Debra Basham

Living and Loving

Tag: intention

  • 1,000 Pounds of Food

    Sacred Stories

    The headline read: Restaurant Gives Employees 1,000 Pounds of Food!

    The owner saw the writing on the wall.

    His family in Italy warned him. They said it would get worse, much worse, and it has. They told him to stay safe, to limit his contact with people, to keep his employees safe, too.

    “We are closed since Tuesday,” the owner said.

    “I knew this would be coming. I’m shocked it didn’t happen sooner.”

    Before he closed the doors, he ordered as much food as he could from his suppliers: 400 pounds of chicken breasts, 300 pounds of rice, 300 pounds of black beans, plus fruits, vegetables and pantry staples. Before laying off the entirety of his 70-person staff, he told them to take as much as they could.

    “I hope they can come back when this all passes,” he said.

    “It’s too risky for everybody. This is the best thing to do for everybody, no matter how much it hurts.”

  • N-95

    Sacred Stories

    A text came from a Michigan friend, also wintering in Florida. Everyone is navigating the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “BTW – Any connections locally for finding a mask for an ailing friend-of-a-friend who needs to fly home next week?”

    She asked her husband if he had seen a mask in the shed of the homeowner. He had not. Nor had she.

    “Let me ask,” she responded before quickly sending an email to one of the moderators of a Facebook page for the local community during the pandemic. Then she went out to the shed.

    There, on a hook behind a saw blade, was one single perfectly clean, unused, mask. Looking closely, this mask was the suggested rating: N-95.


    She sent a text message to the home owner, explaining the need of the mask and asking permission to pass it along. The home owner graciously said the person could have it!

    She quickly took a photo of the mask, sent it via text message to her friend who had made the request, sharing where the mask had been located so quickly.

    “Verrrry interesting,” her friend replied.

    “A SACRED STORY for sure! Please let your friend know,” she added.

    “Are you offering it?” came the inquiry.

    “OF COURSE. THIS mask is for your friend’s friend.”

  • Flowers 50% Off

    Sacred Stories

    This “Sacred Story” is shared with permission from Facebook:

    Yesterday upon entering the grocery store, I was left speechless as my eyes took in the barren shelves of produce. Not one tomato, not one onion, not one…a lot of things! Granted, my first choice was to retreat to a place of ‘panic’, something we have all recently been faced with choosing or not.

    I was amazed as out of the corner of my eye I saw a huge display of beautiful flowers with a huge sign that read; “FLOWERS 50% OFF!”

    I ran to the display and chose the flowers you see here.


    As I have traditionally given my husband at least one bouquet of flowers each week since we met over 5 years ago…my decision to buy was automatic and quite healing to say the least.

    The moment I presented my husband with these flowers and he flew into my arms and simply hugged my fears away…I knew! I knew that my lesson/message from whatever is controlling this universe was this; “What we choose to see, is what we choose to live with!”

    Keep seeking love in all things during these troubling times…if you seek love, you will find love.

    Remain safe all, and remain within LOVE!

  • Birthday Photos

    Sacred Stories

    The daughter of her mom’s friend sent some old photos. In one of the photos were her mom, her dad, and her sister, along with the woman who sent the photos and that woman’s brother.



    The second photo was a more recent photo of her mom’s friend, who had transitioned April 1 just last year.

    She immediately recognized the timing as a direct message from their parents in spirit.

    The daughter of her mom’s friend had no idea the day of the sending and receiving of the photos was her dad’s birthday….

  • The Carriage House

    Sacred Stories

    She had collected match books for aeons. Some of them she does not remember where they came from, and most of them she actually cares nothing about at all any more. She will use them to light a candle every once in a while. She keeps some of them in a fish bowl in the dining room of their home.



    This morning a book of matches from The Carriage House was right on top of the bowl. The Carriage House is a fine dining establishment in South Bend, Indiana.


    She was flooded with memories. She and her husband had a memorable dinner-date at The Carriage House very early in their relationship.

    She took the book of matches out of the bowl and added them to a special “box of memories” which also holds love letters from her husband, who passed away just two months ago….

  • Slow-Lee

    Sacred Stories

    She had been very recently widowed, now navigating her life without her husband of many decades. Responsibilities which had been shared by two, now sat on her shoulders, including tending to a new will.

    And now she was really feeling ALONE with all of her normal outside activities cancelled to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

    She and her good friend were both currently “safe sheltering” but would speak on the phone daily to draw support. The previous day they had each had a time of tears.

    “I had a dream last night,” she said. “Every time I used the incorrect grammar in my class saying slow where I should have used the adverb slowly, a voice would add the LY.”

    “Oh, if that were my dream,” her friend excitedly burst forth, “that would be your husband coming through letting you know you do not have to worry about doing everything perfectly. He is still helping you. You are still working as a team.”

    She said slowly, “His middle name is LEE….”

  • 555

    Sacred Stories

    Two days earlier he had awoken at 5:55 am.

    Notification of a message from a dear friend (in an earlier time zone) came through to his phone this morning at 5:55 am.

    His friend’s message said: We are being asked to love the virus (a sentient being) and say to it, “Thank you, Teacher, for bringing all the planet together. We have made a vow to do no harm. You may not harm us without harming yourself. If you killed us all off, you would destroy yourself. Soften…. release… make this healthy for all.”

    His friend’s message had included a link for Kathy Mattea’s singing, “Come From the Heart.”

    He knows “angel numbers” have meaning. He had listened to a broadcast on Tuesday evening in which the significance of three fives had been mentioned in another context.

    An online source says 3 fives means that you are going through, or will be going through, a positive change in your life. … It’s a triple number, indicating that number five’s vibrations are also tripled. It usually symbolizes a really big change, so better get ready for it.

  • How the $%^#

    Sacred Stories

    It had been seven weeks since her husband’s passing.

    As she settled onto her mat to teach the yoga class she heard herself speaking truthfully about how challenging it was becoming to have people keep asking her, “How are you doing?”

    She immediately felt remorse, hoping not to seem ungrateful for the support and care. She truly valued that.

    After class she overheard one of the students mention having just watched a movie, Wild Oats, about a recent widow. Eva, played by Shirley MacLaine, had blurted out, “How the $%^# do you think I am doing, my husband just died!”

    On her way home from yoga class, she stopped to drop off tax information. The receptionist said, “So, are you tired of people asking you how you are doing?”

    That woman, too, had been a widow.

    She told her about the line in Wild Oats and they shared a good laugh.

    It feels soooooo good to be understood….

  • Surprise!

    Sacred Stories

    He traveled to spend the holiday and meet the family of the woman he had started dating. He knew a good friend of his brother had married a woman from that town.

    Driving around, he saw the restaurant where that couple had met and where the guy had proposed to his wife.

    Driving back by the restaurant again later, he took a photo and sent it to the guy, saying he was in that town for the holiday.


    He got a text right back from the guy telling him to look closely at the photo, “I am in that photo! I was walking across the parking lot at that exact moment!”

    The timing of events of our lives are not random. We witness sacred connections….

  • Heraclitis

    Sacred Stories

    During a two-day continuing education training, a couple of times the instructor mentioned Heraclitis, a philosopher born in the Persian empire.

    A couple of days later, about three pages into the book he bought to read while waiting for his flight to Florida to visit his grandparents, he saw the exact quotation his instructor had been referencing:

    Heraclitus, a philosopher born in the Persian Empire back in the fifth century BC, had it right when he wrote about men on the battlefield. “Out of every 100 men,” he wrote, “ten shouldn’t even be there, 80 are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior… “

    It is important to notice when things happen.