Debra Basham

Living and Loving

Tag: Deep Spring Center for Medition

  • Lily Yeh – Lily, Yeah!

    The 2:00 am WhatsApp “ping” from my Singaporean friend woke me. I was able to fall back asleep, but was then awakened by a dream. These disturbances resulted in my reading the thoughts for today that bless my inbox.

    I followed my passion and was guided by the light inside of me. That light does not belong to me alone. It is innate in all of us. Everyone has it. But more often than not, we choose not to see it.

    ~ Lily Yeh (Gratefulness.org)

    I did not know this author. As I lie in the dark listening to a five-part interview my heart and mind was witnessing the importance of being awake even when the body would seem to need to sleep.

    Now that I am awake and showered in readiness for the 6:30 am EST online meditation with Still Mountain, I am having difficulty keeping my fingers on the keyboard because I am distracted by the desire to find the interview that so moved me. Please search and meet this amazing individual for yourself. I see lots of other videos, but I cannot find what I had and I want that again.

    This now moves me to profound compassion. I know my beloved friends in Canada are likely feeling this as they navigate her journey with Glioblastoma — a highly aggressive and malignant brain tumor that originates from glial cells, which support and protect neurons in the brain. Understandably, Jane Foster understands as she continues to deal with complications of the ileostomy in the aftermath of a 12-hour surgery. Michael, now at Caratel after yet another long hospital stay. He has been in more than out since May. The list goes on and on…. So many navigating so much.

    I also read the daily quote from Aaron:

      There are many ways of working with discomforting arising. They all have one thing in common, which is the opening of the heart. Eventually you may become quite skilled at making space for that which arises in the emotions and at making space for physical sensations and thoughts as well, without reactivity or fear of any of these. You are still caught in the illusion. You are busy being somebody who possesses sensations, emotions, and thoughts. And you are also busy being somebody who works skillfully with them. Eventually you must let go of the illusion without denying the illusion its place as a catalyst for learning. You must come to know who you truly are when you are not somebody who is being busy learning to be skillful.

    Today will be a bit of a break from packing and loading in preparation for our planned departure on Thursday. It seems other worldly to anticipate not sleeping in my own bed for over five months. I am feeling homesick before I have left.

    I will draw from the delicious days spent loving and being loved by family and friends and people I do not even know.

    Another step on the path reading the The DailyTejaniya:

      To recognize whether or not you have the right attitude is more important than experiencing peaceful states, or having a “good sit.”

      Right attitude is accepting, observing, and learning from your experience just as it is.

    AS I WAS LOOKING FOR A PHOTO FOR THIS POST, I FOUND THE LINK TO WHAT I HAD LISTENED TO!

    A Conversation with Lily Yeh: Art is Change.

    May you be free from suffering and know the roots of suffering.

    May you live in harmony and know the roots of harmony, living in the present moment with an open heart.

    May you have peace and know the roots of peace, acceptance.

  • Beyond Beautiful Blossoming

    No matter how difficult life
    becomes, we must keep practicing
    continuously. This is the only
    way. Eventually we begin to see
    and be part of a simpler reality
    that we are not separate from,
    but is actually nature itself.

    ~ The Daily Tejaniya

    These words touch a space deep within as they are seen on the heels of a deep sharing with a friend who has enjoyed a wildly successful business career that had been cut to the quick by the current conditions. She had taken a couple of days off to inner listen for guidance to co-create going forward. Three key words were already present in awareness: simplify, co-creation, building community.

    At one point we spoke about intention toward that which already is but is not yet known to be possible. Was electricity invented or was it recognized? Was fire created or observed and harnessed? Part of us understands fully that in every moment ALL already IS even as what is manifest is malleable.

    I looked up the meaning of the word manifest. “To manifest something means to make it appear, become visible, or real, often through the process of focused thinking, belief, and intention. It can also refer to the process of showing something clearly, like a feeling or a belief, through actions or signs. Manifestation, in a more spiritual or self-help context, refers to the act of attracting desired outcomes into one’s life by focusing on them intensely, often through practices like visualization and affirmation.”

