Debra Basham

Living and Loving

Tag: Deep Spring Meditation Center

New Frontiers
Today, it is this beautiful planet we call home that calls us home to our hearts. We are being asked to plant seeds of wisdom and love. I told John today one could consider if you are hearing or reading something that is stating who or what was or is to blame about anything, to please just consider this: Anyone can win the game of Monday-Morning-Quarterbacking. It is the coaching before and during the game that makes the difference.

I have been patient (mostly) with the world around me. While not first in THE world, I was first in my world to not allow smoking in my home. While not first in THE world, I was first in my world to save things believing they would some day be recycled.

I have been asking John for years to consider a more environmentally friendly yard. It makes little sense to spend time, energy, and money to kill what flourishes naturally, then invest more to plant things that cost even more to be fed and watered to survive and contribute little to myriad species called nature.

But we are where we are: we are where wild fires rage and tropical storms blow: too much or too little wind or rain. The following powerful excerpt is from the Seattle retreat in the fall of 2019 (reviewed and with some additions and edits on 09-14-20). It was just posted on the Deep Spring Meditation Center Facebook page, and it is so timely.

Aaron: These fires in California deeply concern me, not just for the immediate damage they are doing, burning people’s homes and so forth — although it is sad that people are losing their homes, their livelihood, even and especially their lives — but for what it’s doing to the energetic and spiritual environment. To me, if people choose to live in an area where there will be a likelihood of such fires, they know that this can happen to them. But the trees did not thusly choose. Well, yes, the trees agreed to grow there, but they agreed to grow there not to be burned away but to help support a wholesome environment.

They agreed to grow there with no foreknowledge of man’s thoughtlessness of the environment. It was a possibility but not yet a fact. The earth is ancient and the short-lived choices of mankind are more recent. And so, the Earth is getting a different message. Trees and other vegetable life are beginning to say, “Maybe it’s not safe to be here on the Earth. We are not cherished as we need to be in order to flourish. Maybe it’s time for us to shift ourselves to some other kind of evolutionary space where we may evolve with love.” Such a shift or even thought to shift is going to further downgrade the Earth’s environment. Just as man destroys the environment for certain animal species, he can destroy it for trees, and even for the elements themselves.

Once these fires are under control and out, I’d like to see large teams of people going into the woods, into the charred roads, thanking the earth, thanking the trees, and planting seedlings. With a strong commitment, speaking to the seedlings; speaking to each from their heart, “Thank you for making a new attempt to grow here. We will try very hard to cherish you, to take care of you and the environment in which you grow.”

It is not only our planet that is suffering. Our emotional bodies are going through these turbulent times as well. After the wildfires of anger and jealousy, fear and disdain, it is imperative we are willing to plant seedlings of forgiveness, wisdom, kindness and compassion.

One morning after we finished (virtually) sitting together in meditation, I shared a deep and precious conversation with Bob. Bob mentioned “A Course of Love”, describing it as sort of like the sequel to A Course in Miracles. “There are several chapters you can read for free,” he said.

ACIM was one of the bridges over troubled water when my spirituality out-grew the religion of Christianity in which I had met and committed my life to Jesus.

From Chapter 14: New Frontiers Beyond the Body and Mind, Form and Time, A Course of Love – The Dialogues:

What might this situation look like if I forgot everything I have previously known about similar situations, and looked at this in a new way?

Do I really need to worry about this situation, or can I affect this situation simply by not worrying about it and allowing it to be and unfold as it will?

While I realize that the facts would tell me this or that is true, I wonder what would happen if I disregarded the facts and was open to this being something else?

There is so much to disregard. Our old habits, thoughts, beliefs and actions are being invited to surrender. In The Language of Letting Go, Daily Meditations on Codependency Melody Beattie affirms: “We relinquish our tight hold and our need to control in our relationships. We take responsibility for ourselves; we allow others to do the same. We detach with the understanding that life is unfolding exactly as it needs to, for others and ourselves. The way life unfolds is good, even when it hurts. And ultimately, we can benefit from even the most difficult situations. We do this with the understanding that a Power greater than ourselves is in charge, and all is well.”

