Debra Basham

Living and Loving

Author: Debra Basham

  • A Clean Slate


    On Tuesday night in class the teacher told us, “Karma is never a punishment; there is always a desire to learn.” I was so drawn to the words and to the implication of that truth. A subtle curiosity dawned as to from where the idea of a punishing supreme being came.

      When love and hate are both absent
      everything becomes clear and undisguised.
      Make the smallest distinction, however,
      and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.

      ~ From “Views of the Faith Mind”

    We are so very conditioned to polarities, we sometimes take for granted they “exist.”

    What if polarities are really just conditioned states of mind?

    In The Sound of Silence, Ajahn Sumedho describes a state that is “ever present but only noticed if attended to.”

    My blood pressure has been up again since Hurricane Ian came onshore in our beloved community in Southwest Florida, before driving destruction onward across the state and on up into North Carolina. As I was sitting with all of that on October 12, I realized the elevated blood pressure might really be Europe anniversary energy from 2011. I was going to the foot doctor later in the morning so I sat a clear intention to have everything be released with the day’s procedure.

    Before leaving for my appointment I did a drawing and heard song lyrics in my head: What goes up, must come down; spinning wheel got to go round; talkin’ bout your troubles, it’s a cryin’ sin.

    Then a poem:

      A Clean Slate

      My past is a thief robbing me of today
      but only if I hold on — that’s the only way
      I breathe in
      I breathe out
      I let go
      I move out

      No more ruminating
      this is the root
      today renders all those yesterdays
      absolutely moot

      Today the autumn hues
      can erase a history of blues
      the reds
      yellows bright
      orange shining
      with glorious light

      These cells and pores
      win or lose
      when I’m saving scores
      wipe the slate clean
      that’s what we mean

      Do it now
      let it go

      Compassion
      can and will flow

      Debra Basham October 12, 2022

    After I got home from the doctor, I had the first normal blood pressure reading in several days. I finished reading The Cherry Harvest, by Lucy Sanna. I did not like the ending. Online I saw this line in one review, “Really digs into the hidden behaviors that people often have but would never admit.” I wrote in my journal that I prefer a happy ending.

    John Lennon is credited with saying everything will be okay in the end, so if it’s not okay, it’s not the end.

    More from “Views of the Faith Mind” that resonates with all of this:

      Do not search for the truth;
      only cease to cherish opinions.
      do not remain in the dualistic state.
      Avoid such pursuits carefully.
      If there is even a trace of this and that,
      of right and wrong,
      the mind-essence will be lost in confusion.

      Although all dualities come from the One,
      do not be attached even to this One.
      When the mind exists undisturbed in the Way,
      nothing in the world can offend.
      And when a thing can no longer offend,
      it ceases to exist in the old way.

    A few minutes ago I went out and took a video of the sky. To the left and to the right of a heavy band of clouds there was blue sky. It was so obvious that what you see depends on where you are looking.

    A lot of life related to wintering in Pine Island has ceased to exist in the old way, yet another opportunity to breathe in and out and let go….

  • Pandora

    Sacred Stories

    She was on a trip to Costa Rica with her students. When she tried to use the Pandora App on her phone she got the message “not available in my country.” Due to licensing restrictions, Pandora is only available for use inside the United States.

    Near the end of the trip, everyone was taking photos on the beach. When she gathered with her family for their photo, she was overcome with self-consciousness. One leg is much smaller than the other. She wears a brace. She was wearing shorts, something she seldom allows anyone to see her do.

    A lifetime of painful feelings of shame flooded through her as she imagined herself in that photo.

    Mysteriously Pandora started playing the song “In Dreams” by Jai-Jagdeesh.

    Know you are loved, rest in peace; dream your sweet dreams ’til your soul is released…Beloved child you are the light of the world, go out, spread light to the world; be strong, be kind, be brave; know your mind, know that you’re divine, know that it’s alright to be afraid. Know you are loved. Rest in peace. Dream your sweet dreams ’til your soul is released.

    She heard the lyrics at a deep level and knew this was a gift from God….