    Last evening we attended an evening of gospel and hymn singing in a nearby church. One of our Glenaire Jam friends was singing in the choir. I noticed how differently I experienced the masculine pronouns for God; the theology of all being sinful; of everyone needing to be saved by the blood of Jesus to avoid an eternity of suffering. I have grown through this view and I am able to see it as fruitful even as these are not what I resonate with at this place on my path. Likely the exposure contributed to why curiosity about the “man” of manifest caught my attention this morning and led me to the Google search.

    Reading lots about manifesting moved me to also do a search for the words co-create and Divine Feminine. “The Divine Feminine manifests through a variety of ways, including nurturing actions, intuitive guidance, and a deep connection to the natural world. It can also be experienced as a shift in perspective, where individuals recognize their own intuitive and compassionate nature, leading them to embrace their power and advocate for what they believe in. The Divine Feminine is often associated with nurturing, compassion, and a desire to protect and care for others. This can manifest in various ways, such as actively supporting family members, friends, or those in need, or advocating for causes that align with these values.”

    Wow…. This is exactly what my friend was articulating! The phrase aspire higher popped onto the page of my journal❤️

    Thich Nhat Hanh encourages us, “The seed of suffering in you may be strong, but don’t wait until you have no more suffering before allowing yourself to be happy.” Are you able to notice how these words make it clear that we are not manifesting happiness but allowing happiness to be manifest in and through our lives?

    The day’s theme continued to cast clarity on yesterday’s sharing as I read the Daily Quote from Deep Spring:

    You’re familiar with transactional consciousness. It can be a very benign transaction. It can be a harsh transaction. Either way, it’s still a transaction which is centered in a ground of self. All transactions that come from you are grounded in a space of self. “I will do this. I will give that. I am dreaming of world peace, and this is what I’m willing to do to help co-create world peace.” But there’s still a self and an other to it. Transaction. Many of you have sat together in a meditation hall, coming to a space of connectedness where it seems like the meditators around you are just an extension of yourself, that there is truly no separation between you. You’ve done walking meditation where the earth under your feet and the growing things seem like a part of you. You don’t say to the garden, as you walk, “Won’t you please bloom so I can see your beauty?” You just say, “Ohh!” because it’s so beautiful. You are part of the garden. The flowers are blooming. The butterflies are blooming. You are blooming. There’s a sense of non-separation and unconditional love. I am not negating transactional creation. That’s the way your world works, for now. If you go into the gas station and say, “I am going to co-create gas,” and you open your gas tank, the gas station salesperson is going to come out and say, “First you have to put money in the slot.” But we’re changing it. We can change it so that the sense of separation dissolves and all beings may live in peace, health, and happiness. ~ Aaron

    Blossoming is our true nature and right now everything is beyond beautiful. Ohh…..

  • Bison as Beacon

    This morning’s Gratefulness.org message by John A. Powell is so perfect as follow up to my having gotten triggered yesterday: “When people’s stories are recognized, it does something. It creates a possibility.”

    As so often happens, the Daily Reflection from Deep Spring also spoke so well to this.

      Think of somebody in your life who is difficult for you, the ‘famous person’. Watch the way, as soon as you get near this person, you contract. You want to push them away. But that person is not the problem; your mind’s idea of that person is the problem. “Oh, this is that person who is always making snide remarks and is always bitter, is always attacking me.” Of course you want to push them away. But this person is just being how they are. Can you find the place of openness in yourself that can see that this person is as they are because of various conditions, and your reaction to this person is because of your interior conditions and it has nothing to do with them?

      The next step is seeing this is not about them but about me. And for me, my reaction is my reaction. Ah, who am I that’s reacting? Can I watch my response to this famous person, or to anything — let’s say the whole Ukraine situation, or the recent school shootings. “AAAH!” Can I watch my reaction to it? It’s a strong object. I don’t want this. But as soon as there’s that contraction into the personal self, it becomes very hard to hold space around what’s happening.

