Posts In: Molly's Blog

As a medium and a Reiki healer I know that each experience with each client is always going to be brand new.  I never now what my day is going to bring; all I know is that it will be something new.  2012 was an amazing year of growth for Powers of Healing – growth not only in the number of clients with whom I’ve worked but also in my own understanding of what I do and what I can offer.  With all this in mind…

Powers of Healing will start something new.

Starting in March, I will be offering new ways to experience a connection with the spirits of loved ones.  POH will have more and more types of group readings available.  I will be scheduling far fewer individual, private readings.

A new type of small group,  Spirit Connections 2 – A Small Group Reading with Molly Powers, will start in March.  These extended readings will welcome no more than 10 people.  I’m happy to report that the first of these has already sold out.  The Watertown Healing Arts Center will be the home of these evening sessions.

Spirit Connections 2 will join Spirit Connections:  An Evening With Molly Powers which launched last fall.  The most recent event in January at Lexington Power Yoga.  POH is currently booking the next “Evening” later this month in Canton, MA.

And for those who feel that a private reading is the only venue for them, I will continue to offer this service but these readings will be scheduled on a very limited basis.

The Services page of the website pages will continue to have the most up-to-date information on events and pricing.  As I continue to grow and evolve as a medium and healer, my hope is that this latest iteration of POH will allow me to do my very best for the greatest number of people.

A new year, we can start over, start something new, create something new, or just be grateful for what we have, because that is perfect, too.  A new year is often a time to think about what we would like to do differently in our lives, a time to ponder the creation of something new and the letting go of something old.

For me in this past year there were moments of great joy and there were moments of great sadness.  For too many, there are years in which sadness may be much stronger than joy.   Often when someone we love dies the sadness overwhelms the joy.

Know that this year, and every year, your loved ones in spirit are always with you – in all the moments, the joy, the sadness, all of it…life.  Their love is always present and always strong.

Wishing everyone a wonderful new year!

I have been thinking a lot about love over these past few months.  During a reading I feel the love between my clients and those they have lost.  That love never seems to die and walks with us through the rest of our days on this earth.

After a reading people often share with me in e-mails and in messages their experience and so often it focuses on the love that they felt, the love that I felt, too.  Here are two examples:

My reading with Molly was a little like a family reunion. Four members of my immediate family came through and allowed Molly to deliver accurate information to me that would not otherwise be known to her. I found great comfort in knowing that my loved ones, especially my mother, are at peace….

Molly told me things that only my sister and I knew.  She reminded me of things my parents and I had done. It was like going home for a bit. It was extremely comforting to know your loved ones still look out for you.

Love it what heals; love is what brings great peace, and love is what brings joy.  There may be sadness but there is also comfort in knowing that even in death there is still love.

Finding peace for some is a rare experience.  For me finding peace comes from being outside in nature and in the beauty that surrounds us.  Last year, Paul and I went on an amazing trip climbing the Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt.  We traveled along glaciers and over high passes and stayed the night in mountain huts.  What an experience!  The Alps are among the most amazingly breathtaking (literally) mountains in the world.  Today I get to go back to the Alps.  On this trip I will be climbing the second tallest peak in the Alps, the Monte Rosa.  We will travel for 5 days along the glaciers, up and over rocky ridges, and we’ll stay our final night in the highest hut in Europe.  It will take a lot of work but I know that it will bring peace and healing.  Enjoy the rest of the beautiful summer and find some peace outside – in the beauty of the ocean or the magnificence of the mountains.  Ciao!

You might imagine that the messages I receive from the dead are not always peaceful.  We all may want to fade away in our sleep at some ripe old age but unfortunately it may not work out that way.

In a medium reading, I come face to face, literally, with the manner in which someone has died.  Many are brutal, detailing stabbings or murders.  More people than you know have had buildings collapse on them, leading to a slow suffocating death.  Some deaths are breathtakingly sad.  The accidental death of a child haunts parents for a lifetime as they wonder, relentlessly, whether they could’ve done something differently.  People die in avalanches and car accidents; they drown.

I often receive these stories in pictures, sensations, and words.  The good news is that the person who dies is freed immediately from any pain and suffering at the moment that death comes.

