiki master. And I noticed that a big shift again when I taught my first master class.

Aimee: 4:10

Okay, so I'm in for it.

Pamela: 4:14

Yeah it's incredibly positive and, Oh yeah. Yeah it's, but yes, you are in for another big shift probably. At least I noticed one. I don't know if everybody does,

Aimee: 4:26

but I sure do. I always notice when I'm about to take a class or when I'm about to teach. It's okay, yeah. Another

Pamela: 4:33

shift, shifting again. Yeah. I just love where it brings us to. Before we go too far in, I'm just going to invite everybody to bring your hands in Gassho and activate your Reiki energy. And today's podcast is about how Reiki helps us follow our dreams and find community. And so I'd just like you to activate your Reiki, bringing your Reiki symbols one at a time, just imagining them come from the highest heavens and the divine earth through your hands and into your heart, the gift of love. And as your symbols activate, I invite you to form an intention around some of your dreams and around finding community in your life. Even thinking of the community that already exists. Whether it's family, friends, neighborhoods, Reiki communities, is there more opportunity for involvement or participation or connection within those communities? And if there is, just opening your heart to receive, opening your heart with a willingness to accept the fruition of your dreams. And we invite today's session to begin bringing this together for you. I'm taking a moment to say just for today, I will not be angry. I will not worry. I'll be devoted to my work. I will be filled with gratitude and I will be kind. Thank you for being the beautiful light you are in the world. Aho, Namaste.

Aimee: 7:05

Thank you, Pam. That was beautiful, as always.

Pamela: 7:10

Thank you. I think I do that just as much to ground myself as the listeners. I just find I get so excited in these interviews. I

Aimee: 7:21

know. I said if I could do any job on the planet, and maybe this is where I'm going with it, I would be Oprah Winfrey because I love talking to people and hearing people's stories.

Pamela: 7:32

Stories, I find, and I love even reading biographies, it, they change me, as you see how other people navigate the world, you learn

Aimee: 7:41

yeah, we're all connected and everybody comes from a different place, like every, there's so many different perspectives, there's 8 billion different people, 8 billion different perspectives, consciousnesses, Dimensions, whatever you want to call it.

Pamela: 7:54

It's funny that you went there because that's the whole reason for this podcast. I was shown that with, and at the time when I started the podcast, there were only 7 billion different people and perspectives. Now there's 8 billion. But you're right, we, I was shown that with all those billions of perspectives, that when we can learn from other people's perspectives, other people's best ideas that expands our understanding. It expands our understanding of Reiki and of the spiritual realm. It expands our understanding of God, if, or whatever word you use for the source of all that is. And as we. get to know more about all of this than, it's and learn more about all of this. It's positive. And so I realized with every podcast episode, I could help people under, expand their perceptions. And so that's actually the whole purpose of this. So yeah, I do get very excited interviewing my guests. And

Aimee: 8:58

I love it. I always, I love listening to it. It's just, I feel very in connection with the Reiki community when I listen to it. Yeah,

Pamela: 9:08

we, I can feel us all connect and it's so funny. Like people listen at different times, but I think the distance symbol, like I can feel there's hun, there's usually about five or 600 people who listen to every episode and which is exciting. to me. And sometimes there's a little bit more, sometimes a little less, it just depends. That's amazing. It is, but I can feel, even as we record, I can feel that connection with five or six hundred people. And it feels like this beautiful web of light, this web of connection, and so even though people are listening after we're done recording it, and sometimes maybe even monks after you can feel that connection. So I agree with you. I love, I feel the connection with the Reiki community through these as well.

Aimee: 9:56

And the distance symbol allows the meditation to work the exact same way had it been in person or not. So it's, you're getting. Exact same thing. Yeah,

Pamela: 10:07

I love it. It's probably, I don't know, it's one of my favorite things. I really enjoy doing this. It's yeah, it's a lot of work, but it's a lot of fun. And Amy, I wanted to start with some of, you, Reiki has brought you on an incredible journey. Yeah. And recently, it brought you to move to the off grid community of Knowlesville, New Brunswick. So can you tell us a little bit about what brought you, what drew you to Knowlesville in the first place?

Aimee: 10:42

Yeah, for sure. sO I had been homeschooling my daughter at home I homeschooled her kindergarten, she went to a public sorry, a private forest school in Predicton for a couple years and then, uh, and then the next year after that we were homeschooling her again. And my friend Kate Toner or Toner, yeah, she had been traveling up to Knollsville and participating in one of the programs. And so we started talking about the curriculum that they were using, which is called Inki. And I just, there was something that was drawing me to it. I knew that where she was a beautiful place, but it just wasn't for her. Like I couldn't see her soul expanding there. It wasn't, it didn't feel the same as it does now. And so we ended up going up and meeting the director of the school. And so we started traveling up and we started going every Thursday. And so we were still homeschooling, but we were using the curriculum at home as a satellite student. And So my first experience there was every morning at the school, they gather and they hold hands and they do a morning circle and they sing a pro appropriate songs for the seasons. And as they're doing these morning circles, they're also integrating body movements in order to have the child integrate the curriculum when they go into the classroom. So these movements are specific to the curriculum too. So it's not just. Very willy nilly. And activating