I whisper to all sentient beings that we will do our best. We are able to cherish life and summon that vital awareness that pervades all realms of our being into new frontiers….
September 16, 2020
When Everything Falls Apart, What Remains?
I am technically practicing silence in a meditation retreat at Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center in Hendersonville, North Carolina. But I am attending via Zoom and my fingers are on the keyboard. The focus of this retreat with John Orr is When Everything Falls Apart, What Remains? This was John’s blurb about the retreat:
On Wednesday afternoon before the retreat began, I had yet another tender conversation with our daughter about our diverse approach to precautions related to this virus. We did not argue, but we make very different choices. A few hours later, during the opening introductions, I received news from a good friend–also attending via Zoom–that she was not feeling well. Here is the rest of the story, posted on Facebook a few moments ago in response to another friend, Kate:

Kate posted:
I feel like I’m one of the few people still practicing social distancing, and sheltering in place. FB is full of pics of people out to restaurants, at pools and beaches or sharing space with relatives they haven’t seen in awhile. I would love to see our kids but I can’t guarantee I’m not infected nor can they. Am I just over sensitive to this?

I responded to Kate:
Kate, THANK YOU! I could have written this post. Today I would add that another friend, thinking the same way you and I have been thinking, relented and got together with her family.

Her adult children drove in from out of state, each household traveling in separate vehicles, taking proper precautions along way.

Each household brought a tent. My friend rented a party-potty and set up an outdoor kitchen. My friend’s family did not enter her house, and when the family went hiking each family drove in his/her own car. They maintained social distance along the trail.

Shortly after they arrived, her daughter’s partner received a call from work that his colleague had tested positive. He got in their vehicle and drove to the nearest location and had a Covid test.

Of course the results from his test didn’t come back until AFTER he was already back home, and not until AFTER he was already symptomatic. His test came back positive.

On Wednesday evening, gathered via Zoom, my friend reported that she had a “wicked cold” and had gone to get a Covid test. She would know in a week.

Yesterday, she sent a private message via Zoom chat, “I tested positive. I have COVID.”

Even the precautions level that you and I are committed to, may not be enough….

Kate, keep teaching by example! So much to learn from this.

❤️🙏🏼🦋

Deep Spring Center
Thought for Today

It is not the teacher who is the authority; it is the dharma that is the authority. It is sati, mindful presence, which is the authority. It is awareness, which is the authority. It is the deeply loving and open heart that is the authority. It is the Ground of Being, the divine essence of each, which is the authority. The teacher who has done his or her work, understands the practice and has developed a depth of realization of how things are, has no need to be the authority to another, but is willing to offer what he or she knows with a certainty, offering it for the guidance of others, but with no need to say, ‘This is it!’ If it really is it, others will discover that through their own practice. ~ Aaron
August 16, 2020
A Time for Cherishing

When you are in complete alignment
with your authentic self,
you will attract everything
you desire in life.
~Brahma Kumaris

Last week I heard again the message from Aaron, “If you were not ready, you would not have taken birth at this time…. You did not come to fail…. Are ready to trust your heritage as deeply loving?…. You cannot fully express light until you live in darkness…. You and the earth are inseparable…. Be a lamp until yourselves…. It takes your human vibration to co-create the future earth…. You are ready…. You are not alone.”

I have been living in the darkness. I confess to have been struggling with Stacey’s choice to continue to move about during the pandemic. I opened my journal and let myself be honest: I did not agree and I was mad. In Heart of the Soul, Gary Zukav, encourages us to continue again and again to challenge our anger. First comes the pain, then the fear—the terror of realizing you cannot control all that you feel is essential to your safety and well-being.

I was making dinner when I looked out on our front porch and saw John and the guy who does maintenance here on our home for us shoulder-to-shoulder with one another! I shot across the great room like a stone out of a slingshot, flug the storm door open, and yelled at them both through gritted teeth: “What the hell are you two thinking? Kissing distance is not social distancing!” It was awkward, painful, embarrassing, and maddening. For all of us.

It got more painful when Stacey called and asked me how it was going. I shared the experience and felt the pain of the gaping whole in both of our hearts when she asked me what it would take for me to be willing to risk her dad’s being with someone. I told her I was mad at her. I asked her what she would be willing to do to help keep her dad safe. We both cried—the distance between personal viewpoints was a lot wider than six feet.

The following morning I again wrote in my journal: Some awkward exchange with Stacey about COVID-19. What would you have me know?

V: Fear is fear, Dear One. Your fear is not helping you. What are you afraid of?

D: Being on a vent! Being ill in a hospital without my friends and family. Dying in fear.

V: It is any worse to die in fear than to live in fear? No one is ever alone. You are giving up so much false belief.

