Debra Basham

Living and Loving

Category: Sacred Stories

Contains sacred stories

  • Weather or Whether?

    Sacred Stories

    He had planned to travel out-of-state to attend the memorial service for his nephew. A couple of days prior to departure, at his sister’s urging, he made the decision to not travel because of a severe weather forecast.

    Turns out there was another reason for that guidance….

    He had severe forearm pain and went to the emergency room near his home town.

    Blood clots were found in his arm, a result of having been taken off blood thinners due to a recent GI bleed.

    He was transferred by ambulance to a large hospital in a nearby town he was familiar with, and after a team of doctors reviewed his history, he will be having an “open” surgery today to remove the clots.

    He and his family are so grateful he can be closer to home and that he is working with doctors that know his history.

    This is another example of how LIFE takes everything into consideration.

  • Hello Old Friend, Welcome New Friend

    Sacred Stories

    My husband and I were out enjoying our afternoon at a local winery. When we left there, he suggested we stop by a brewery on the way home. This brewery is not our typical, “let’s stop” place and we’ve never been there on a Sunday, but the day was a great day to be out. Getting out would lift my spirits.

    He knows that I’ve been missing my friend who transitioned quite a bit lately. She was my bestie for like 18 years, and she passed several years ago from colon cancer. Sometimes the missing can get intense.

    Another friend of mine has suggested that I try the Bloody Mary at this brewery, so we sat at the bar and I ordered one.

    A woman sitting next to me started up a conversation. She asked me how my Bloody Mary was and told me how she loved one of the beers there. She had come from out of state to get that beer before it was gone.

    We exchanged names. Her name was the same as my friend!

    I had to smile at the timing of this meeting. My husband understood the importance of this as well. He brews beer and years ago had named a wheat beer after my friend and her miniature donkeys. She loved having a beer named after her, and we all laughed about how cool that was.

    This woman was really nothing like my friend, other than she sounded very independent and matter-of-fact like my friend had been. During our conversation, we had so many things in common and I had the same feeling that I had when I first met my late friend. Both times, I had a knowing, “I have to be friends with this person!”

    The meeting even got more funny as this new friend asked how my old friend had spelled her name.

    She looked me in the eyes and said, “My name is spelled the other way with an “ie.”

    When I first met my old friend’s sister, she had introduced herself as Kelli with an “i”. My first thought during that meeting was an internal chuckle and that she had two eyes. I didn’t choose to say that at that initial introduction, but from that moment on whenever I referred to my friend’s sister, I always said, “with an i.”

    My new friend’s reference to the spelling of her name really hit home with me. I felt my old friend might be setting up this meeting, and it definitely was emotionally uplifting.

    Before we left the brewery my new friend asked me to put her number in my phone so we can get together again.

    Pretty cool…Hello, Old Friend, and welcome, New Friend.❤️

    (Shared by a friend on Facebook.)

  • Spirit is Everlasting

    Sacred Stories

    Packing Christmas away she happened upon a photo of her husband. She had cut out and placed in the frame with the photo these words from Unity’s Daily Word on his birthday seven years after his transition:


    “Physical forms are temporary. Spirit is everlasting. When your journey on Earth is over, you will set down your body and free your soul. This is a normal process. Those left behind may feel sorrow, but this transition is a joyous event in the soul’s journey. After your human life, your soul will be reunited with the source of unconditional love and continue its work in the spirit realm.”

    Soon after seeing the photo, she received this photo of two mints which had just been picked up for her by her friend’s husband at the barber shop just minutes earlier.


    She responded: Arrived at a perfect moment.

    Read more about the way these sweet treats became one of the ways her husband sends her assurance his spirit is everlasting in the Sacred Story, “Mints,” published on December 27, 2014.

    It is so important we are able to honor these assurances….

  • Timing is ALWAYS Perfect

    Sacred Stories

    They were traveling from Michigan to Florida. It was the second day of their travels.

    Traffic was absolutely amazingly heavy!

    The day’s drive took two hours longer than it “should have” taken.

    However, the timing was once again Divine.

    They were checking in and a man came to the front desk saying he needed an ambulance for his wife. The clerk called 911 and she went with the man to tend to his wife.