That still leaves us, the living, to re-experience the circumstance of the death itself and to dwell sometimes in the last horrible minutes of life.

I wonder what effect this all has on me.  The sadness and grief that my clients often feel definitely travels with me outside of the sessions.   Working as healer is amazing; being able to connect people with their loved ones who have died is an unbelievable experience.  But I am also human and the sadness and suffering of my clients is part of my work.  It becomes part of me.  It takes a toll.

*   *   *   *   *

I realized I needed a break – a break from the dead – and I knew that they, “the dead,” would still be there when I returned to work.  I enjoyed lazy days at the beach, spending time with friends, and hiking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire with my boyfriend.  We are gearing up for another climbing trip to the Swiss Alps.  After two weeks of this “cure” I returned to work.

The first reading I did was actually a second reading for a women who lost her husband last year.  He let her know that he was aware that she had purchased a new car and a new home on the beach, a place that they both loved and enjoyed together.  He was still close by watching and protecting – still present in spirit.  This brought her great comfort.

I was reminded how very powerful it is connecting to a loved one who has died and how life-changing it is to know that we are not alone and always connected to those we love in spirit.   I needed time away as part of my healing but I needed a reading like this one to be fully rejuvenated.

My work may take a toll, but all things in life can take a toll, and we take care of ourselves by taking a break, taking time off, and then getting back to work.

Interestingly, some people who come to see me for a reading are worried that the person who has died is still mad at them. Maybe the person who is alive didn’t visit right at the end. Or, there was a misunderstanding or falling out that never got patched up. From what I’ve seen, the people who are alive still hold onto all the guilt and sadness for not expressing their feelings before it was too late. And they believe that the person who has died is still upset.

Luckily, I’ve never connected to a spirit that was holding a grudge or still cross about something. When I get to deliver this message during a reading it often brings great peace and comfort to the living. It allows them to let go of the worry.

I often wonder about my own life – my family and my friends – do I say everything that I need to? If someone ever died suddenly would I have missed my chance? I love you, I am grateful to know you and to have you in my life, thank you, I am sorry or, simply, goodbye. I try to but when it comes to life and relationships it is sometimes difficult to express or communicate everything. There are so many important people in my life. Realizing that loss is always possible means that I need to consistently share and express my feelings with my own loved ones.

One person in my life that I often feel that I have not said enough to is my dad. He has been sick with heart disease since I was 10 years old and over this past year he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. The mental deterioration has affected his life and his happiness. He is aware of his mental decline. Over this past year I have avoided sharing with him my sadness and worry about his illness. I have been afraid, fearful, and sad for my dad, my family, and me. I saw him as sick again, this time not with heart disease but a new illness. It broke my heart; it still breaks my heart.

This past weekend I broke down in tears and told my dad how much I loved him and how sad I was that he was sick with Alzheimer’s. I could no longer bear the idea that he might die without knowing how much I loved him. As I began to tell him how much I loved him he also started to cry. I hugged him and told him that I knew that he was going to die someday and I wanted to let him know I loved him and I am sorry that he has to be sick again. He told me not to worry. He told me he loved me, too, and if I get scared or fearful of his illness I could call him and let him know. He wanted to make sure I had an outlet for my worries and that I did not carry it bottled up inside me. I told him that making sure he knew I loved him was my outlet. I love you, Dad.

My work as a medium has taught me so many valuable life lessons. The most important lesson is to say I love you to those whom you love and don’t be scared to say everything you want to say.

On a sunny day in July of 2003, I was standing in the kitchen of my friend Michelle’s house on Cape Cod.  But it wasn’t as festive as it sounds.  Her mother had died five years earlier and her father was planning to remarry and sell the house.  Michelle and I were talking in the kitchen and other friends were in the living room.   An embroidered poem mounted on the kitchen wall caught my eye, “An Irish Blessing.”  I started reading the poem and – and just like in a movie – a rush of wind came through the back door.  Without knowing why, I looked at Michelle and said, “Your mother wants to let you know that she is okay and she is so happy that you are here staying in the house.”

I was overcome by an intense sadness and burst into tears and hugged Michelle.  She asked, “Molly,  did you just channel my mother?”  I wasn’t sure.  I had never felt or done anything like that before and I didn’t know what to make of it.  Honestly, I didn’t know what channeling was.