      We look at the famous person, whatever it may be, as a gift and say, “Thank you, teacher. What have you come to teach me?” Then we can begin to open our hearts to our own fear, our own sense of limitation, powerlessness or sadness. ~ Aaron

    Of course, it’s never about the trigger. I sat on the lanai in the predawn anticipating the coming of the light and meditating on the trigger as gift or teacher. The trigger is like a divine finger pointing to the “story” outside of our awareness waiting for us to see clearly.

    The sky changes were magnificent. One minute no color could be seen, the next minute the sky was alive with hues of bright pinks and reds and yellows woven together with the deep gray clouds.

    Clouds make the most colorful skies….

    A bit later I saw an amazing photo of a frozen-faced bison on Facebook with the following caption: Bison are the only animal that turn into a snowstorm rather than away from it because they instinctively know that walking into the storm will get them out of the weather quicker. There may be a life lesson for humans in this. It also makes for some epic pictures. ~ Neil deGrasse Tyson


  • Looking for the True Self

    Wow… I had a very unskillful time of things at the Jam last evening. When John and I arrived there were only two others there and one of the guys asked me to drum on the first and third beat only. He played a bit of a song he was going to do, and he coached me, and then my emotions went on a demented detour. A wounded state got triggered (honestly, that wounded state had come into the jam with me after it was previously triggered by another situation). It was all I could do to stay in that room for two hours. I did not put my hands on my drum for one beat.

    He apologized to me after the jam.

    I apologized to him by text this morning.

    So much unnecessary suffering….

    Yesterday’s Daily Arron Quote: Decisions made from a space of contraction will always carry karma. They will always come from the self, from the ego. Decisions made while resting in that spaciousness that is aware of the contraction and is not hooked into a self-identity with it are free of karma and can hold the spaciousness of the loving heart as ground for the decision or words.

    I was self-identified as the person who could not drum correctly; the person who was not allowed to drum the way I wanted to drum; the person who was not good enough.

    Those are familiar thoughts and feelings, but they are not who I am. As I am writing this post a text message from Empty Circle Zen group arrived:

    We ARE IN the habit of identifying ourselves with our bodies. The idea that we are this body is deeply entrenched in us. But we are not just this body; we are much more than that.

    The idea that “This body is me and I am this body” is an idea we must get rid of. If we do not, we will suffer a great deal. We are life, and life is far vaster than this body, this concept, this mind. We are connected with everything and everything with us.

    My emotions did not originate in the interaction about the drumming. My emotions came from old habit energies of feeling judged or rejected or controlled, resulting in not feeling good enough and believing that someone or everyone was doing something or everything wrong.

    The true self has deep compassion for all humans navigating these bodies, these concepts, these minds. The true self has wisdom to recognize the suffering that comes from self-identification with all of that.

    While the true self was working on this post, I received an email from a friend saying a digital copy of his book, Looking for the True Self, is now available. (The title of this post comes from the title of his boo k.) The downloadable, virus-free, printable, and shareable file is freely available on his website (www.georgesanfacon.com).

    Note: George says you may get a pop-up message box that reads “This file is too large to preview” or “This file is too large to scan for viruses” but fear not — the file is safe and you can click the “download” or “download anyway” button.

    Excerpted from “Looking for the True Self:”

      a spark is born and dies in a split second, while the sun seems to last forever

      but if your time shifted to a longer perspective,
      you could watch the sun flicker in and out of existence, too,
      same as a spark from a fire

      and so your body is flickering, too

      the Universe scooped you up into manifest existence,
      and will soon pour you back …. …. ….

    May all beings enjoy looking for the true self!

  • Consecrate This

    Compassion becomes real
    when we recognize
    our shared humanity.

    ~ Pema Chödrön

    Posted on Facebook by a Reunion Living Ministry colleague:

    “To bless whatever there is, and for no other reason but simply because it is, that is what we are made for as human beings.”

    ~ David Steindal-Rast

    I bless the heat and the fact that I can experience it. What do you bless today?

    I commented on her post: I bless a clean toilet tank and bowl.