    The wife had cut her leg very badly on something on the bed frame and was bleeding profusely. Both legs had significant lymph-edema, so it is very likely the wife will be admitted after the leg is sutured.

    The couple had been traveling on their way back home to Kentucky from Florida.

    So tender to realize that the timing is ALWAYS perfect!

  • Karaoke Connection

    Sacred Stories

    Her daughter was visiting for the holidays. They took her to a karaoke bar.

    Another young woman was singing, and she had a great voice, too. They all began chatting.

    The young woman and her family was from the same town up north where she grew up!

    She sent a text message to her mom, “Did you know so-and-so from high school?”

    “I remember the name,” her mom replied.

    “He is married to so-and-so,” she continued.

    “Does she have a sister named Jackie?” her mom asked.

    “Yes, her sister is Jackie!” she exclaimed.

    “I know Jackie very well,” her mom said.

    We don’t always know what all we have in common with those we meet. We do know one thing for sure: sacred connections can happen wherever we are.

    Take a moment to bring awareness to the ways we are always at the right place in the right time….

  • It’s a Small World After All

    Sacred Stories

    She had planned to be in the U.S. Virgin Islands, but the winds of fate had her in Key West, Florida. That morning as she walked back to the boat, she stopped to chat.

    Not every day you see a woman walking a lizard on a leash.

    As is often the case in tourist locations, the question of where you are from came up.

    “I grew up in St. Joseph, Michigan,” she offered freely, “but I live in Middle Tennessee now.”

    “Oh, a couple at that other dock over there are from St. Joseph, Michigan,” Lizard Lover said.

    Who would she meet that evening at a party hosted by some new friends who were staying in a condo nearby?

    That     couple from St. Joseph, Michigan….

    It’s a small world after all, but where we are and who we meet is part of a very big picture.

  • “Truth”

    Sacred Stories

    “Truth” was the message in Aaron’s Daily Quote:

    “Never be afraid of the truth. It can lead to painful situations but in the long run, it is your strongest ally. Ego may want to present the stories, how he or she did this or that to me. Let go of that; that’s not truth, but ego’s stories. But truth is truth. It’s not so hard to get to know it.”

    Betty Lue’s Loving Reminder opened with this affirmation:

    Love is the truth from which I forgive.

    A Christmas card received in that day’s mail continued the theme of truth with these words: May 2020 be full of Truth, balance and special memories!


    Watch for themes that reveal and guide. Like all of nature, we are riding currents, present but often not seen.

    “Truth” is one of these.

    Have a Sacred Story to share? Send email to Debra.

  • Army/Navy Game

    Sacred Stories

    He was a member of West Point’s “Black Knights” Army Football team.

    As a defensive end and fullback, his Army team beat Navy in 1966 and 1968, and tied them in 1965.

    December 14, 2019, is the day of his funeral and the day of the Army/Navy game!

  • Twenty-eight Years-Sueño

    Sacred Stories

    The three couples were best friends. One of the guys passed away.

    They all went to the Biscayne Bay for his memorial. Biscayne Bay is located on the Atlantic coast of South Florida, near Miami.

    The boat they went out on to spread his ashes was named Sueño.

    Twenty-eight years later, one of the guys went out fishing near his home in Southwest Florida, hours from the location where his friend’s ashes had been spread.

    In the distance he saw the name Sueño on a boat. Could it be?


    Coming closer, he saw the home port was Miami…

    Some interaction with the owner of the boat revealed that this was indeed the same boat!

    He took the photos of the boat which had been a part of something so significant for him so long ago. He could barely speak when he told his wife he had seen the boat. He wrote a song about the experience.

    His wife sent the recording of the song to their friend’s widow, who opened their email and heard the song on the 28th anniversary of the day of their friend’s passing…

  • Father John

    Sacred Stories

    She was on retreat.

    She put her hand up and the energy of Father John came in.

    She says she doesn’t exactly know what happened, but a couple of months later when she had an echocardiogram the mitral regurgitation that was discovered in her 20’s was gone!

    When she asked her cardiologist if it’s possible for mitral regurgitation to disappear, he said, “No. Perhaps mitral stenosis.”

    (Be willing to honor the nature of healing… Healing is a return to the ever-present well-being that is our true nature, and can happen any time.)