Published in the Rising Sun EFT Group Newsletter 12-17-09
I was speechless when I received the announcement of Gary Craig’s retirement a few days ago. This is truly earthshaking news for the EFT community. I’m sure we are all sending healing energy to Gary for the best recovery from his heart attack. Perhaps we can all tap healing energy towards him, as we know that surrogate tapping is powerful.
If anyone deserves all the rest, freedom and ease of retirement, it is Gary Craig. The immensity of the gift of EFT that he has given the world can never be acknowledged and appreciated enough. He has worked tirelessly on behalf of EFT for so long. During this time, we have been blessed with Gary’s gift of such an amazing wealth of free or low-cost EFT resources. For me, the DVDs and the website, especially the article archives on the website, have been like the backbone of EFT and I will miss them greatly. It is a huge loss that these resources will also be coming to a close. Many are suggesting that the article archive be maintained in some form, so I hope that will be considered.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Gary and would like to share with you my favorite story about him. I first met Gary in 2001 at a workshop he did in Flagstaff, Arizona. This is one of the workshops that is on the second DVD set, and it was a marvelous experience. At that time, there were about 180 of us in attendance and, being a little shy, I was of course lost in the crowd. But soon thereafter, Gary put out an invitation — he wanted to find 12-15 people to come out to his home at The Sea Ranch, CA, and spend a week training in EFT with him. I was on the phone with him in seconds! Thus, my dear friend Carolyn Lewis and I ended up in that small group training.
So my first real connection with Gary was this experience of his incredible generosity. I was so blown away, I was pinching myself, was it a dream? All we had to do was get there and pay for lodging in the several vacation houses he rented for the event, and he would give us a week of his time. Wow.
As plans were made, it appeared that we would have the option of doing our own cooking. My friend and I prefer vegetarian, so I found myself asking Gary Craig if there was anywhere we’d be able to get tofu! He didn’t know and of course that was fine. On the day we arrived, Gary met us and took Carolyn and me to the house where we would be staying. There was a beautiful bouquet of rhododendron on the table, picked from Gary’s own yard. The refrigerator was already stocked with supplies — including tofu! I will never forget that. How sweet and thoughtful. Gary Craig, who is really not a tofu kind of guy, had gone out of his way to make sure we had our tofu.
It has been quite a ride, as Gary said in his announcement. None of us knew in 2001 that EFT would grow to what it is today. This growth is a wonderful thing and, at the same time, it has presented huge challenges. I wish to honor Gary Craig and thank him from the bottom of my heart. While I am sad to reach the end of this era, I respect his decision to step down and wish him all good things in his well-deserved retirement. We must all do our best to be good stewards of EFT and carry it into the future with integrity, skill and love. I will always acknowledge where I come from as an EFT practitioner and will always appreciate Gary Craig.