Later that evening, playing ZOOM dominoes with good friends, I tearfully confessed that while extra caution is warranted because of John’s comorbidity risk factors (diabetes, hypertension, and on steroids for Polymyalgia), the anger was covering up my fear. Fear which had been my companion for a long time: I was hospitalized in isolation diagnosed with polio at age five, and I experienced post-surgical complications and ended up in the cardiac intensive care unit due to aFib related to having had a nasal gastric tube in 2012.

It has been such a tender process, realizing we are incapable of fully expressing light until we live in darkness, but I am willing to trust our true heritage.

This message came with Darshan yesterday (Darshan is an opportunity or occasion of seeing a holy person or the image of a deity):

You are so radiant. So beautiful. I am saying this to the one present before me, but to all of you. You are all radiant and beautiful and I love you. Sometimes your forget how beautiful you are. Imagine a very lovely silver pitcher — radiant. But here is a spot of tarnish (just a little one). Does this make the pitcher any less? When it is appropriate, it can be polished a bit, but the form of the pitcher and the radiance and the quality of the water that the pitcher holds is not diminished by the spot of tarnish. And, remember that when you get that spot cleared off, you are go to say, “It’s perfect. NO…. there’s another one!” So relax. Focus instead on the radiance of the entire pitcher, the entire being that you are — mind, body, and spirit — with great appreciation. Pride is not going to come up and destroy your radiance. You’re past that. Now is a time for relaxing and cherishing. I love you.

Deep Spring Center
Thought for Today

Watch what pulls you out of balance and
add what’s needed to bring you back again.
This is a dance which you learn,
swaying to the movement of the winds of the world,
deeply rooted in your true being.
This essence of being knows what is needed.
Trust this innate wisdom and goodness in yourself.
Trust that which I call the angel.
~Aaron

May 18, 2020
Emerald Isle Musings

WORD FOR THE DAY

We did not ask for this room or this music;
we were invited in.

Therefore, because the dark surrounds us,
let us turn our faces toward the light.

Let us endure hardship
to be grateful for plenty…

We did not ask for this room or this music.

But because we are here,
let us dance.

~ Stephen King
(visit GRATEFULNESS.ORG)

The closing “circle” for the 2020 Emerald Isle meditation retreat was—like the entire week—happening on ZOOM.

The title of the retreat was “Deepening Practice in Challenging Times.”

While I had planned to use the week letting go of the stress of the past month of Pandemic and Post-Mold-Remediation experience (see my previous posts), at the last minute, I became Debra the Deva-in-Demand, functioning as the ZOOM co-host/moderator for the week.

Note* I have no previous experience hosting a group on ZOOM.

A difficulty with the platform is how to effectively experience group chanting. We are still working on that….

Although I did not ask for this room, or this music, I was there, so I danced. The ZOOM room was welcoming, the messy music was magical, and I was so blessed to serve.

Adding an intricate layer of dance moves to our virtual/residential retreat is the fact that our beloved teacher, Barbara Brodsky, is deaf. Our beloved co-teacher, John Orr, did a lot of simultaneous speaking while finger-signing for Barbara, including an entire dharma talk! Volunteers did much typing into the chat box, and I was often directing Barbara via closed-caption. A retreat moto might have been, “Slow down, slow down… a little bit slower, please.”

The Pali term, Katavedi, is related to gratefully giving as a result of having fully received.

The one who is grateful (kataññu) helps in return (katavedi).

For the closing circle, we gathered at the appointed time, and one-by-one people let me know when ready to share. That person’s face would be spotlighted, their words (which had been emailed to me) would be shared on the screen. Each person (sometimes tearfully) would read. Here are my closing words:

There were some rough spots with the technology of this retreat. Contraction, grasping, wanting to help. I am totally new to hosting ZOOM. Patty and Tana and I had a crash course last week. Tana received more than a few SOS messages. WE did the best we could. Not at all easy, but so much learning! We will do better next time.

Additionally, two friends are in ICU on ventilators with COVID-19. I have had my phone and email active this week to host ZOOM. I am grateful to have been available to both of these families. Ordinarily, my phone and email would not have been checked at all during the week of retreat.

My husband, John, had sciatica so severely at the start of the week he could barely walk from the bed to the bathroom. At the end of each night, I would do reflexology for him.

John Orr spoke of katavedi, which is giving back from that place of appreciation and gratitude.

This week I have been giving back. We could never ask for better teachers.

I have infinite love and gratitude for Barbara, and John, Aaron, The Mother, Jeshua, Father John… LOVE, and for each of you, my brothers and sisters of light.

