Debra Basham

Living and Loving

Tag: intention

  • Screech Owl

    Sacred Stories

    He was awakened from a deep sleep by a very loud screeching sound. He opened the front door and looked out.

    An Eastern Screech Owl was perched on a branch, screeching!

    Owls were messengers, telling of a death. He “knew” immediately his mother had died.

    The following morning he drove to his parent’s home. Walking in the door, his father said, “Your mother is dead.”

    “I know,” he replied.

    “How do you know?” his dad asked.

    “A little bird told me,” popped out of his mouth.

    Pay attention. Nature is one of the ways we receive information.

  • When the Time is Right

    Sacred Stories

    She went to get a hair cut. The salon was intimate, located in the breezeway of the hairdresser’s home. As she arrived for her appointment, the hairdresser introduced her to the previous client.

    They discovered they lived in the same town.

    “We live on a very oddly shaped street,” the client gave her the street name.

    “I live on that street, too!”

    The street is “U” shaped. As the other client described where on the street she lived, it was right across from her, just one house down!

    “Did you just move in?” she inquired quickly.

    “We have been there twenty-three years,” was the reply.

    Although they had not met in all those years of living across the street from one another, her daughter had once many years ago been babysitter for the other client’s child.

    When the time is right….

  • A Little Bird

    Sacred Stories

    She was sitting inside one of the top medical centers in the United States after a doctor’s appointment that had not gone as well as she would have liked. Nothing terribly serious—issues related to age and high blood pressure, etc.

    She was thinking everything over: life, work, family, their recent move to another state. She was wondering if it was the right choice.

    A little bird perched on the chair across from her!


    She had had a rough childhood, and with her mother’s death much that had been unresolved came up for her.

    Peace had been coming. She was realizing the truth that her mother is now in her true form.

    Even though there had been distance between them in their physical lives, somehow there was a present understanding that her mom did love her.

    With so many others in this waiting area, the little bird landed on the chair and sat looking at her for a several minutes before it flew away.


    Her mother loved to bird watch with her father and her mother had shared that love with her.

    She knew her mother’s presence and love were with her right now….

  • Weather or Whether?

    Sacred Stories

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

    Turns out there was another reason for that guidance….

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

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

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

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

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

  • Hello Old Friend, Welcome New Friend

    Sacred Stories

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    (Shared by a friend on Facebook.)

  • Spirit is Everlasting

    Sacred Stories

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


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

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


    She responded: Arrived at a perfect moment.

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

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

  • Timing is ALWAYS Perfect

    Sacred Stories

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

    Traffic was absolutely amazingly heavy!

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

    However, the timing was once again Divine.

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

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

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

    So tender to realize that the timing is ALWAYS perfect!

  • Karaoke Connection

    Sacred Stories

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

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

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

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

    “I remember the name,” her mom replied.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • It’s a Small World After All

    Sacred Stories

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

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

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

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

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

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

    That     couple from St. Joseph, Michigan….

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

  • “Truth”

    Sacred Stories

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

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

    Betty Lue’s Loving Reminder opened with this affirmation:

    Love is the truth from which I forgive.

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


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

    “Truth” is one of these.

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