Debra Basham

Living and Loving

Tag: inspiration

  • A Message Directly from God

    Sacred Stories

    She wanted to hear her dear friend’s guest sermon at an out of town church, but she and her husband had promised to usher at her own church that Sunday. As she was preparing for church, she was moved to gift a woman from her church with a small book. The took the book with her.

    Arriving at her church she learned that this woman’s son had taken his own life. After ushering she drove to this woman’s home and was able to be with her friend in her immediate loss and pain.

    Without “knowing” of the tragic circumstances, she knew she had received a message directly from God.

    These are sacred stories. Pay attention to happenings in your life. Do you have a story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.

  • Super Blue Blood Moon

    I am blessed to be part of two writers’ groups, and one of the precious gifts of winter for me is that I take more time to write. Do you notice how seemingly unconnected things are not? For example, this morning people all over the U.S. got up early enough to see if they could get a glimpse of the Super Blue Blood Moon. One online comment said the skies have not been like this since Andrew Johnson was President, the second dome on the U.S. Capitol was completed, and Jesse James completed his first robbery.

    Time seems linear, but is not. My writing seems melancholy, but I am not.

    Poem Widow Wake-up by Debra Basham 01/23/2018

    Morning had still not yet come when she rolled over in the bed and instinctively reached her hand to the other side. This day, like so many she had tried to hold back with her sheer will, her hand found nothing to grasp on to. Nevertheless, she left it there as though memories of his warm body could will her body to greet this day.

    But it was not death that had stolen her joy. No, she herself had day-after-day driven the very sense of peace and well-being she longed for from her own heart. Living never in the now, her fears had wound themselves so tightly into her reality no distinction remained.

    “Please God,” her daily prayer as rote as the morning rosary at St. Michael’s Elementary Catholic School, “don’t let today be the day I become a widow.”

    But, not even God could keep that from happening today because in her mind it already had….

    As we take in to account that more is always happening in our lives than we are currently aware of, I suggested a client check out the energy of the Super Blue Blood Moon and how his current experience might well be connected to a childhood trauma. He sent this quote from an article he read online, “The last time there was a celestial alignment of these three things was in 1982.” 1982 was the year of that childhood event…

    Driving to a meditation group, I called the hostess to let her know I might be about 5 minutes late. “I am under the weather so we are not meeting today. I sent an email message.” I did not receive the message, but making that call saved me about an hour-long round trip.

    Maybe we don’t all always pay attention but inner guidance and meaningful coincidences are always there for each of us. Noticing them help us stop torturing ourselves with our minds. We can instead offer kindness. This quote of the day comes from my meditation teacher:

    Deep Spring Center
    Thought for Today

    No matter how many times the world comes to the verge of war or enters into it, each time is new, a new moment that has never happened before, with its own sorrows and also its joys. You ask what joy there can be. Joy in the fact that so many of you do not hate a supposed enemy but in your hearts take the enemy to be fear and hatred itself. The joy that so many of you can offer wishes for well-being, even to those who hate, and at the same time, be willing to say no to those beings who would do harm. A no based on kindness.

    May the energy of this Super Blue Blood Moon remind us of all we can do. Today and everyday…

  • 27 People

    Sacred Stories

    Her friend asked her to host a gathering of folks to come together to pray the rosary. She was very busy, tried to say no, and reluctantly agreed. Asking how many people to expect, she was told 5 to 7 people.

    The day of the event, her husband suggested he make some copies of the rosary instructions in case some were not familiar. The instructions were five pages, and she was shocked that he made 27 sets.

    “Why did you make so many? You’re wasting all of my ink and all of my paper. Only 5 to 7 people usually come.”

    “God told me to make that many,” he replied.

    Exactly 27 people were there that day!

    These are sacred stories. Pay attention to happenings in your life. Do you have a story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.

  • Corpse Prayer

    Each year I enjoy some ritual on my birthday. Yesterday afternoon I still did not know what that was to be. Riding to the birthday celebration of our 85 year old friend, I learned of a marvelous exercise called “Corpse Prayer.” It comes from Jarem Sawatsky’s book, Dancing with the Elephants: Mindfulness Training For Those Living With Dementia, Chronic Illness or an Aging Brain (How to Die Smiling Series, #1).

    The “Corpse Prayer” exercise resonates deeply with me because it is essentially my own Imagine Healing process where you anchor positive images along your future timeline to allow the worry brain to turn off. In my process, you build in the caveat although things won’t happen exactly as you imagine it, as you make an image that lets know things have gone so well, even better than you imagined it….