Pamela: 12:28

the brain, like a brain gym, a lot of, there's a lot of science behind that, these. Yes,

Aimee: 12:33

and the founder, Beth Beth, she actually studied it all. And so she incorporated it into the curriculum when she, when we do it. So my first experience is just this community coming together every morning. And holding hands. And I was like, where am I? This is very special. And the year progressed and so I would travel up every Thursday, and it was about an hour and a half drive, and halfway through the year, I just said Oh, and what happened was the wild child shifted into classroom work, and so she, Pippa was in the classroom, and so I got to go into the classroom, and spend time with the classroom and the teacher. And I was just like, I couldn't hold the space for Pippa with the rhythm. And with the children, it really needed the children. I was observing, I was watching, and I could just see like Pippa was missing out on that. And so I said to my husband, I said, we have to move there. We have to sell our house. And we had just bought a house. Yeah, I

Pamela: 13:43

remember you had just bought

Aimee: 13:44

your house. And it was like where I'd always wanted to be. It was this, like my dream house we had, we put in a little pool, like an above ground pool, and we had a beautiful yard with a cedar grove and weeping willow trees, and it was just like, I was in my element because I had my gardens. And my trees and I was very connected to it and I said like we have to go there And I didn't know I didn't know how it was gonna happen I didn't know what it was gonna look like and so we're like, let's list our house and see what happens So, of course, we had a great realtor. We listed he had 27 showings in a weekend and we had 20 we had seven offers. It was just like boom. Boom. Boom. Boom, and it happened it sold and we were like, oh god What

Pamela: 14:36

did

Aimee: 14:38

we do? And so I was sending Reiki, of course, like really, I do myself Reiki practice every day. And then when the house sold, I realized then the fear set in and I really had to feel the fear. So I just sat with Reiki and I just felt it like all the what ifs. Yeah, all that heavy stuff, like what we do have Boulder House didn't,

Pamela: 15:03

you didn't have a place to stay there yet, or no? No.

Aimee: 15:07

Sorry. Go ahead Amy. I don't, no, that's okay. We didn't have a place at that point, so Yeah. Yeah.

Pamela: 15:13

It was so you, so a lot of fear, a lot of unsettledness.

Aimee: 15:17

Yeah, exactly. And about two days later, I was going to look at a property and I got a text from a woman in the neighborhood and she said, you want to come over for coffee? And so I went over and she said, we've been looking to sell our house. And this home, my husband built. He's a red seal carpenter. He built the whole thing and we just, we love, he loves to build homes and he wants to build again and we want to move. Would you like to buy our home? And I was in shock. I just, I think, I'm pretty sure I cried because the house is like a minute walk from the school. It's, yeah. Rei in the heart of the children and community and there's a path that you walk on the road for about two minutes and then you have a path that goes through the forest into the, this little homeschooling school. And it was just like, Oh my goodness, like we, and so that's what brought us there. It was just like, we needed to be amongst community and with Pippa we needed to have her there. Wow.

Pamela: 16:29

And how many children are there?

Aimee: 16:31

There's about 30. Nice. So there's a preschool, elementary then there's a middle school. So it goes up to grade grade eight.

Pamela: 16:41

Okay, wow. And what grade is Pippa in

Aimee: 16:44

now? Pippa's in a 4 3 4 split. She's got kids so there's I think 13 in her class. It's a pretty big class. And grades, I'm trying to think. Yeah, grades three to four are in there.

Pamela: 16:59

Wow. Tell us a little bit about the home, because, you left this home that was your dream home. How is the new house working

Aimee: 17:06

out? It's wonderful. It was a big kind of an adjustment because we had never lived off grid before. We have all these beautiful systems now that we're just finally getting used to. Yeah, so we have propane propane stove and then we have a propane dryer. Okay. Yeah, propane dryer. And then. And during the summer, the propane heats our water. But in the wintertime, we have a beautiful cooktop stove. And so we switch a lever in the control room and the fire, wood fire heats our house, but it also heats our water. Wow. Yeah, so it's beautiful. And so we're really getting used to, we've been cooking in the wood stove, like making meals and that, and just using all that energy, that beautiful energy that we're already using, we're using it to make meals and yeah.

Pamela: 18:06

That's amazing. I used to love of course, I'm always trying to conserve energy and so whenever we would have the wood stove going in the back room, I would often put a stew or something on in the, in a cruze pot on top of the stove and let it cook all day and oh my gosh, delicious.

Aimee: 18:23

And things just taste so good when they come from it. Yeah.

