Creating A Peaceful World

We’ve all asked ourselves, “Why did I agree to do that?” Sometimes, we get to find out.

In July of 2008, Michaela Torcaso, founder and owner of TIBIA, Inc. (Transformation – Intuition – Bodywork – In Action), was gearing up for the school’s participation in the Wisconsin AIDS ride. Each year, all the students, most of the staff, and many graduates spend four days giving massages to riders and crew. In the midst of these preparations came a call asking TIBIA to provide massage for Extreme Makeover: The Home Edition–one week before the AIDS ride! To accept would be like doing two rides back to back, on top of the usual responsibilities of running the school. Yet, Michaela felt drawn to say yes.

TIBIA offers more than just bodywork, so when Michaela brought a crew to Richland Center, she brought more than massage. Those who came with her were also trained to work intuitively with energy. How did this look? Before the new house could be built and the new garden planted, the old ones were taken out–foundation demolished, grasses and nests bulldozed, trees ripped from the earth. The construction site was fenced off as a hard-hats-only area.

Some of the TIBIA crew, working up near the food tent, became aware of a sense of trauma in the earth at the site. Michaela obtained permission, they all put on hard hats, and down they went.

They must have looked a bit mysterious to a 14-year-old boy named Davis, who asked them what they were doing. Michaela explained that they were blessing the ground, thanking God, and holding an awareness of the project’s wholeness already present although not yet manifest. Davis understood; he and Michaela took to one another right away. He began watching the massage and energy sessions from a distance. After a while, he asked very shyly if she could please do some of that with him.

Michaela learned that Davis had had a severe heart condition all his life. As the days at the construction site unfolded, she got to know his family and felt an immediate connection. Davis is the son of David and Katie Simon. David is a co-owner of Veridian Homes, the company doing the construction.

Over the next few months, Davis received several intuitive energy sessions from Michaela. She began to have a strong sense that the heart transplant his family had often talked about could be happening soon. She invited the family to call her when a heart became available. She went on about her work, having faith that they would call if she was to assist.

One January evening, she found herself with a sense that she should not go to sleep even though it had been a very full day, so she was awake and working when the call came at 11:30. The transplant was to occur at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin early the next day.

Michaela drove to Milwaukee and, at the hospital, worked with Davis and his family–energetically, spiritually, and emotionally. When the doctors came, she was introduced as a spiritual healer and energy worker and allowed to stay in the room until the surgery. There was tremendous acceptance from all the medical staff. Still working with Davis energetically outside the room, Michaela offered to support the family in a more intense and visible way, knowing that their own healing would contribute to Davis’, and they accepted. She stayed until after the procedure.

Although the surgery went well, Davis began to have extreme, debilitating headaches. Michaela felt guided to return. The doctors had been shifting Davis’ medications in an effort to end the headaches. Michaela was working intensely with Davis so that the heart and his body could merge energetically, when she heard a message to relay: “The donor really wants you to have this heart.” As she spoke this message and Davis really got it, his system was finally able to integrate the heart on every level. The experience of trauma softened, and he became more peaceful. New meds were introduced, and the headaches disappeared.

Davis is now doing well. Both Michaela and the Simon family feel that they were drawn to work with Extreme Makeover so that they would find each other.

So the next time you instinctively agree to something and then wonder why, take heart. You never know where it might lead. Acknowledgement is due to the many co-workers and friends whose roles in this story could not be told for reasons of space. It was truly a community effort–as was the writing of this article (special thanks to Jen Kalafut).

Leora Weitzman is an instructor at TIBIA. She offers bodywork there and
through her business, Back in Harmony (608.332.9581).