    As Sawatsky suggests, I imagine the last three minutes of my life.

    I am propped up in a big fluffy bed. The bedclothes are pristine white. Stacey is there with me. I have no pain or illness, just old-age. It is time to let go. I see Stacey as old too. That comes as a surprise. White hair. Wrinkled hands. I feel sadness for a moment that her life will not be much longer, then I let that go as I celebrate sacred life and sacred death. I love her so much. I am so blessed she has been with me since I was only a child. I breathe the familiar Corpse Prayer:

    Corpse Prayer

    Be not afraid.
    I give thanks to god who created all things good.
    In christ, all things hold together.
    I am not entitled to life without death.
    I embrace sacred life.
    I embrace sacred death.
    I embrace the growing and crumbling in between.
    Smile at yourself in the silence…
    Jarem Sawatsky

    Sawatsky says to next imagine the moment you will be buried. Since I plan to be cremated, I saw that happening and breathed the Corpse Prayer again. I am not entitled to life without death.

    Two years after death, you are to see your body decayed. I see the place my ashes had been spread. Barely any shards are left. A cat walks on the ground and I think, “I love kitties.” I breathe the Corpse Prayer again. I embrace the growing and crumbling in between.

    Now I am to imagine myself 80 years after my death. My granddaughter (Courtney’s) child is old. I breathe the Corpse Prayer to her. Be not afraid…

    I smile at myself in the silence. Happy birthday to me!

  • Reiki Class

    Sacred Stories

    She was at the local credit union when the customer service agent mentioned to her that his girlfriend was taking a Reiki class at a local yoga studio the coming weekend.

    Opening Facebook when she arrived home the following message was on her feed:

    Hi, St. Joe, Mi friends! I’m coming to town this weekend to teach a Reiki Level I course at the Yoga Studio. If you want to heal, transform, intentionally connect with energy and increase your intuitive senses… Reiki can help make that dream a reality.

    Reiki is a wonderful energy frequency that helps cleanse your body and further your spiritual understanding of yourself and the world around you. It’s simple. It’s safe for everyone. It’s life-changing.

    More info on the website! Feel free to ask me any questions! Share with friends! Register today!

    XO

    These are sacred stories. Pay attention to happenings in your life. Do you have a story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.

  • No Ordinary Face

    Listening to the wind blowing, thoughts come to mind of how relative our perspective is. A prime example of that is weather.

    Bundled up out for a walk, Floridians see Michiganders riding bikes in shirt sleeves.

    Americans look into a brimming pantry complaining about nothing to eat.

    “No Ordinary Face” was first shared at an open mic. I have since been encouraged to share the story more widely. It certainly is a powerful demonstration of perspective.

    No Ordinary Face

    It has been over twenty years since I met her, but hers is a face I will never forget.

    I work as a wellness consultant, sometimes called a holistic healer. She had been referred to me by one of my colleagues, for a surgical support session. Physical healing happens more easily when you are emotionally and mentally prepared. Combining hypnosis and energy medicine I help people “imagine healing.” I knew she was facing an extensive reconstruction following serious burns, but nothing I had been told about her prepared me for what I was seeing.

    “So, you are scheduled for plastic surgery?” I asked. As she answered I jotted the date and time and hospital onto her chart without looking away from her face.

    With a poise not anticipated from her shocking physical appearance, she provided a brief highlight of her MANY previous surgeries.

    As she answered my unspoken question, without permission my chest with it’s now rapid-beating heart leaned forward ever so slightly, “I set myself on fire. I did not want to live,” she was not apologizing but merely helping me understand. “More than my not wanting to live, I thought no one would care if I died. I was wrong, nearly dead wrong.”

    “As the flames caught,” she continued, “I heard a voice yell ‘OPEN THE DOOR AND GET OUT OF THE CAR…. NOW!’”

    She went on to tell me that her life had been totally changed by that event. I thought to myself that was an understatement. There was no person who yelled. She recognized the voice as god, an angel, or some divine guide.

    As though proof of these changes and her true value, she reached in her purse and produced a photograph of a red-haired, blue-eyed toddler sitting on the most realistic rocking horse I have ever seen. “I have a daughter now… My daughter knows she is loved,” her voice trailed off wistfully as she placed the photo back in her purse.

    “There are other people who feel like no one cares but it is not true. I would not be here today had it not been for that voice… Someone cares. Call it what you want. I am living proof someone cares about each of us.”

    “I don’t really remember what I looked like before,” she added with twisted grin, “but I love this face.”

