Debra Basham

Living and Loving

Tag: jigsaw puzzle

  • Hilma of Klint

    “She was well-educated,
    she had a mind of her own,
    and she painted like nobody else.”
    ~ opening words from the trailer of the Zeitgeist Films
    “Beyond the Visible: Hilma of Klint.”

    The jigsaw puzzle she had borrowed from the public library featured an image done by the artist Hilma of Klint, born in Sweden in 1862. Hilma was both an artist and a mystic. Her paintings are considered among the first major abstract works in Western art history. Hilma died in 1944.

    Leafing through the April/May 2025 edition of the Smithsonian Magazine she was surprised and delighted to see an article featuring Hilma of Klint! What are the odds of that??? She was awestruck to be seeing the article on the very day she was doing the puzzle of the Hilma piece….

    She does not subscribe to the Smithsonian magazine but a friend she seldom sees had sent this edition to her by mail because the cover story is about the Buddha and the friend said she didn’t know anyone else interested in the Buddha.

    The magazine arrived many days earlier, but as she had time to do a puzzle that day she thought she best also look at the free magazines which had collected. Among the pile was the Smithsonian. She felt she should check out the story of the Buddha and thank her friend for sending it.

    And there was Hilma waiting for her!

    She writes, “It was so out of my control. It was a great teaching for me that I do not have to control everything. TRUST Life. Things will unfold without your pushing them along.”

    Her sense of wonder amplified as she looked again at a drawing she herself had done during the pandemic. Perhaps she, too, was both an artist and a mystic. The urge to draw circles highlighting energy or essence that might otherwise be missed was palpable as she saw deeper meaning in her persistent inner calling to “Pick up the brushes….”

  • Be the Peace (Piece) of the Puzzle

    Sacred Stories

    My dear friend, Wayne, recently passed away. At the Grief Journey gathering this past Sunday, one of the co-hosts shared his sense of a message from Wayne:

      He is saying there were experiences he didn’t understand why he had to go through them. And he just told me that when he crossed, all of of those questions were answered perfectly and completely, and he would explain it best as viewing his (and our) life experience as a jigsaw puzzle. Every piece of that jigsaw puzzle is a different shape, unique to every other piece of the puzzle, and every life experience that he (and we) have is unique but every one is necessary to complete that puzzle. And that creates the “portrait” (that is the exact word he gave) of our experience in this lifetime. Those experiences that he couldn’t understand when he was in body are absolutely clear to him, and every one of them was perfect in the creation of his experience that he had planned before he came here, as we all do. His message for all of us right now is that the experiences that we face — whatever they are — are by our own design and they are perfect for what we need at that time to complete our life experience.

    Working on Wayne’s upcoming Celebration of Life, thinking about possible pieces of music, I went to my car to get the compilation CD Wayne had made years ago, long before copyright issues. Imagine my awe when I noticed that the title of the CD is “Be the Peace of the Puzzle” and the image on the label is a jigsaw puzzle!

    When I sent this photo of the CD to the guy who shared Wayne’s message, he responded, “Nice confirmation. What struck me most about Wayne’s message was each “piece” of the “puzzle” was neither good nor bad. It carried no label. But, each piece was integral to the completion of the puzzle. Our opportunity to teach doesn’t end at transition’s door.”

    Transmutation: Grapes must be crushed to make wine. Diamonds form under pressure. Olives are pressed to release oil. Seeds grow in darkness. Whenever you feel crushed, under pressure, pressed, or in darkness, you’re in a powerful place of transformation/transmutation. ~ Lalah Delia

  • The Hills Are Alive

    Sacred Stories

    Looking down at the jigsaw puzzle she had been working on over the past couple of days, she saw a face near the base of the mountain, and heard in her head, “The hills are alive.”

    Immediately she thought of a dear friend with a gorgeous singing voice. That song was her friend’s favorite.

    “Alexa, play Sound of Music: The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Music.”

    As the music began, she and her husband said at the same exact time, “That is B_ _ _ _ _!”

    She had a quick wondering if it might be anniversary energy since her friend had been hospitalized with acute pancreatitis last year about this time. She contracted Covid-19 while in the hospital and passed in April.

    A couple hours later, she received a text from B_ _ _ _ _’s daughter — requesting urgent prayers for herself and their son at the news her former husband had died in his sleep during the night!

    The following morning as she checked in with B_ _ _ _ _’s daughter by text, she mentioned the hills are alive puzzle experience.

    “Do you know when your mom went into the hospital?” she asked. “I wondered if it was anniversary energy.”

    B_ _ _ _ _’s daughter sent a text message back, “OMG, it is!!! Yesterday was the day she went to ER.”

    If you have had experiences of the continuity of consciousness, please share those. Tell everyone the hills are alive….