Pamela: 18:29

Yep. So now will you cut your own wood and all of that

Aimee: 18:32

or? So yeah, when we bought the house, there was wood there, but it wasn't chopped up. So we have a little wood splitter. So my husband split the wood and then we made a Scandinavian wood pile, which is really cool. It's a huge circle and you lay, you stack the wood, slanted in like this. Yes. And they say that it will actually dry the wood. Easier, so you do two rows. You do an outer circle and then an inner circle and then you put a roof on it. Yeah, and it's actually, I don't even want to take it apart. I'm like, I don't even want to move it because it's so pretty. It's the work of art. Yeah.

Pamela: 19:10

And your roof is a roof with wood. It's wood that goes around it to make a roof

Aimee: 19:14

or? Yeah, like the roof is wood, pieces of wood. So it starts circular and then you just build it up at the center and then you start laying pieces to make it look like a roof.

Pamela: 19:25

I love that. I've seen those actually, but I never really knew what they were. I just remember thinking, Oh, that looks like a good way to dry wood. And yeah, so yeah, but it's, it was a lot of work probably. So no, you don't want to take it

Aimee: 19:38

apart. Yeah, I'm like, I have to burn that this winter. I love

Pamela: 19:44

it. Living in this off grid community must be. a unique experience. Can you tell us a bit more about the lifestyle and some of the programs like the wild child program that the community offers?

Aimee: 19:58

Yeah, of course. So we have our central school which is the heart of the community. And the school has a little preschool out behind, it has a kitchen and upstairs it has bathroom facilities, and downstairs it has bathroom facilities. And this is the heart of the community because we hold a lot of things there, we try to host a potluck every Thursday and so it's, we rotate houses and we bring, try to bring a nutritious meal, not always, we try to bring a nutritious meal and we gather and usually we end up staying two, three hours in the summertime, we would push it and it would run, nine, ten o'clock and we'd be around the fire playing the guitar and singing and the kids just play in the field and in the forest and, it's just beautiful. So we do the potlucks and we do we call them, they're called ecstatic dances. And so that's every, usually every two to three months. And so there's a lady in the community that hosts them. And it's just like a moving meditation. So the music starts out slow and then you're focused inward and then you. dance until it peaks and then it comes back down again. And so it's this, just, it's just like I said, this last one let's shake out all the cobwebs because we're in that kind of that dark season, that darker energy. So it just felt so good to get in there and move together. So we do that. And we do I host yoga and Reiki once a week. So on Saturday, or we've been doing it on Saturday night. So I'll do a slow flow, gentle candle gentle candle lit Reiki. And then I do a Reiki meditation at the end. And then I just have them lay on their mat for about 20 minutes while I send them Reiki and then they get the, It's usually a holy fire guided meditation, or I've been doing, using the animal Reiki stuff a lot the listening one I did with them with listening through all your chakras, which I thought was good because a lot of us were in this, I could feel the energy of the community was in that moment was very We were all pushing through stuff and not listening. And so I was like, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna use this. I could listen. Yeah. Yeah. So we do that. They offer in the summertime, they do summer camps all summer long. So they have, there's one called Ancestral Skills. It's an overnight one for kids from ages, I think like seven to 10. And so they build their own structure to sleep in, they cook over the fire, they do campfire stories, and then they sleep in their lean to that they've built. Yeah, there's a coming of age camp, so for teens moving and coming of age, and that's an overnight one as well. There's day camps, a yoga and plant magic one and There's, I think there's a few others I might be missing. There's quite a long list of them. So they offer an array of things. Tegan the lady who founded the school with her husband, she offers one called Rewilding Ourselves and it's for adults. And you go into the woods overnight and you just bring whatever you can carry, a few things, and you just, it's to detach and just, you do crafting, you build a fire and you do, just to be in community.

Pamela: 23:21

Amy, this just sounds amazing, and it sounds almost otherworldly to me, and yet, do you still have internet, and do you still have a lot of the modern

Aimee: 23:31

conveniences? I do. We have Starlink. Good old Starlink. It's great out there. Yeah, and We have a well, we have, and we actually have a hand pump well too, so if we do lose power in the winter when we're moving into the darker months, we have a hand pump. So even if someone down the road who has power and needs water, they're welcome to come to the community well to pump their water there. Yeah, they also have the Wild Child Program, which is what I had been traveling up with for, and the Wild Child Program is it's hard to explain, but it's just beautiful. It's usually held at Fairlight Farm, which is just down the road. And Sparrow, Pippa's teacher actually hosts it. And so they go into the woods and they do sit spots which is sitting in nature and holding space. They do games, singing songs, doing crafts nature journaling. And it's almost magic to watch. Sparrow is just this incredible being. She has a master's certificate in herbalism. She has she's also a forest what is it called? Let me see here. I have it written down. She is she's an advanced wilderness skills instructor. Wow. Yeah, and she's done that. She's in the middle of her forest school practitioner course and she's done wilderness education and ecology. And this is all, yeah, so she's just educated in this world and the kids just love her. They're just always hanging off her and it's just so beautiful to see.