    Yesterday afternoon some workers broke a water riser three houses from us.The park notified all residents that we would be without water for a few hours. Shortly after the water was back on VERY rusty water came pouring in! If you do not see the photos, you can click on the title of this post to read it on the website.

    The water in the toilet bowl began to clear some after MANY flushings, but the inside of the toilet tanks were very stained this morning:

    To see that coming out of our water lines was pretty shocking. The young man who manages our park day-to-day assured us it was rust from the loss of and then re-establishment of the water pressure in the lines. He even came over late last evening. We sent him home with our appreciation and some of John’s garden bounty: Sugar Rush cherry tomatoes.

    Today my thoughts and prayers are with those who lost loved ones and have been devastated by the fires on Maui. John and I had one of our best ever breakfast-out experiences in the historic town of Lahaina when we stayed on Maui and we fully understand things are not over just because it stops making the news. Friends and neighbors in Florida are still navigating the devastation of Hurricane Ian, now almost eleven months ago.

    A friend just brought her elderly father home following a hip-replacement. Thankfully they are receiving support from hospice, but even with that support there is a lot to navigate.

    Another friend leaves her home here in Michigan and goes to Wisconsin for weeks at a time in support of her 100-years-plus father’s staying in his own home.

    Many of you are aware of Barbara Brodsky’s caring for her husband, Hal, in their home in spite of his being paralyzed on one side and having aphasia post-stroke. Plus Barbara is deaf, and she just spent months non-weight bearing due to infection in the bone on her toe. She is recovering well and grateful to be able to shower and now to swim!

    People navigate many challenges every day, day-to-day.

    Readers know about our precious Jackson. He has been seizure free since the first week of November, however, he is not yet talking and things like potty training that would be expected about this age (he will be three in December) is out of the question at this time. They will be evaluating him related to his possibly being on the autism spectrum, and we hope for benefit of more early intervention services and therapy. This is not the parenting experience our granddaughter dreamed of.

    When something happens many prayers and thoughts come flooding forth, but, then life goes on and we may not always remember that life goes on….

      Daily Reflection from Deep Spring

      There are places in this universe where there is terrible pain, darkness, misunderstanding, which lead to hatred, greed, and fear. What you do on this simple planet Earth as you raise the vibration here has the ability to move the expression of Divinity, Buddha Nature, Christ Consciousness—whatever you want to call it—out into the universe. It raises its vibration. It makes it more powerful. This is the core of the work you’re doing. It is not just for you, to wake up or to live your life more comfortably. I’m delighted to see you living your lives more comfortably, but that’s not the end result. And if that were the end result in your mind, can you see how it would limit you? But when you immediately consecrate this goodness, this opening heart, this clarity, “I consecrate this. I offer it to all beings everywhere, in all the universes, that all beings truly may have an end to suffering,” that heightens it for yourself and it makes it available everywhere. No insight, no movement of the open heart is ever lost.

    The opening words from Pema Chödrön say it all: our humanity is shared. Recognizing this makes compassion real.

    Whatever we go through, we consecrate this….

    Amen.

  • Already Is

    A friend wrote this week asking me, “So tell me your blog experience. How did you get into doing that? How many people follow you? Is it hard to get it up and going technically?”

    It took a bit of thinking time to respond, and, still, I had to start with the easiest aspects first. Here is my response to her:

      Not very many people follow me. In fact, most of the people who know me well and love me are among those who do not read my blog regularly. I have a few very loyal readers. I have come to the conclusion if it is true that ‘We read to know we are not alone,’ – the character of C.S. Lewis says this line in William Nicholson’s play, Shadowlands, I write to know that we are all one. I would write if no one would ever see what is written. If it means something to someone else, that is just a bonus.

      That said, I first set up a blog on Blogspot. It was super easy and you can read over 180 posts from December 24, 2011 to July 26, 2016 made on this platform. https://dbasham.blogspot.com/

      Then my blog was set up on Word Press by our webmaster. I “think” there is a way to know who follows you, but I have not paid attention to any of that, especially now that I am in the business of not maintaining a professional business. My grandson is working to dismantle the online persona of Debra Basham of SCS-Matters, the professional partnership I had for 20 years with Joel P. Bowman.