  • Invite to Arise and Allow to Dissolve

    The days feel a bit otherworldly since hurricane Ian paid a visit to our seasonal paradise in St. James City on Pine Island, Florida. Devastation is the best descriptor. The island has been deemed “uninhabitable” for the unforeseeable future with no power, water, sewer, or emergency services.

    The sense of loss comes in concentric circles. The smallest circle is the interruption to our coveted winter life-style. Then to the homeowners, and finally to those whose only home is (was) there. The island is also home to so much wildlife that must be shocked as well. Bald Eagle, the Gopher Tortoise, the Pileated Woodpecker, the Great Blue Heron, to name just a few.

    We received a video after our homeowner made it to ground zero yesterday. The damage is overwhelming. So many of our friends are affected. John’s shuffleboard buddy called to say they are not coming back. “We are too old, and I am too tired,” Richie said. Again, those circles.

    We view the damage from a safe distance within the comfort of our tiny house here in Michigan.

    Our grandson, Brad, drove to Florida from Tennessee with donated supplies to assist his dad in Englewood, who lost a roof. It is estimated that 90-95 percent of homes in that community were damaged. Brad’s paternal grandparent’s home was a total loss, like so many others we know and love.

    I realized it feels like going through the grand letting go that happens for us all at the time of death, but we are going through it now without leaving our bodies.

    I appreciate that a friend sent a passage from Eckhart Tolle’s Stillness Speaks: “Death is not the opposite of life. Life has no opposite. The opposite of death is birth. Life is eternal.” (p. 103)

    Betty Lue Lieber (my beloved teacher and friend who founded the interfaith ordination program of Reunion I was ordained through) sent the Daily Quote from Abraham Hicks:

      You cannot be less than you are now. You cannot achieve a vibration that is less than the vibration that you have achieved. That’s why when someone achieves an empire and then something happens where it is lost or destroyed, they still have the vibration that they’ve achieved, and the empire will come back again—you see it all the time—because it is the vibrational status that the Universe is responding to, not the financial status.

      Excerpted from Philadelphia, PA on 5/7/03

      Our Love
      Esther (Abraham and Jerry)

    This morning when my sister, Janis, and I turned over our 2022 Magic Eye Calendar to October we saw myriad animals — including buffalo, bear, deer, eagle, and feather. It is a very BUSY image. Key words that came to mind are Native American; Mother Earth; and Nature.

    The underneath (3D image) is simply two sets of human hands coming down on to two drums. We both thought: Heart beat of the earth.

    There is soooooo much going on on the surface, but underneath we can feel hopeful. First Janis said it felt hopeful, but then the word ENCOURAGING came to mind.

    Reading on in Stillness Speaks:

      People tend to be uncomfortable with endings, because every ending is a little death. That’s why in many languages, the word for “good-bye” means “see you again.”

      Whenever an experience comes to an end — a gathering of friends, a vacation, your children leaving home — you die a little death. A “form” that appeared in y9ur consciousness as that experience dissolves. Often this leaves behind a feeling of emptiness that most people try hard not to face.

      If you can learn to accept and even welcome the endings in your life, you may find that the feeling of emptiness that initially felt uncomfortable turns into a sense of inner spaciousness that is deeply peaceful.

      By learning to die daily in this way, you open yourself to Life. (p. 106-107)

    Two experiences from my past come to mind. The first was when the entire lower level at Holistic Alliance was flooded with grey water. That was a total BEING of awareness that what would be would be. Like Doris Day’s singing Qué será, será, whatever will be, will be; the future’s not ours to see; Qué será, será.

    The second was the night I unknowingly ate food containing shellfish while I was in Thailand and I became violently ill. I was alone with no way to get any help. After the vomiting and diarrhea slowed to where I could crawl to the bedroom and lie down, I turned on my Everlasting Peace CD fully aware whatever will be, will be. If I was going to die, I wanted to live until then in everlasting peace.

    This morning, Aaron’s words point to a new way of navigating this feeling of emptiness.