Pamela: 25:17

It sounds like it.

Aimee: 25:18

Amazing. She has a farm with, she's got chickens and ducks and cows and bunnies and pigs and the kids go out and they feed them and they take care of them and they do all the chores and it's just, it's such an experience for them.

Pamela: 25:35

Oh my gosh, Amy, it sounds amazing. Yeah. How, and how is Pippa enjoying it?

Aimee: 25:42

Oh, she just loves it. She really does. I've noticed such a huge shift in her being with the animals. Like we just got chickens last week and, like typically. I would be a little nervous of picking them up because they're quite flighty, but she just walks in, scoops them up and just carries them around. She's petting one and it's falling asleep in her arms. And, like she's, feeding them and she just, she really loves it. There's always kids around and it's amazing. Oh,

Pamela: 26:13

I love it. That's yeah. And so no regrets then? No,

Aimee: 26:19

absolutely not.

Pamela: 26:21

How do you, what role do you think Reiki played in helping you guys find your place and connect with this community?

Aimee: 26:31

Yeah, I use a lot of the animal Reiki techniques with this community because I find, um, what happens is the saying like what is it like when you think I could, maybe it's just my saying, I don't know, but when you Leave a situation because you think you're losing all your karmic connections your family and things like that You are gonna find that same karma no matter where you go. So when You leave something and expect to find something brand new and sparkling over here. You're gonna find the same things You're gonna find the same relationships. You're gonna find the same patterns until you heal that in yourself They're just gonna keep coming up over and over again. So coming to this community I didn't really have that expectation, but I wasn't always super close with my family because they lived a ways away, but moving here, it's like you're in connection with people all the time. You're running into people on the road, you're having potlucks, you're doing the dances, you're doing yoga, and so you're with them all the time. And What I do is when I meditate and send Reiki is I do a lot of spirit release work on myself and the community. I use the Divine Animal Kingdom Circle a lot technique, that technique to surround the community. And I use just a lot of the distance symbol. I use that a lot to send to people's homes or the school Pippa's teacher, Pippa's fellow classmates. I'll just, I'm making sure that I'm just really focusing the energy in that way. And I just find things flow really nicely, generally. And overall, I find Reiki just. It's my everyday practice. It just makes me feel so good. And so if I can offer it to them, the community in any way, there's actually already a Reiki master there. So yeah. Yeah, so

Pamela: 28:35

I love that and you actually found new work as Almost as soon as you got there. Tell us a little

Aimee: 28:41

bit about that. Yeah so I Had to go to Florence Ville For my post office. This is the local post office and I put in the GPS, the address, and I pulled up and I stopped and I looked over and it was a clinic. It said, My Goodness Health Clinic, and it said, listed all the things that they do, and at the bottom it said, Reiki. I was like, okay, and I knew I wanted to branch out. I knew I wanted to be able to offer Reiki to people. And I ended up coming in, meeting the owner, and meeting my other colleagues who are here, and I was like, okay, this is where I want to be. It's a really well advanced clinic for the area, and it just offers so much potential for people here. The owner is is, she had Lyme disease and she ended up curing herself through all these modalities that she learned over the years. She has a quantum biofeedback machine, which is so cool, Pam. It's basically like an aura reader. Wow. And for example, the other day she was, she had it on a client and she asked me to come in and she showed the client the scan and you could see on the scan where the energy was being held, the negative energy. And so I was called to give, send her Reiki. I said, can I give you Reiki? And she said, yeah, of course. And so I put my hands on her feet and I started sending Reiki. And then about a few minutes later, I laughed, I sealed it and I laughed. And she showed me the scan afterwards. It was completely clear and it was, there was nothing there anymore. It was just beautiful, just a clear scan. It was so neat. That's

Pamela: 30:36

amazing. And you said there's detox foot baths and like all kinds of different things at the clinic you're at. And yeah.

Aimee: 30:46

I've been taking advantage of it all. I did a foot detox and I am on the vibe bed and there's a Tesla machine. We sit in front of this Tesla machine every morning and it just feels like I'm like on Star Trek or something.

Pamela: 31:02

Does it cause your cells to vibrate or?

Aimee: 31:04

Yeah, so it's this big cylinder tube and it has all these light bulbs in it and you punch in a code. So for example, we did immunity boost this morning and then a colleague of mine wanted to do an oxygen one. So we put in the codes and then we just sit in front of it and it just, it vibrates at a certain frequency and changes the frequency of your cells. Unreal. It's amazing. So they do colon hydrotherapy here. Wow. Yeah, a lot of really cool stuff. My colleague just finished a medical intuitive medical intuitive certification. And and there's homeopathy and I offer reiki and meditation and yoga, and so it's just, it's a beautiful place to be. And

Pamela: 31:51

that was a bit of a surprise for you. You weren't expecting that, Amy, and a pleasant surprise, but that's a lot of change, isn't it?