      The Word Press blog is called Yellow Brick Road. https://scs-matters.com/YellowBrickRoad/

      I do not allow comments. It is a full time job that I am not interested in: cleaning out spam, phishing, and obscene stuff. People who know me and are touched by something I write and share have legitimate ways of reaching out to me.

      It may be worth some insight about what you want to give (and/or receive) by creating a blog.

      Willing to muse about this more if something is helpful! Love, D

    As I was out for a bike ride yesterday I was musing about Aaron’s Daily Quote.

    How can a third density human co-create a fourth or fifth density Earth? You can plant seeds. But for it fully to happen you need to come into the fourth density, fifth density aspect of yourself. Imagine you are a fourth or fifth density being. How would that feel? What would it be like? There would be joy and sadness; those are experiences for fourth density also. But there would not be suffering, loneliness or separation. There would not be fear or hatred. What would it be like to be a fourth or fifth density being co-creating a fourth or fifth density Earth by sharing that energy and light that you are? ~ Aaron

    That sent me into the Deep Spring archives where I read a bit more about what Aaron calls densities. I think of them as stages of consciousness but not in a linear way, more like the mighty oak tree that is already within the acorn, or the butterfly that is already within the caterpillar.

    Simply put, Fourth Density is about learning compassion, and Fifth Density is about deepening wisdom. Think about these as already being within in that same way. Just as a bird needs two wings to fly, to be wholly wholesome compassion and wisdom must be used together. Unwholesome compassion commands us to sell all you have and give it to the poor without the wisdom (spoken by Richard Bandler) that understands clearly the best way to help the poor is to not be poor.

    Densities remind me of the chakras. The fourth chakra is the heart chakra. The fifth chakra is the throat chakra. The heart chakra is associated with unconditional love, compassion, and joy. It is the source of deep and profound truths that cannot be expressed in words. The throat chakra is about hearing and being heard, where you find your voice, where we speak our truth without blame or shame. From the Deep Spring archive: Fourth Density is beyond the dictates of the emotional body that would lead you to feel shame or pride.

    Awake VERY early this morning I was grateful to sit in the silence feeling the night sky. Now past dawn, the busyness of the day will likely soon push the stillness out of my awareness.

    Perhaps that fourth or fifth density earth already is in the same way the butterfly already is within the cocoon and the oak tree already is within the acorn.

    As Adyashanti said, “The more okay we are when we are not okay, the more okay we are.”

    ALL ready….

  • A Heart that Hurts

    There are opportunities
    even in the most difficult moments.

    ~ Wangari Maathai

    It has been a busy couple of weeks. We left Michigan on Monday, November 21, and have been staying with Stacey and Doug here in Smyrna, Tennessee. We had an easy trip down, and we had a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner with all of the kids on Friday. Things took an unexpected turn a few days ago…. seems as though I was not complete with that yeast infection and the remorse.

    The itchy face began again in earnest. By Tuesday morning, my face was quite red and dry, itching and burning. Wednesday morning, November 30, I woke up with my entire face inflamed and so severely swollen I am barely recognizable. (Note – I have attached a photo. If you receive Yellow Brick Road by email you will have to click on the title and follow the link to the website to see it. I warn you, it is not pretty….)

    Not a coincidence that this event occurred five months to the day since I last had a FaceTime call with Joel, this after over twenty years of almost daily contact, including many, many trips to trainings, conferences, and speaking engagements. Mind you, I made the decision that the kindest thing might be for me to stop trying so hard to maintain contact given the increased dementia that resulted in his move to be near his son.

    The team at American Family Care was so kind and very thorough. Soon after a steroid injection I was looking more like myself and feeling a whole lot better. I am on a 14-day aggressive program, hopefully this will both ease the yeast out without triggering another histamine storm. They are speaking the truth when they stay skin is the largest, most sensitive organ of the human body.