I could write a book titled “SNAFU” related to the ambitious decision to offer a week-long, silent, residential retreat with people safe-sheltering at home, but the difficulties did not diminish the benefits.

Most participants were surprised, pleased, and affected by their first residential retreat at home.

Writing this, my heart sank as I realized Rita asked me to share for her, and I forgot to do that. Here are her loving words of gratitude: It was an honor to participate in the retreat with each and every one of you. The strong feeling of connection with so many, most of whom I had never “met” before, was so warming and affirming. I want to thank Aaron, Barbara and John for sharing their wisdom, personal stories, encouragement and Love. I truly feel blessed to have had the opportunity to be in the presence of such skillful loving teachers. Namaste’

We practice where we are. Where we are is in social-isolation. This bird on the shrub is outside my virtual “meditation hall” window:

Iris shared a Terry Tempest Williams poem (also one of my favorites): “Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated.”

The world—even the current pandemic world—is meant to be celebrated. Even in social isolation, we are never alone. LOVE is always with us.

And so LOVE must have the final “going home” instructions:

YOU are LOVE. That essence of you can never be destroyed.

It can be hidden.
Let it out!

It can be forgotten.
Reawaken it!

I want friends to dance with me in the garden of LOVE.

You are so special and beautiful—each of you. The millions of beings on this earth who had the courage to incarnate, to move past old, limiting habit patterns of fear, and remember the essence of LOVE. This is what your practice is for.

I want to thank you for giving this week of your time to this practice.

Giving and receiving…. giving and receiving…. giving and receiving.

My heart to your heart.

I love you.

April 25, 2020
A Bird in the Hand

Up way before the first bird sings a song of the light soon coming, I wonder if it is breaking the noble silence to have my fingers on the keyboard writing to you while I am still on retreat. The lines are blurry at this retreat. It is being held on ZOOM and people are not just sheltering-in-place, now they are also retreating-in-place. Our meditation hall is a photo on my computer, using “share screen” on ZOOM.

So many of the benefits are here; being with others dedicated to the practice, clear seeing into habitual tendencies, helpful instruction, and deep dharma talks. I am so grateful we are instructed to see everything though the eyes of LOVE.

I do miss really some aspects of a residential retreat: having meals prepared, hearing others cough or breathe or chant or cry, and the walk to and from the meditation hall in the stillness of the darkness.

COVID-19 has certainly brought a lot of changes….

I will save more personal reflections until after the retreat ends and be content now sharing some highlights of the teachings:

1. Rejoicing in the good efforts of others is the easiest way to contentment. (This is usually thought of as rejoicing in the good fortune of others, but one student learned to use this principle related to the good efforts of others. I liked that a lot.)

2. The only way we can resolve habit patterns of mind is to experience them.

3. This pain is bearable, but there is still aversion. Think, “Ahhh, I can have compassion for this human.” Notice what this aversion feels like in your body. Is is hot? Icy? You can bring compassion to these sensations.

4. In the depth of wisdom and compassion, there is no grasping or aversion, just space for the experiences of pleasant or unpleasant or neutral.

5. Is there anything here that is not an expression of the unconditioned? (God / Source / All That Is)

6. To give and receive love means to release the ego enough that there is little distinction between self and others. From your profound intention to alleviate suffering for all beings, cherish yourself and all equally.

7. Story of Jeshua as a child having hit a bird with a slingshot. The intention was not to hit the bird but to hit the target. The bird was bleeding. The subtle thought, “I am bad. I am evil.” His mother guiding him to forgive himself and to forgive the bird for being where it was able to be hit. Offering the bird forgiveness for having eaten a worm. He took the bird into his small hands, “Cherishing the bird and cherishing myself.” In a few moments, the bird shook itself, looked at Jeshua, and then flew away. Jesuhua said, “I don’t know why the bird lived. Perhaps it lived because I reminded it it was loved and the world needed it….”

I hear the first bird singing outside my window now. You have time. Drop your old beliefs about self and others. All are loved. The world needs all.

April 23, 2020
Spring Snow Showers

April…. So unstable.

Spring snow showers visit again.

Mourning doves puff up as they sit on the white-blanketed ground.

Hunkered down, they seem to know this is not a time to search.

The sun and warmth will return. Most likely, sooner rather than later.

Another friend hospitalized with the virus.

Some continue to wonder why this is such a big deal.

Like the doves, I am hunkered down. I, too, have stopped searching.

I follow my breath in daily yoga. My teacher, friend, colleague buried her husband in January. Still the snow falls.