Later, Michelle told me that her mom loved the Cape house.  It was one her favorite places to be.   Michelle thought that her mother wanted to encourage her children to enjoy the Cape house as a retreat much as she had when she was alive.

I don’t know how Michelle’s mother knew to deliver a message through me to her daughter.   But she did and it was powerful.  I also didn’t know that this experience would set my life on a different path.  Though it would take another three years and another experience for that new path to become clear to me.

When I met Mary (not her real name) three years ago she was healthy.  When she e-mailed me recently, she had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.  She wanted to know if I did house calls.  She was interested in both a medium reading and a Reiki healing session.  I e-mailed her right back, “Absolutely.”

When I arrived at Mary’s home, massage table in hand, there was a full house of visitors. One of her sons was heading out the door and joined me in my car to direct me to a good place to park.   As we were driving he asked what I did and I told him that I was a Reiki practitioner and I was going to do some Reiki healing on his mother.  He looked curious and then asked, “What else do you do?”  I told him I also worked as a medium.  After a moment of silence, he blurted out, “My mom is very sick and she wants to know how she can come back after she dies.”   I told him that I was sorry to hear that she was dying and that I would try my best to bring her some peace.   Walking back into Mary’s home I realized that she was preparing to die and wanted to make sure all of her family knew that she would be back in spirit.

Mary was in good spirits that afternoon, happy to have the healing sessions at her home, and so happy to have her family around.  We sat down together and she asked me the question:  “How do I come back?  I want to know how I can come back when I die.”  Because of what her son had said, I wasn’t surprised by her question.

I just didn’t know how to answer it.

During a medium reading those who have died speak to me, delivering messages that allow the living to know that their loved one is with them.  But I have no idea where these spirits go when the body dies or how it is that they come back to speak through me.

Mary knew that once she died she would be at peace and no longer suffering.  She wanted to assure some sort of peace for her children by keeping that connection with them unbroken.  The ones who suffer the most in death are those left behind, the living.   Mary was worried for her children, not herself.

Leaving later in the afternoon, I gave Mary a big hug.  With tears in my eyes, I said,  “I will see you again for more healing and I want to thank you for allowing me to be with you today.   You are so very strong and amazing.   Thank you so much for sharing your strength with me today.  You are a gift.”

She is a gift.   A gift of grace to know of life and the love of her family.  And to also know about death – her death.   That day I was touched by the power of Mary’s human spirit and the gift we are to each other and the peace we can bring to those we love by being this gift.

It is not often that I do a reading and connect with someone whom I had happened to meet when he was alive.  But it does happen.

One fellow I had met twice, once in a group reading he attended with his wife, and again a few weeks after that in a private reading with his wife.  He had been receiving intensive treatment for brain cancer for about 10 months.  In the readings, he wanted to confirm that he was not alone and that his loved ones were with him providing peace, comfort, healing, and love.  He wanted to make sure that they knew of his illness.

He died about a month ago and his wife came to see me last week in hopes of re-connecting.  This time, his spirit was able to provide her the same peace, comfort, healing, and love that he had received while alive.  She left knowing that he is close by – watching, guiding, and protecting.

I was raised in an Irish Catholic family so, when I came out of the Medium closet in 2007,  the thought of telling my family that I developed the ability to talk to dead people didn’t seem possible.  It is a sin in the Catholic church to commune with spirits, and that is what I was doing.  I decided to tell my twin sister first.  She was surprised and even a bit confused as she did not understand what it all meant.  Undaunted, I told my big sister next.  She was surprised, too, but accepted my new gift as a good thing and thought that it would bring peace to others.  My brother, the oldest,  lives out in California and was very laid back about it:   “I’ll spread the word.  Cool.”

That left my parents.  I was terrified to tell them that I was communing with dead.  I was truly terrified;  I really had no idea how they were going to respond.  I was so very pleasantly surprised when not only did they respond with delight and wonder, but they also were amazingly supportive,  kind,  and loving. Thank you Mom and Dad.

So, being Irish Catholic is not so bad after all.  It is who I am; it is my heritage,  and I am grateful.