    From my journal yesterday morning at 3:33 am EST:

      Dear Holy Spirit,

      I open email to the Gratefulness.org Word for the Day: The flower is always the bud’s undoing. Let it go. Pavithra K. Mehta wrote that. She is a writer-filmmaker, in a family of 21 (and still counting) eye surgeons. This might explain her fondness for stories that help people see…

      This is to be the theme of the conversion pages as we leave a legacy of SCS-Matters on line for the world.

      I watched the CBS Morning interview with actor and comedian, Rob Delaney. Rob’s heart-wrenching memoir is titled A Heart that Works. The title was taken from the lyrics of the song by Juliana Hatfield, Universal Heartbeat: A heart, a heart that hurts, is a heart, a heart that works. Rob’s son, Henry, died at two-and-one-half years of life from a brain tumor on Rob’s birthday.

      It has been five months since I last spoke to Joel on FaceTime….

    I draw to find meaning from the pain, and I write to share meaning with others. There are opportunities even in the most difficult moments.

    The drawing is titled “No Blame, No Shame.” There is a thought bubble with the words, “What did I (or you) (or anyone) do to deserve this pain?”

    The face has one tear and the red, swollen, itchy realty of my current face.

    I write in the first of the Four Noble Truths: Everybody suffers just like you.

    I ponder what has me awake. The coughing spell (our Jackson had a bad cold with fever and coughing when he got here on Friday and first Doug, and then I got a cold)? The five-month anniversary of last speaking to Joel? The haunting remorse of my choice to not try and force contact?

    I notice a slight uphill to the words on the page. I misspell hallelujah and have to look it up. (Ha! I misspelled it when keying it in just now, too.)

    I change the description from uphill to upward slant.

    As the heat of the histamine storm releases, perhaps my heart is easing into a steady beat of loving what is, even if I’m not able to enjoy it.

    I add the lyrics to “Universal Heartbeat” by Juliana Hatfield: A heart that hurts, is a heart, a heart that works.

    I draw a sun in the upper right corner of the page and add: The sun shines even on a rainy day.

    Along the left margin I write: I am not ashamed to share my messes with the masses. It is beautiful to know you are not alone. I add arrows and the words: No more red marking pens.


    I have attached a photo of the drawing. Remember to click on the title and follow the link to the website if you want to see it.

    This morning’s Daily Quote from Aaron really speaks to my heart: “Remember that your energy does touch everything in the world. When you are caught up in fear, that frightened energy reverberates around the globe. When you feel compassion and lovingkindness, that energy spreads around the globe.”

    A heart that hurts is a heart that works.

  • 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.

  • Dissent with Love

      WORD FOR THE DAY

      Love takes off the masks
      we fear we cannot live without
      and know we cannot live within.

      ~ James Baldwin (Gratefulness.org)

    Group 2 sharing last evening was active with exploring the question of the value of being ordained (in Buddhism). This was not so much an intellectual discussion, but a sincere reflection of the yearning many expressed toward living in a community that honors, respects, and supports those deeper dynamics of mindful living. Several in our group have been exploited by spiritual leaders in this lifetime — emotionally or mentally or sexually — and sometimes all three.

    Many said the time of hero worship or guru gazing have personally passed us by.

    Interesting, just yesterday morning out on a bike ride, Larry was telling me about the great-grandmother of a child Linda had the privilege of doing a baptism for last week. He said this woman is Hispanic, and he assumes she likely has a Catholic background. She also has dementia and, although she never said a word, he felt he could see in her eyes the accusation, “That woman is no priest!”

    Over the years, many miles on this Yellow Brick Road have been walking away from the past where patriarchy choked the rights of women out of our collective lives. This morning, two daily writings address the benefit of having “right view.” The first is from Neale Donald Walsch (author of the series of Conversations with God books).

      … that a point of view different from your own might be well worth entertaining. Sometimes it is not easy hearing an idea that is different from the one you are advancing — yet it might be that second idea for which you were actually reaching. Answers arrive in more ways than one. Sometimes they come through us, and sometimes they come to us.


    Brandon Morton’s son with a baby goat!