Song lyrics, “Why do the birds go on singing? Don’t they know it’s the end of the world?”

But it is not.

Spring snow showers are evidence it is spring.

What will I remember most about this time? I will remember the precious moments of connection.

Pimpled-faced youth, watching my masked face from behind the storm door. Setting the pizza boxes down, taking the dollars I had left in the plastic container that my favorite gum comes in. “Stay safe,” he says, walking back down the porch steps and heading to his car. I hope people are generous to him.

We have been pizza hungry. Usually our last meal on Pine Island is a good-bye dinner at Ragged Ass with friend Nancy, who stays behind, returning to Michigan sometime around Mother’s Day.

I carefully wrapped the left-overs in two separate packages and place them in the freezer.

Likely, we will be hungry for pizza again before this is over.

I hope I will remember how grateful I feel about so many things. Grateful the dishwasher now both fills and empties. Grateful the washing machine does not leak. Grateful water is no longer dripping from the bottom of the water heater.

Soon, I hope, I will be grateful the toilet in the guest bath can be flushed without having to turn the water off down at the floor to prevent it from continuing to run.

Already grateful for the precious commodities that get delivered to my porch. Easter dinner, daffodils, tea ordered from Target, and a sewing machine (with fabric and elastic). I will begin sewing masks.

I may remember those who survived the virus, and individuals who did not. Both contribute to our well-being. Each is helping this virus find the sweet spot, where parasite and host co-exist.

Meditation and prayer, yoga, chanting, writing, and ZOOMING — witnessing it all — everything helping us to find the sweet spot, where fear and frustration co-exist with hope and trust.

Spring snow showers are short-lived….

Many of you will find the Easter Message with Jeshua (channeled by Barbara Brodsky) uplifting, so I am sharing it with all.

April 17, 2020
Packing, Deep Cleaning, and Blessing

The one who says nothing good came of this is not yet listening.
~ Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Preparations for our safe travels back to Michigan from our Pine Island Paradise are underway here—packing, deep cleaning, blessing…. this season is like none other. For the first time EVER, we will not visit with our PEEPS in Tennessee. That is emotionally hard.

Below are excerpts of and hot links to some past blog entries. These come from my heart to your heart to be blended seamlessly with your current needs, spiritual or religious beliefs, and familiar support practices.

Like panning for gold, make your own everything that is of value to you and simply release the rest. We don’t have time or energy to waste on what does not work.

Inter-Are

When we release some of the self-identity and separation, we come to feel our interconnection with everything. The tree dances with the wind not because the wind forces the tree but because the wind and tree literally inter-are. They share the same core of being. The wind is the tree; the tree is the wind. And so they dance together. You can dance with life in the same way. ~ Aaron

Barbara Brodsky’s summation was simply, “When our practice comes from that place of interconnection, we are attending with skillful support.”

At the relative level we appear to be separate, but at the ultimate level, there is no separate self. You can understand that no wave is separate from the ocean. The wind and the tree and you and I dance with life. We inter-are….

Upekka

People are navigating every one of the eight worldly conditions: loss and gain, good-repute and ill-repute, praise and censure, sorrow and happiness. To practice Upekka is to be unwavering or to stay neutral in the face of each of these.

Keep Hope Alive

From my journal 12-14-19:
Releasing Negative Charge

Today takes on a charge. Each day does this.

The idea of lovingkindness being an active “taking in” of the day and allowing the charge to be released is relevant to all now.

You were dreaming about the environment when you woke up this morning. You saw your friend’s email about the beach in Michigan being eroded. Some would just point fingers and blame. This only amplifies the negative charge.

As you bring loving awareness to the situation — not denial, not ignorance, not sticking your head in the sand — you are allowing the transmutation, which is natural, to work for the benefit of all.

You can mine support in everything. Here is an entry from Barbara Brodsky’s Daily Recollection, which can be used with or without a 108-bead mala.

I remember the ten perfections and will practice them well:
43rd bead: Generosity
44th bead: Morality
45th bead: Energy
46th bead: Wisdom
47th bead: Renunciation
48th bead: Lovingkindness
49th bead: Truthfulness
50th bead: Resolution (clarity)
51st bead: Equanimity
52nd bead: Patience

Here is the link to the Chant Book:FREE CHANT BOOK

The next time we are face-to-face will be the deepest of joys never again to be taken for granted….

April 2, 2020
What Endures?

