Debra Basham

Living and Loving

Tag: journal

  • The Last Page

    Every day we pray for the willingness
    to make sane choices about our lives.

    ~ from the book Answers in the Heart

    We will be having left-over Thanksgiving for dinner tonight. Last evening, John and I shared the traditional fare with Janis and Larry!

    We bought the turkey. She roasted it. She made deviled eggs and gluten-free brownies. I made mashed potatoes, corn (cut off the cob), and lemon pie. We each steamed garden peas, and we made our own gravy. Larry shared his cranberry sauce with John.

    I even included two cloth Thanksgiving napkins along with my contributions. And, of course, chocolate chip cookies for Larry.

    Our dining room was on ZOOM, where we could see one another, and hear first-hand the murmurings and moans. The food was delicious, and the company was delightful. True thanksgiving.


    The four of us have been very mindful to avoid unnecessary exposure to the coronavirus. We mutually decided virtual was the best choice. It was Larry’s first Zoom experience. He said we will definitely have dinner together via Zoom while John and I are in Florida for the winter.

    I finished another journal.

    A mixture of emotions always accompanies the ritual of writing the date of the last entry on the cover. I chose to let a poem be my final entry.

    Truth-be-told, the poem was begun on the evening of November 21, 2020, and completed on the morning of November, 22, 2020.

    Perhaps the poem, like our virtual thanksgiving, is a bridge:

      The Last Page

      Years of journals
      Pages yellowed from
      Decades of moments
      Unfolding like
      Butterfly’s virgin wings

      Each new volume
      Filled with possibilities
      Nothing hidden
      Raw experience splayed out
      Telling the ancient tales

      Momentous occasions
      Now lie perfectly flat
      Letters etched with
      Precious precision
      Fading with great haste

      Someday perhaps
      These words will land
      Upon lips of one who can
      Treasure what was
      Just because it still is

      … within the heart

      Debra Basham 11-22-2020

    The first page of the new journal begins with: One week from today we expect to head to Florida. Willing to have all of that go easily and safely. The greatest unknown is seeing the kids. Weather will play a role in all of that.


    Word for the Day
    What gives me hope
    is that life unfailingly responds
    to the advances of love.

    ~ Nipun Mehta

    The final words on that first page in the new journal are from the “voice” (what I call Holy Spirit):

    Intend, invite, inspire!

    We are helping you.

    Remember, your faith is verifiable.

  • Learn the Tables

    Recently I wrote a poem titled ‘Longing’ that was inspired by an exchange with a dear friend that left me feeling less than valued, wondering if I should have, or could have, done something differently in our past to allow for a more pleasant current exchange.

    Sitting heart-to-heart with another precious friend a week or so later, I was stunned to have her say to me, “You are more invested in saving my marriage than I am.”

    Later, as I was writing in my journal, some clarity came about all of this, inspired in part by the Thought for Today from Deep Spring Center.

    You as a world are inviting conflict but then not doing the needed practice with it, so you must invite it again and again. You are like the child in school doing endless multiplication table drills; they are unpleasant but you have not studied the tables, and will not, so the teacher repeats the drills. Your inattention calls forth the repetition. If you wish the drills to cease, learn the tables.
    ~ Aaron

    The “D” stands for Debra, and the “V” stands for the voice of wisdom I call Holy Spirit, from my journal entry:

    D: I know the truth that ‘wherever you go, there you are.’ If she is so easily offended because he yelled at her, she will encounter that energy again. It is today’s quotation from Aaron about calling difficulties to us over and over to learn what we need to know.

    V: If you had a lesson you are still learning that expresses itself in the ‘Longing’ poem, what might that lesson be?

    D: Take nothing personally. I am not responsible for another person’s emotional state.

    Note—As I wrote these words on to the journal page, I could feel something leaving my energy!

    V: What else?

    D: Wonderings are a symptom of not being present moment where I can gently say, “Oh, this is that old habit energy. I know you. Come, sit, have tea. I’ve been expecting you.” *

    V: Tell all who know. They all know. Love, Holy Spirit

    A very wonderful message on an Easter morning.

    Going right along with that, was the quotation, “When humanity awakens, it will move beyond time,” which came from the Brahma Kumaris with this image:

    *This is a reference to the stories of Milarepa (c. 1052 – c. 1135 CE), one of Tibet’s most famous yogis and poets.

  • Acceptance

    I am still doing morning ‘writing down your soul’ pages. This morning’s entry dealt with my sleeping with a bed hog. From my journal:

    This morning as I got up, I again showed John how he pushes me over to a 12-inch slot of bed. I find that very unrestful.

    I asked what Holy Spirit would have me know. Would I prefer my bed empty? I answered that I would prefer not to sleep pushed over.

    I was then reminded how all of life is connected, and how much I enjoy hearing John’s music, and how much I appreciate the life we have generated. When asked if this sleeping is major or minor, I admitted that it is overall minor, but it feels major when I am trying to sleep.

    (Note* In my journal, I use a marginal notation of ‘D:’ for what I am saying and ‘V:’ for what Holy Spirit is saying. Here is the rest of my entry.)

    V: OK. What allows you to bring kindness to both of you and have you say, “Honey, please scoot over. I am on the edge.”

    D: The desire (choice) to have both of us matter.

    V: You see how your sleeping in resentment is not kind to either of you. Saying exactly what you need will allow a new pattern to emerge. Be willing to say it gently over and over until the new pattern is stable.

    As I closed my journal, I opened email to read this ‘Thought for Today’ from the Brahma Kumaris:

    Your expectation will hold others back.
    Your acceptance will let others fly.

    P.S.
    As I posted this, and went back to email, my next message was this:

  • Yoga Space

    Sacred Stories

    Looking through some journal entries from a few years ago, she came across this one:

    I want to create a space for yoga. It has good light and good energy.

    She had given conscious thought to that entry since she wrote those words toward the end of 2013 or early in 2014. Here it is, mid 2017 and she finds the entry.

    She brought the journal with her to her yoga class she was teaching in a sweet, intimate, well-lit, wonderful feeling space. She had begun teaching there one year ago. Her story reminds us how powerful our intentions really are….

    These are sacred stories. Do you have as story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.

  • Happy Anniversary!

    A Facebook post:

    Weird how anniversaries can bring up so many emotions that we don’t even realize we have stored away.

    Today would’ve been my 24th wedding anniversary, and in true form, a picture of my first husband fell out of an old journal.

    He would be proud of our girls. He would probably just shake his head and tell me, “Good luck with that, Babe.”

    Funny how much time can pass but certain memories never fade. Today of all days, to have his photo fall out of that journal….

    “Happy anniversary, Honey. Ted’s covering for you, and loving our girls well.”


    happy anniversary