    There is nothing to create; there is nothing to destroy. There is only the power that is inherent in your essence, which is the essence of All That Is, the power of love that is able to fully invite that which is wholesome and release that which is unwholesome. To create and to destroy are 3rd density concepts; invite to arise and allow to dissolve are 4th density concepts. Are you ready for it? ~ Aaron

  • Embrace Your Radiance and Power

    Sometimes it takes hindsight to see most clearly how to move forward.

    This morning I came across a Beyond Mastery Newsletter post from ten years ago. The title of that post is “You’re Pushin’ Too Hard.” Here it is:

      I may have been affected by a week of flu, but these words to the song “You’re Pushin’ Too Hard,” by the Seeds, just keep rolling in my head: “You’re pushin’ too hard, what you want me to be, about the things you say, you’re pushin’ too hard every night and day…. All I want is to just have fun, live my life like it’s just begun.…”

      In Jin Shin Jyutsu, pushin’ too hard is called efforting, and in ways perhaps known only to the soul, it is based on a lack of trust. I don’t often think of myself as lacking trust, and I often speak quite to the contrary, expressing ultimate trust in Divine Intelligence, or LIFE, or the Universe, what is sometimes in this culture called God. What does it mean, then, that efforting is oh, too, familiar….

      An exercise I have invited myself and others to play goes something like this, “If you could have anything you wanted, what would that be? And if you had that now, what would your having it now allow you to do or have or be that you have seemed unable to do or have or be currently?”

      Recently, I am very aware of the gap in ease I experience about that answer. I know my life would have an element of service in it, and yet, I am not called to anything concrete in the ways I used to be. I know my life would have time for balance of body, mind, and spirit. I would exercise, preferably by riding my bike most days. I would eat healthy food, and enjoy well-prepared meals. I would meditate daily, as well as join group meditation. I would write. I have come to recognize how much writing is central in my spiritual balance.

      When I ask if I would work, I cannot answer that with perfect clarity. Would I teach? Maybe. Would I preach if I had the opportunity? Maybe.

      One question that can still bring tears to my eyes has to do with a sense of failure. I know my mother felt she had wasted her life. At the time she was expressing those feelings, they struck me as so odd, after all, she had me! Perhaps she had been responding to a deeper dream that had not revealed itself in her doing. She was an amazing cook. She could make an eight-course meal look easy. Her own needs for food were minimal, but her need to feed those she loves was nearly insatiable. Meatloaf for one, roast beef for another. Lasagna. Cornbread. When the kids were all young, and several of them preferred the center of the pan of cinnamon rolls, she would make several, so everyone got a center!

      I am not sure my soul needs that level of pandering to, but it does need to be heard, and honored, and allowed a say in what I do with my time and energy.

      I shall give my soul pen here and see what is desiring to be shared!

      What small gift can I bring?

      • I can open the door for someone who is rushing in or out.

      • I can listen to someone who is feeling alone or confused.

      • I can remember to breathe when those around me are in stressful moments.

      • I can pick up a piece of trash when I see it and not harbor a thought about how it came to be there in the first place.

      • I can tip well when service was poor and tip even better when service is great.

      What might it mean that I find no lofty goals when I look deeply inside? Perhaps nature has seeped into my being and contentment is being born where restlessness once whipped my moods like March winds working kites as delighted children watch with their eyes all aglow. I cannot imagine the roses pining or the Bluebird considering a life being lived a failure.

      Maybe seen in its true light, even the greatest loss is really a gain. I am willing to think of it this way and give it time to see if that is what is happening.

    Re-reading this is especially significant after the message I received during Darshan (a blessing from The Mother) during Remembering Wholeness with Barbara Brodsky yesterday.

      I know you are familiar with the experience of shame. I don’t mean an intense horror “OH!” of shame, but just, “Oh, I only got 98 on that. I could have gotten 100. I could have put a little more love into it; I could have paid a little more attention.”

      Sometimes being more perfectionist can be helpful — if someone is lazy or sloppy about things — but when one is already giving so much love, then being perfectionists is a way of negating the gift of the self. What does that mean?

      I think it’s mostly an old habit, but not entirely, so, I’d like you to ask when you move into that sense of subtle smallness, that sense of, “I could have done it better,” to ask, “What do I gain by putting myself down in that way? Why can I not embrace my full radiance and power?”