Aimee: 31:58

It is, and it was scary. I'm not gonna lie. It was scary. There was excitement underneath it all, but just getting here and getting through the, maybe some of that self doubt, I just would apply Reiki, and I would just say the day I was supposed to get in, come in, And it was the first snow and it was so cold. And I just started my moon cycle and everything in me was just like, just hibernate. Just stay home. And I was, and I had these thoughts of why are you not at the school with your daughter? And all these self limiting beliefs that were coming in. And, None of it was true. None of it was real. And so I just sat there and I just gave myself Reiki and I knew that it was bigger than me. I just knew it was. And I knew I had to get here and move forward with this plan because I have so much to offer now. I have This Reiki, just when I give it to my clients and I see them expand and feel lighter and just come into themselves, it's such a blessing and I know that's why I'm here.

Pamela: 33:10

Wow, that's, so Reiki truly, it brought you there not just for Pippa but also for yourself it sounds like. Yeah, I think so. You're all flourishing and how's your husband doing with all of this? He's

Aimee: 33:23

doing good. It's been a, it's been a huge learning curve. I'm seeing us both grow drastically. He's, he just built a shed from scratch. Yes. Yeah and he's cedar shingling the shed and he's never done anything like this, but he they went as a group. We have a community mill. So they went together as a group to the community mill and started working with wood and he learned all this hand working stuff. He's always been great with indoor renovations, but this is something completely new. So he's learning and growing and he's doing cold plunging still. So he had, we have our hand pump. Set up and we have our cold plunge right in front of the hand pump. So he just pumps this really cold mountain water into the cold plunge and he gets in it and it freezes and I laugh. And Yeah.

Pamela: 34:20

Oh my gosh, it really sounds ideal. I can't wait to come and visit you at some point. And Amy, I have to ask about Ellie. I know that Animal Reiki is very special for you. I know that you came to Campobello for the whale class this summer. Summer. You've come to for both of your level one and two last year and the master class this year, and not only did we see lots of whales, in fact I heard from the Whale Watch group that our tour, when we went out to FREE IIMPOSSIBLE CLASS The whales remember how they just kept hanging around the boat, those two humpbacks, Kork and they wouldn't leave. They just hung out with us. Kork and Chevron. Chevron, that's it. Kork and Chevron. And, she said, and then in addition to that, we saw the minki, we saw so many porpoise, we saw seals, we saw so much, the eagles, the herons, and I heard from her and she said that they never saw as much Since, before or since that was the most active whale watching tour that we that we had. I

Aimee: 35:33

believe it. Yeah, it

Pamela: 35:34

was amazing. It was just whales from start to finish,

Aimee: 35:37

wasn't it? Yeah, at one point, the humpback was, like, probably 20 feet from our boat, I think, it

Pamela: 35:44

was, yeah, and you know it was the week after our course that the right whales returned to Campobello the very, very endangered right whales. There's only three or four hundred in the world. It's been four years since they have come to our bay and since the right whales have come. to our island at all. And four, four right whales returned right after our animal Reiki course. And I think to myself, I really believe the energy had something to do with that.

Aimee: 36:21

And I 100 percent believe that Pam.

Pamela: 36:23

Yeah, I think so, Amy. BUt you also had something very special happen during that course. You found a sweet little dog and after the island, Campobello Island is the summer home of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, and you found a little dog you named Eleanor or Ellie there. Can you tell us a little bit about that magic?

Aimee: 36:51

Yeah, first of all, that class was in, it was just incredible. So much shifting happened for me, and it was one of those things where I had traveled down alone, I had hauled my camper trailer down, so it was like that first solo trip of doing all those hard things. And so I got there and I just felt... Really like I knew I was supposed to be there and I find when I get into your classes, it just goes through my entire body. I usually end up crying for about the first 10, 15 minutes until I settle in and also just being there in front of the window and being able to see the whales and the ocean and having that those ions come off the, from the ocean. It's just absolutely stunning and. And we had done the whale course the night or the whale tour the night before and like you said, the whales were just kept surfacing beside the boat over and over again. It was just beautiful. And so during the class I got a phone call the night, the first night from my husband and My dog Dingo at home was sick, and he was thinking of transitioning at that point, and he's 14, 14 and a half, and so I had a feeling that it was, might be time. But even still, for me, animals are, it's this unconditional love that they radiate, the way that they love us, and the way that they see us. Like you learn in the Animal Reiki, I've always felt that, I've always known that. Like, when you look into a dog's eyes look at Henry. And he's hahaha I know,