    When she had doused the car with gasoline, climbed in behind the steering wheel, and struck the match, her previous face had melted away like a candle burning in the August wind.

    This face. A face made from other body parts: abdomen ears, underarm eyes, back-of knee nose, and labia lips: this definitely was no ordinary face.

  • Tickets for “Wrong” Date

    Sacred Stories

    When their tickets for the upcoming cruise arrived, the tickets were dated two weeks earlier than arranged. She was about to phone the company to have them changed when her husband calmly said, “Leave them. Perhaps there is a reason this is a better date.”

    The Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia capsized and sank after striking an underwater rock off Isola del Giglio, Tuscany, on 13 January 2012, resulting in 32 deaths.

    They would have been on it….

    These are sacred stories. Pay attention to happenings in your life. Do you have a story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.

  • Chaplain Saved!

    Sacred Stories

    He was serving in Vietnam as a Chaplain. Each week he would travel from the base to villages where they had men serving. He would do a service and offer sacraments.

    On a Monday morning as he was walking out of his hooch he heard a voice say, “Go today instead of tomorrow,” referring to his traveling to one of the outlying areas that he normally traveled to on Tuesday. At first he thought someone was fooling with him and then he heard the voice again, coming inside his head, “Go today, don’t go tomorrow.”

    Reporting a few minutes later he was told that a group was going to that village today if he wanted to go.

    He responded, “Yes!”

    The following day the tank that he would have been in going to the village hit a plastic explosive. He likely would have died when a large shrapnel went right up through the seat of the tank he would have been occupying…

    These are sacred stories. Pay attention to happenings in your life. Do you have a story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.

  • Winter Wonderland

    As a writer, generating material is as easy as paying attention to the burr beneath your saddle. On January 5 of this year wishing our granddaughter happy birthday pulled me back 19 years to the day she was born. The words “winter wonderland” — one of the nicknames for Michigan, my home state, were not the first on my lips.

    Drifts were piled outside that rivaled the summit of Mt. Everest. Visibility was reduced to the nose in front of my face. Temperatures had plummeted so low the gas line in our car was frozen solid even while it was parked in the garage.

    We were not getting to Tennessee for our granddaughter’s birth.

    January 5 that year I cried all day.

    There are times in our lives when our human efforts are just not enough to bring about what we want. I could not clear the roads, and I could not stop my granddaughter’s timed entry into this world.

    For several years our family has drawn names and made hand-crafted gifts. This past Christmas, I got my granddaughter’s name. I designed a deck of cards, and a companion book of inspired writings to correspond with each card, based loosely on the symbolism in a Tarot deck.

    Yesterday I received a gifted copy of The Crafty Poet: A Portable Workshop, by Diane Lockward. Our poetry group has begun working through this wonderful book. As I opened to the first chapter, our assignment, I read:

    Those who have caused us early pain and loneliness, the sources of our art: should we detest them or kiss their feet? ~ Wesley McNair

    A tear formed in the corner of my eye as I read my granddaughter’s words in response to my happy birthday message. “I’m so thankful that you’re my Gammie…”

    To which I replied, “And I’m so thankful that you’re my granddaughter. Sometime today or tomorrow draw a card from ‘Courtney’s Cards’ and see what the message is for your birthday. You can share that with me!”

    “I’d love to.”

    She picked the King of Spades.
    “The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good; but that God will make us good because he loves us.” ~ C.S. Lewis

    Amen.

    I am symbolically kissing the feet of the snow that has piled around my home this week this year freezing the water line into the house. Even the most bitter of our days will thaw out and the difficult will be made easy. Spring always follows winter…

  • Things Will Get Better

    Sacred Stories

    These were very dark times as she was recovering from alcoholism. It was not that she wanted to drink—but neither did she want to live.

    She had rolled up towels to put around the doors and windows and intended to turn on the gas and end her pain.

    She heard a knock at the door. “Who is it?” she asked.

    A woman answered. “It is Pat. I have an appointment with you.”

    Not wanting to draw attention from the neighbor, she opened the door a crack. Pat marched in, went right to the kitchen and sat at the table, looking over at the towels. “See, your name is right here on my calendar.”

    Pat went on to say her husband was an alcoholic and she knew about depression. “Things will get better,” she said.

    Then she left….

    These are sacred stories. Pay attention to happenings in your life. Do you have a story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com. (Note – This story was shared in a public AA talk and while I do not have written permission to share it here, I think you will agree that the teller of the story would want others to know things will get better.)