      And, especially I’m talking about power.

      What if you are as powerful as I know you to be? What then?

      I look forward to seeing what evolves as you start to open up to your power.

      I love you, and I am with you.

    When I read down my bulleted list from 2012, I can see that I live all of those desires. It is time for a new list….

    What might evolve as I open fully to my power?

      • I will welcome each day with expectancy that the power of the Holy Spirit is alive within me.

      • I will give each experience room to reveal the Holy Spirit’s grace and gift that experience offers.

      • I will worry less about dying and care more about living as a radiant expression of Holy Spirit.

      • I will express exuberantly the power of the Holy Spirit for the good of all.

      • I will see a 98 as “Well done, good and faithful servant.”


    A monarch butterfly travels as much as 100 miles a day
    during its 3,000-mile migration south.

  • More May 20

    Sacred Stories

    She and her husband were wandering around the vintage car show when they spotted a friend from high school. This friend’s wife had passed and he had remarried. Chatting with his current wife, the news of the passing of her son this past May was shared.

    “I am so sorry for your loss. What day in May?” she inquired.

    “May 20,” was the reply.

    She shared that her own mother had passed on May 20, and the former owner of the home they live in now had also passed on May 20. (See: May 20)

    Most years have 365 days…. what are the odds???

  • Glass Globe

    Sacred Stories

    He worked for a funeral home, not as an undertaker, but as a helper to the owner. One of his duties was to drive the owner to visit his wife. She was in a care facility about 90 minutes drive away. They would always stop and have dinner on the way back. He and the owner became friends. Being around death every day, they talked a lot about things.
    One day he said to the owner, “When you die, send me a sign to let me know you are OKAY.”

    Not long after the owner’s passing, he was working at one facility and he accidentally broke a light globe. He tried everywhere to buy a replacement, without any success.

    Some time later, while he was working at another location, he noticed an identical globe sitting on a shelf – right out in the open. There was NOTHING in this facility that globe went to. Plus, he had been in that storeroom in that facility many times and he had never seen that globe.

    He picked the glass globe up. As he held it in his hands he had a profound knowing: This was the message….

  • Before and After

    Everything that is good in the world
    comes from love, land, and labor.

    ~ Van Jones

    My previous Yellow Brick Road posted on August 14. Today is Labor Day, September 5, 2022. This may be the longest time between posts EVER. Or perhaps it isn’t, but it has been (for sure) quite some time.

    The great room turned out, well, GREAT! It ended up not being just a low job. I painted everything except the crown molding, the trim around the door, and the beam.

    Then I painted the library alcove. The new look is so very easy on the eyes….

    On Wednesday, August 17, our Day 6, John and I both tested negative for Covid.

    On Friday, August 19, 2022, when I saw the two red lines on John’s retest, all I could say was, “Dammit… dammit… DAMMIT.”

    My Day 8, suddenly became my new Day Zero.

    Even though Linda thought it was too late to take precautions from exposure now to John, I felt I had to. It is not easy to isolate living in a tiny house, but I was clear on my intention. We both masked any time we were in the same room. We used separate dish towels, and only paper towels to dry our hands. We switched our stuff so he used the main bath and I used the guest bath. Essentially, I moved into the guest room. We ate dinner together, but he sat at the table and I used a TV tray sitting in the little rocking chair from Bozena. He always handled the remote control for the TV.

    I was negative for Covid again on Wednesday, August 24, my second Day 6. Negative again on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday – my second Day 8, 9, and 10. On Saturday, we were able to go to Norleen’s Backyard Birthday Bash, to St. John in New Buffalo on Sunday. You have to understand what a relief it was to not have to test on Monday. Woohoo!

    Coincidentally, exactly one year ago we had Covid. Exactly….