Pamela: 38:37

there's so much love,

Aimee: 38:38

they just it's just they look at you like you are the universe to me, and it really helps you feel, so loved. And so animals have always been so close and especially dogs and. And so I knew he was leaving and you had been communicating with him at that time and, he said, I don't know if I'm going to leave or not, but I am, I am feeling it could be time, but I'm still trying to decide and he had quite bad vertigo and just, he wasn't doing well and so I was grieving, but I was, I knew it was supposed to happen during the class because we were doing all these really beautiful meditations and it was clearing the energy, but I was still grieving. And on the last day of class, I thought I might even have to leave and go home because I thought that he wasn't going to make it. But then we realized, okay, he's hanging on for a little bit while longer, and so I'm driving on the last day of class and I'm driving along, and I'm thinking about Dingo, and I'm still grieving, and all of a sudden, there's this dog sitting in the middle of the road, and she's just sitting there on the yellow line, I slammed on my brakes, there was And it didn't even, the sound of the breaks, like me coming to a jolt, nothing faced, just these floppy ears. Just sitting there Oh, hello, I've been waiting for you. aNd so I open the door and she just walks over to the car and her hind end is wagging and her tail is wagging. And she's Oh you're you're my person. Hello. And so I picked, I scooped her up because she was on the road. Yeah, and there was, traffic and I found the owner and I, the first thing he said to me was, do you want a dog? And unfortunately, they weren't tied. And so they were getting, they were on the road occasionally. And, and I said I don't know.

Pamela: 40:35

He had a bunch of puppies, didn't he? And he was a bit overwhelmed, I

Aimee: 40:38

think. He was a bit overwhelmed. There had been 11 originally, 11 puppies, and there was three left. aNd so they were getting a little bit older. They were four months and, usually you can talk them out at three months or so, but they were four months. And so I went home and I sent it Reiki and I just knew in my heart, I was like this has to happen. And so that morning I went to do tea with Eleanor at the Roosevelt Cottage. Yeah. And I didn't get to do it because it was all booked up. It was all sold out. I talked with a few of the women, a couple of the women that were at the class and who were just absolutely amazing. Everyone in the class was just so kind. And then I left and I went to the house and I said, I'm here to get the puppy. Her name was Jewel at the time. And I said, can I take all the puppies for you? Can I take them and I'll try to, I'll rehome them for you. And he was quite attached to one. And so I said, okay, that, yeah, that's great. Like I'll, so I ended up coming home with two. And. I had to, so I traveled down originally through the U. S. and so I just came down through the U. S. and I came across the bridge, but this time because I had two dogs that probably didn't have vaccines, didn't have

Pamela: 42:00

vaccination records for, you could not travel through the U. S.

Aimee: 42:04

So I took the ferries home, so I could take a ferry from Campobello to Deer Island and from Deer Island to New Brunswick, which wasn't hard, like I've done it before, but again, this is like me driving a rail.

Pamela: 42:17

Yeah, a great big camper on that little tiny ferry.

Aimee: 42:20

Yeah but it was well worth it. And before I even got home, so I was waiting in line for the ferry. I took a picture of her name is now Sweetie Pie. I took a picture of the other dog and I posted it on Facebook and I said, I explained what had happened. Is there anyone that is open to taking this dog on? I made sure that, I said, you need to have experience with animals and, I made sure that I felt out the energy before I just re homed her, of course. And she ended up going to a friend of mine who lives close by. She's a teacher at the school. She's not in the community, but she comes to the school. So she sends me pictures and updates and and it's really nice. And so Eleanor fit right in. And my dog that was sick he pulled through and he's He rallied, didn't he? Yeah, he rallied and he's still, he's sleeping a lot and he, I think he is getting ready. But he's still with us. And typically he doesn't like other dogs at all. Like he grew up with a select few dogs and he's very specific to which dogs he likes. And it was if he knew it was like and I had sent Reiki ahead and I, I had made sure that I was giving him pictures of Eleanor and she came in and he was like, okay. You're my friend. You're, we're good. And they slept together on a dog bed, I think, the second night. Oh my gosh.

Pamela: 43:46

That's amazing, because he's usually not open to other dogs at all.

Aimee: 43:50

At all. Biting. Yeah. Sometimes they'll bite

Pamela: 43:54

sometimes. And so by the second night, they were sleeping on a bed together.

Aimee: 43:57

Yeah, and she's like really hard on him too, like she walks up and like she has the boxer, she has a bit of boxer in her, so she'll go up and do the hand swat at his face, and he just puts his head down and it's hey, stop!

Pamela: 44:13

Or she's a pup and she wants to

Aimee: 44:14

play. wants to play. Exactly. And she's just been a blessing because she's giving me this routine in my life. Like every morning, 7am, I wake up, I, we go for the walk. And and we have a few people going now my next door neighbor, we all, and a few of our friends, we all go for this walk and then we all have dogs and they play and run up and down the road together and we let them off in a field and they play and.

Pamela: 44:41

Isn't that lovely? So she's living her best life, you're living your best, Brandon's living his best, Pippa's living her best. Wow. Yeah. I love

Aimee: 44:50

it. Yeah.