Sunday, March 29, 2020 was the second (and last) day of the Deep Spring Meditation Center virtual retreat with Barbara Brodsky, Aaron, and John Orr. In the afternoon, I went to Galt Nature Preserve for my walking meditation.

This is the latest/driest I have been here in Southwest Florida. The flora I am familiar with and love, including Sweet Acacia, has almost died back entirely. New (unfamiliar) flora is coming forth.

I took a short video of the wind singing through the dry palms sounding just like a far-away water fall.

As I arrived back at my car, hawk flew directly overhead swooping low!

Juvenile eagle soared with its wide, young wings, just above the horizon, about 300 yards away. This eaglet was born here in the preserve earlier this season, in the nest a short distance from the drive. December seems so very long ago now.

Yellow police tape surrounds the pavilion as though the deserted picnic tables had recently been the scene of a crime.

The sun was hot on my skin.

The thermometer on the instrument panel indicated 87 degrees. All season I had stayed in the house during the heat of the day, protecting myself from the discomfort.

The past two afternoons while ‘on retreat’ I had walked in the heat.

Tenderly, I witnessed a pattern in my past of wanting to avoid being uncomfortable. My throat tightened around the thought that perhaps we miss too much….

I turned the air conditioning off before starting the engine in the stifling hot car which has black interior and was parked in the hot tropical sun.

I pushed the button to lower the windows and was amazed how refreshing the air felt.

In his closing comments, John Orr spoke of aging and of the current conditions in our world. He said so much is falling away, but even though there is suffering, we can reflect with gratitude on what has been wonderful and beautiful. We can ask, “What endures?”

May this humble human remember….

March 30, 2020
6 Daily Quarantine Questions

Life is totally interrupted by this COVID-19 mandated safe sheltering/social distancing/self-quarantine. I chose to “attend” a two-day meditation retreat with about 80 others virtually. This virtual Deep Spring Meditation Center retreat with Barbara Brodsky, Aaron, and John Orr is a first…. but, just about everything in the current conditions is UNPRECEDENTED.

During the Q&A portion, another retreatant shared six daily quarantine questions, suggested by James Baraz, founding teacher of Spirit Rock Meditation Center, co-author with Shoshana Alexander of “Awakening Joy: Ten Steps to Happiness.” Baraz teaches a five-month, internationally-recognized “Awakening Joy” course. Here are roughly those six daily question:

1. What am I grateful for?
2. With whom am I checking in/and connecting today?
3. What expectations of “normal” am I letting go of today?
4. How am I getting outside today?
5. How am I using my body today?
6. What beauty am I creating/inviting/cultivating today?

Yesterday afternoon we had a period of optional walking meditation or rest. I drove to a nearby nature trail.

When I approached the bridge, a lone juvenile white ibis was on the rail. I stood still, just watching. I usually see them in quite large gatherings, so plentiful here people call them Pine Island chickens. As I was the intruder, I was willing to wait—even if I had to wait for my entire walking period.

Eventually the ibis dropped down to a small creek and I stepped softly onto the bridge. Moving slowly, stopping at the very place the ibis had been sitting on the rail, I stood silently watching below. The bird began to feed.

The ibis is a general term for long legged bird. Ibis “totem” meaning: If this bird is given to one as an animal totem then it denotes a graceful and well-balanced individual. Their beauty is feminine in quality.

I tiptoed onto the trail. We had recently been given an exercise: choose an area in your house and walk backwards. Notice the tension. Catch the sensations and thoughts when things are not “normal” and feel out of control.

I decided to walk backwards on the trail. I had to be VERY mindful because the clearing of the trail left lots of cross-cut roots.

I covered quite a bit of distance before it was time to head back for the 4:30 session. I continued walking backwards to my car. At first I noticed more tension going that direction. I obviously preferred moving forward, even when I was walking backwards. Noting the tension, I chose to enjoy seeing where I had been, while trusting I was going where I wanted to go.

Back at the bridge, I saw this bright yellow painted rock with the words “Do more with less.” The lone juvenile ibis was still contentedly feeding down below.

Our evening dharma talk ended with Aaron asking us a powerful question. “What is the world YOU wish to see in five, or ten, or 20 years?”

He continued, “Do you want to create a world in which all beings live in peace? YOU are the expression of the divine. YOU have immense power to create…. Join together hand-to-hand and create that which you wish to create. Watch the arising of fear, anger, greed. Remember how to relate to these. Relate with an open heart. May all beings come to the end of suffering….”

March 29, 2020
“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.

December 30, 2019

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Debra Basham

Living and Loving