    Our bicycle-riding conversation continued, “The church Linda’s brother and sister-in-law and her sister and brother-in-law go to still will not allow women in leadership. The husband is the head of the house, and the wife is by scripture ordered to be submissive to his will. Do you think Linda would go along with that?”

    I responded to Larry, “I would hope she would not, and more than that, I would hope you would not ask that of her.”

    Reading online this morning from The Discrimination of Women in Buddhism: An Ethical Analysis: “Men and women are considered the two wheels of a cart. They should be considered equal if we want the cart to move ahead. If one wheel is smaller than the other, the movement will definitely be impaired.”

    One of the headings in that article leapt off the page: Is Buddhism a Sexist Religion?

    I would also ask, Is Christianity a Sexist Religion?

    Perhaps (blatant or latent) sexism, along with other forms of discrimation, is within all religions and all of our human history. It is HIStory, for heaven’s sake…. But where do we go from here? We only pretend to repair a cart with imbalanced wheel size by exchanging it for a different cart that also has an unbalanced wheel size.

    The second writing that speaks us forth in love and wisdom and respect for all beings comes from Deep Spring Center for Meditation:

    Thought for Today by Aaron

    As we work with these practices, please realize that they are leading you in the direction of trusting your own ability not to enact anger or other negative movement when it arises. To hold it in the heart with compassion until it dissolves. To reclaim your power as higher density beings— no longer a third density human but higher density, able to trust that those around you will not be projecting negativity so it’s safe to share, and you will not be projecting negativity so it’s safe to share. But that you are still capable of saying, “No, I disagree with this or that.” That’s very different than expressing negativity. Expression of view is not an expression of negativity, it’s simply an expression of view. And we learn how to hold different views and deeply hear each other. Then one unified understanding arises and we move forward with it. Or, if one is not in full agreement, one sees that the rest of the group is and abstains from obstructing the process. But if one person thinks, “This will be totally destructive,” one will still hold, “I cannot agree. Go ahead and do what you need to do, but I dissent. But I dissent with love.”

    I was just about ready to push “publish” when I received this additional confirmation from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation Thought for Today:

      The wise person questions himself, the fool others. ~Henri Arnold

      We pray for wisdom, and sometimes we achieve it. The strongest and wisest of men are not threatened by questioning their own answers. If we draw conclusions and blindly stick to them, we can never learn anything new. We have often made the mistake of avoiding the appearance of ignorance.

      Instead, we are at our best when we give ourselves the privilege of being a learner. When someone tells us something we don’t understand or agree with, our best response is to ask for more information. We can take our ego out of the equation, surrender our need to be right, and simply try to learn what is being told to us. What is it that I don’t understand here? What does the other person see that I am missing? When we attain a moment of wisdom, we are open to learning.

      Today, I will give myself the privilege of being a learner.

      From the book Stepping Stones: More Daily Meditations for Men.

    Once your intention is clear, perhaps the answer is also already clear!

  • Out-flowing – Getting Free (By Setting Others Free)

    Thought for Today

    Imagine a whole world of beings deeply committed to expressing themselves with some kind of beauty, not necessarily physical beauty but beauty of generosity of spirit, of kindness. Imagine a world where this can flourish. Here we have the imaginal cells at work.

    So, if we talk about what conditions
    are needed for a world that can be at peace,
    all beings living in a wholesome way,
    not destroying themselves and each other,
    what’s needed here?

    Can you begin to imagine it?

    Because if you can’t imagine it,
    you can’t plant the seeds that can co-create it.
    ~ Aaron, Deep Spring Center For Meditation and Spiritual Inquiry

    Oh, my…. yesterday I came out of my center and went off like the olden days. I have distant memory of allowing fear to totally dictate my days.

    One very memorable moment from long, long, ago in a far-way land, took place when John and I were in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. I had been there previously without John so I knew that they drove American-made vehicles on the English side of the road. Navigating through the downtown was nothing short of terrifying, so I had UBER planned our trip to pick up our rental car at the remote end of the island near where we were staying. But when the guy came to bring me the car, he had come from the Airport!!!