    So much has changed in the past year. On Saturday night of Labor Day weekend last year, John had the horrific anxiety, resulting in Larry Gunter’s taking him to ER on Sunday evening. The very next day, Jerry Basham had the abdominal aortic aneurysm on Labor Day. Jerry passed a few weeks later, on September 24. John had the sciatica flare all of November and December; quadruple bypass surgery in January; TIA in April; low-pressure event May 5 in the neurologist’s office. When I had the transient global amnesia in June, John was in an even worse sciatica flare. On Thursday, August 25, John got very weak and sweaty and then horribly nauseous while mowing the lawn. He was taken by ambulance to ER, and recovered well from what was likely dehydration. We have gotten through it all, and we are both doing very well!

    I had to buy more of the expensive primer because next I am going to paint the gallery wall and the furnace closet. In truth, I am going to paint all of the back hallway.

    The before and after is remarkable. TRULY remarkable….


  • Verizon – July 27

    Sacred Stories

    He had passed so young, in his early forties, leaving their one son.

    She had just not been able to bear calling Verizon to disconnect his cell phone. She finally made the call.

    She was totally in awe!

    The lady at Verizon who was helping her had lost her son at age 41.

    Plus, that woman’s son had passed on July 27th…. her late husband’s birthday!

    Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous. …

  • Wayne’s World – Nothing Really Matters but LOVE!

    Sacred Stories

    It was a day she was not really looking forward to, going to close out the bank account that had belonged to her husband, Wayne. She had made one trip already, but the person she needed to see was at lunch so they made an appointment for her at 3:00.

    A storm was threatening, scheduled to hit at 3:00. She decided to leave about ten minutes early to not get caught in a downpour.

    NPR was on in the car when the engine started. Backing out of the driveway, she was jolted to alertness to hear Terry Gross on Fresh Air mention Wayne’s World.

    Fresh Air is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States since 1985. Terry Gross was interviewing Brian May, lead guitarist for the group Queen. They were talking about the Muppet version of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. That is what got them to also make a reference to the 1992 American comedy film, Wayne’s World.

    Earlier that morning she had been on a Zoom meeting with their two minister/friends preparing Wayne’s Celebration of Life. One of the sections is titled (drum roll….) Wayne’s World!

    So, rather than feeling down or sad, driving to the bank she was jamming out with Muppet Music doing the Bohemian Rhapsody, hearing Miss Piggy’s amazing closing as she belts out, “Anyone can see…. Nothing really matters…. Nothing really matters…. but LOVE!”

    Welcome to Wayne’s World!


  • Be the Peace (Piece) of the Puzzle

    Sacred Stories

    My dear friend, Wayne, recently passed away. At the Grief Journey gathering this past Sunday, one of the co-hosts shared his sense of a message from Wayne:

      He is saying there were experiences he didn’t understand why he had to go through them. And he just told me that when he crossed, all of of those questions were answered perfectly and completely, and he would explain it best as viewing his (and our) life experience as a jigsaw puzzle. Every piece of that jigsaw puzzle is a different shape, unique to every other piece of the puzzle, and every life experience that he (and we) have is unique but every one is necessary to complete that puzzle. And that creates the “portrait” (that is the exact word he gave) of our experience in this lifetime. Those experiences that he couldn’t understand when he was in body are absolutely clear to him, and every one of them was perfect in the creation of his experience that he had planned before he came here, as we all do. His message for all of us right now is that the experiences that we face — whatever they are — are by our own design and they are perfect for what we need at that time to complete our life experience.

    Working on Wayne’s upcoming Celebration of Life, thinking about possible pieces of music, I went to my car to get the compilation CD Wayne had made years ago, long before copyright issues. Imagine my awe when I noticed that the title of the CD is “Be the Peace of the Puzzle” and the image on the label is a jigsaw puzzle!

    When I sent this photo of the CD to the guy who shared Wayne’s message, he responded, “Nice confirmation. What struck me most about Wayne’s message was each “piece” of the “puzzle” was neither good nor bad. It carried no label. But, each piece was integral to the completion of the puzzle. Our opportunity to teach doesn’t end at transition’s door.”

    Transmutation: Grapes must be crushed to make wine. Diamonds form under pressure. Olives are pressed to release oil. Seeds grow in darkness. Whenever you feel crushed, under pressure, pressed, or in darkness, you’re in a powerful place of transformation/transmutation. ~ Lalah Delia