Pamela: 44:54

If you look back a year ago, would you believe this? Would you believe this would all have transpired?

Aimee: 45:01

No, not at all. Like I went up for, uh, I think it was the country fair last fall. And I was just in awe, like they, they host a country fair every year. And I was just watching, like they had live music and very wholesome family orientated community. And they had all these stands set up with like herbs. You could buy herbs and art and all this beautiful art. And I just remember standing there and thinking like, where am I? Is this for real? Like it's called an intentional community, it's, and it's about gathering and it's about growing with each other and And so here I am like now just thinking like, how did I even get to an off grid house, and it's actually the tail end of the Appalachian Mountain range it's quite hilly and there's Beside my house is it's called Skedaddle Ridge and during the 1860s, I believe the drafts for the war in America, which was the was it the revolution?

Pamela: 46:16

The British

Aimee: 46:18

yeah, I'm trying to remember which war it was. It was during 1860, so all these all these war drafts that didn't want to fight fled and came over and settled in on Skedaddle Ridge, which is right beside my house. So there's these settlers that settled there, and then there's this outreach community it

Pamela: 46:41

was the American Civil War, maybe?

Aimee: 46:43

Civil War. Okay. The American Civil War. So they all ended up there and it's it's grown from that.

Pamela: 46:52

So that's the original inhabitants are people that didn't want to participate in the Civil War.

Aimee: 46:57

Yes. And. And then there was the other people that settled there. There was a woman who came and purchased a lot of the land and she started the tree project, which is just to sustain tree growing and forest restoration projects. And so then from that branched out the forest restoration project, which is what A lot of people in the community work with, so we do seed saving and they have nurseries throughout western New Brunswick. And so there's some in Woodstock, New Brunswick, some in Heartland around the school. And so we grow seedlings and then we have a seed library where people can come and bring seeds and. Just check if you take carrots, then when you get carrot seeds from your carrots, you can bring the carrot seeds back. And so it's really something special. It really is.

Pamela: 47:50

Oh, Amy, every time as you talk about it, I'm just like, I need to come visit this place. This sounds just absolutely amazing. And and it sounds like you've really found a community that. resonates with your heart and your authentic self like with who you are and not only a community but now work that resonates with who you are and what you love and I don't know what role do you think Reiki played in all of this and what advice do you have for people who are considering similar transitions to more community oriented off grid lifestyles, especially, where Reiki is an important part of their journey.

Aimee: 48:34

Yeah just every day I would You know, do myself Reiki treatment and then I would say, use William Rand's prayer Reiki, please guide me and heal me so that I may be a better service to myself and to others And I really truly believe that in my heart setting up a Reiki practice I think maybe at first was more from my ego like it might have been like Oh, like I want to succeed. I want, I want to build clientele. I want this. But over time, what happened over the years as I kept saying that prayer is that it shifted and it said, like, how can I be my most authentic self? But how can I also offer treatment and watch people flourish? It was more about helping the other person and seeing them grow and come into themselves as well. So I think that prayer really shifted things for me. And, off grid is growing it's expanding there's gonna be always little things that come up because it's new technology for example, we didn't have sun for the past five, six days in Knollsville, and so that can get tricky you're looking at, oh, maybe I can't vacuum I have a great system, and I'm able to use a vacuum cleaner, and I have a beautiful washing machine, and Maybe I can't do laundry on these days, or maybe I can't vacuum on these days, or maybe I'll use the cooktop stove instead of, using this type of energy it's just things to consider, but I think the biggest thing is that when things arise, just use your Reiki, just send it Reiki, and it usually just works itself out One thing I find with solar, if you're relying on it, what can come, there's, I think, what can happen is a shift in thought of not enough. So there can be that not enough piece that comes in because if there's not enough sun, then you don't have enough power. So you have to be careful with that belief and just send it Reiki, because, so for the five or six days we were like, what do we do, we need to, we, I think we should go out and buy a generator, so we went out and we bought a really, an amazing generator, it powers our whole system so when we have those periods where there's not enough sun, We just plug in our generator for a couple hours overnight, and then we're good to go. So we create our reality. Yes, we create our reality. And so if we have those beliefs, then we won't have enough. You know what I mean?

Pamela: 51:16

And it's a scarcity mentality,

Aimee: 51:18

right? It's a scarcity. And I find with the animal Reiki, it was a feeling of abundance because the animals are so connected with nature and we are a part of that circle. And when we look at the animals and we see how they just. They just be. They're in their essence. They're in abundance all the time. They aren't worrying about where their next meal comes from. They aren't worrying about if the sun's gonna come out or not. They know just every, it's a faith. It's a deep faith. And so I found with the Animal Reiki coming in To the community. It really helped shift things for me because those thought patterns wanted to resurface for me, but I just sent it Reiki and I was just like, okay yeah, I can do this.