    I made such a scene! He told me the remote location had closed. I told him I did not care about any of that, my contract was with the Red Hook location and that was where I was going to take him. He could hitchhike back to the airport, walk, or call for someone to come and get him. That was his problem.

    Oddly, I am not sure how it resolved itself, but I admit I have often imagined him telling the story of a berserk customer having a meltdown in the lobby of Frenchman’s Reef.

    Yesterday’s trigger was around politics.

    When I told Stacey I had gotten triggered by something political, she said, “How did you even get close enough to something political to get triggered?” I am grateful she knows my true nature is apolitical (not interested or involved in politics).

    This morning I woke up feeling shaky inside. It was the sort of feeling that would encourage me to take 1/2 of the Zanax, but I was going to my primary, Dr. Mancini, for the post-hospitalization visit and I did not want to mask my state. I was honest about how I was feeling, and she was beautifully present with me. I agreed to start on a low-dose prescription to lower blood pressure, and to continue the statin until we have results of the cardiac plaque test. As we navigated, I could feel myself regulating. Then I went with John to the pain clinic…. oy vey!

    After he was home and resting, I decided to ride my bike to pick up the new medication. This was the first time I had been back on my bike since the TGA event one week ago today. Riding really does balance me, but the transformation came not while I was riding, but while I was in line at Walgreens.

    The person in front of me (it was a long wait) was arranging to pick up her prescriptions next week. She said something about needing to wait until then (for financial reasons). She completed her consult, and left.

    When I stepped up to the window, I said I wanted to pay for her medications. It was such a spontaneous action, and it took approval of a manager, but we figured out how it could be done with my not having any information other than the total cost.

    I floated out of that store.

    Yesterday I shared a handout on Essentials of Self Care: Breath and Emotions with a colleague who is teaching a mindfulness course in the fall. The handout includes a quotation by Norman Vincent Peale, from The Amazing Results of Positive Thinking: Dramatic Proof of How Positive Thinking Has Changed the Lives of Millons… and How it Can Change Your Life!. His words of wisdom were written in 1959, but they have never been more timely.

    When people get rid of fear, anxiety and self-centeredness they develop a kind of ecstatic joy and delight in living. The world seems so different and newly wonderful that they tend to love everybody and everything. And they become so warm-hearted and delightful that people take a real liking to them. They change from withdrawn, worrying persons to ones with vitality and charm. They become “out-flowing” personalities; that is, personalities which now flow outward towards others in kindness and helpfulness. (p.60)

    Sunday I will be guest pastor at St. John UCC again. The theme is “Freedom From and For.” We will share a beautiful exercise on getting free from Reunion Living Ministry. Thank you, Betty Lue and Robert.

      Getting Free
      (By Setting Others Free)

      By freeing actively and willingly desiring that the key people in our lives be totally free and powerful, we get to be free and powerful ourselves. So here is an affirmation-prayer that may help us begin by freeing others, so that we can begin to free ourselves.

      I, (your name), want you, (his or her name), to be the highest, clearest, most powerful expression of God that you can be. I would not limit you in any way, knowing that only as I encourage you to expand, and grow, can I myself be free. So I fully support you in being and expressing all that you are.

      I want you to go where you feel called to go, to speak and act as you feel guided, and to express yourself in whatever ways seem right. There is nothing I do not want you to do, for I know that all movement is contained within the mind of God and always leads us to Him.

      I am at peace with whatever decisions and choices you make, no matter how they may seem to affect me. Since I know that God loves and supports me perfectly, then I know that however you choose to be with me must be a manifestation of that divine love and support. Because I trust God, I trust you. And because I trust you, I trust myself.

      So be free, be powerful, be unlimited. And know that I, (your name), want you, (his or her name), to be the highest, clearest, most powerful expression of God that you can be. I fully support you in being all that you are.

    In the blank I wrote: I, Debra, want all human beings to be the highest, clearest, most powerful expressions of God.

    We must be the change we wish to see in the world. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

    Amen.