Pamela: 52:05

It's neat, isn't it? It's, living a little bit more in alignment with the rhythms of nature, which, more like our ancestors did, perhaps, you didn't wash clothes on a rainy day because you needed to hang them out to dry. And so you really did have to do things, or my grandmother always washed, did laundry on Monday, so she actually had indoor clotheslines and clotheslines by the

Aimee: 52:28

wood stove. yeAh, and a lot of people in the community do, they have these wooden clotheslines and they're on a pulley system and so most of them, some of them have these high ceilings and so they pull it down and you just pull it up and then the heat rises and then the clothes get dry and then you just let it go off the pulley system and you have all your clothes there.

Pamela: 52:50

Amy, like I just have to come visit you. I'm just, I'm absolutely fascinated by so much of what you've talked about. So we're definitely going to have to arrange

Aimee: 53:00

that. Yeah, it's fascinating, Pam. Some of the houses are made out of straw bale as well. Oh, those are nice. It's just beautiful. One of the people that originally came there, his name's T Leland. He started a company called Apple Seed Homes and these homes are made mostly with sustainable material and some of them are throughout the community. You'll see them and they're made with straw bale and you can go on his website and check them out, but they're absolutely amazing. It's just something to see. A lot of them are an art, a work of art, like to see what, how, what, how They put the straw bale down and it acts as support for the roof. And so you don't have wood in the walls at all, just at the corners. And then you apply like a plaster over top of the straw bale. And it's like it's I think it's rated R30 for

Pamela: 53:55

insulation. It is a very I used to study all of this just out of fascination, and it's a very efficient, um, straw bale. Very well insulated, isn't it?

Aimee: 54:07

Yes.

Pamela: 54:08

Yeah, no, I definitely would love to come and visit and just see. It sounds amazing. I'm scrolling through my schedule in my head.

Aimee: 54:19

I would love to have you come on up. Maybe we can make it the night of a yoga or a dance or something or who knows?

Pamela: 54:27

Amazing. I need a bit more yoga in my life. So yeah, that sounds perfect. Yeah. Yeah. Amy, before we move into our meditation today, is there any other advice or any other, anything else you'd like to mention?

Aimee: 54:40

I Don't think so, Pam. I think we're good.

Pamela: 54:43

Yeah. I'm so happy for you and your family and for how it's all working out and just want to invite the listeners once again, to just think about. community in your life and think about any dreams that you might have and even any opportunities for more off grid living or more, sustainable living, because I know that's becoming so important to, for everyone on the planet, actually. And so for now, I'm just going to invite you to bring your hands together once more in Gassho. And I love, Amy, how you talked about the prayer. And so we'll start today with the prayer inviting Reiki to please guide me and heal me so that I may be of greater service to myself and to others. And then take a moment to just ask yourself, what does my soul want with regards to community and just notice any impressions or ideas or feelings that you may receive and then ask yourself, what does my soul want in regards to my dreams? And if you're not sure, just invite Reiki to connect you with your soul's purpose and your dreams. You don't need to have an awareness of exactly what they are at this time. Just allow Reiki to work on it for your behalf. But you can pay attention to any impressions or ideas you get. What does my soul want with regards to my dreams? I'm just going to remain here in Gassho today, inviting the energy to form the connections on our behalf, to move us into community with each other, just feeling the connection with the five or six hundred other people. We're listening to the podcast and into community within different areas and parts of your life. And we invite the energy to reach out for us and connect us with our dreams. And if we're not aware of the dreams to connect us with the awareness of them as well. And we'll remain here today. I invite you to stay in this space as long as you'd like, and when you feel ready to return, just to take a deep breath, bring your attention to your eyes, slowly open your eyes and come back, and just bringing the energy of community and dreams fulfilled with you. I'd like to thank you for being here with us today. Amy, I'd like to thank you for being here with us Thank you for joining us and sharing your wonderful experiences.

Aimee: 1:03:40

Welcome. It's my pleasure. I always like spending time with you, Pam. I just, I feel like you're a part of my community, even though we're far apart. It's so nice to be able to connect with you this way and through your podcast and everything like that. It's

Pamela: 1:03:55

wonderful. Likewise, I do feel connected with you, even though you're there and appreciate those pictures of Ellie once in a while. She's adorable. But I definitely do want to arrange a visit. Amy, I, I am excited to just hearing you talk about your community just seems amazing to me. So I'm very interested in just coming in and meeting some people and seeing it firsthand. And of course, seeing your chickens love. Who doesn't

Aimee: 1:04:26

love chickens? Oh, I love it. It's my favorite part of my day. Going to get the eggs. I know.

Pamela: 1:04:33

They're so lovely. They are. Yeah. Thank you. And to all the listeners, thank you. Keep shining your bright light in the world. We appreciate

Aimee: 1:04:44

you. Thank you, Pam. You too.

Pamela: 1:04:48

Thank you. Namaste, everyone.

Aimee: 1:04:50

Namaste.