Debra Basham

Living and Loving

Tag: life before life

  • Serbian Mass

    Sacred Stories

    Attending Mass in Serbia was a dream. The homily began, soon turning her dream into disappointment. The Mass was being given in Serbian, a language she did not know. Why had she not realized this would be the case? She grew more and more distressed.

    Then she prayed, “Lord, you worked a miracle with language in the first Pentecost, letting each understand what was spoken in his or her own language. You know my heart. I want to hear this holy message. Please work a miracle for me today.”

    It felt as though a switch had flipped. She grabbed her journal and began to take copious notes. She felt she knew what was being said, but was that just her imagination?

    At the end of the service she showed the notes to their tour guide and asked, “Is this what the priest was saying?”

    “Word for word. I did not know you spoke Serbian,” he responded.

    “I don’t…” she breathed.

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

  • Appointment

    Sacred Stories

    February 8 she received an email message requesting a session. When would she be back in town? She was not due back until early April.

    March 22 she sent a response: “Hi. Wondering if you want to set up your appointment for soon after I get home.”

    The reply popped in right away: “You won’t believe this. Oh, yes, YOU will. I was thinking just ten minutes ago about texting you to see when you will be back home! LOL.”

    These are sacred stories. What does this all mean to you? If you have a story to share, send email to debra@scs-matters.com.

  • UPS

    Sacred Stories

    She was intending to drive to the UPS store after her doctor’s appointment, but she needed to return directly home to ice packs. Halfway home on her country road, she said out loud, “Sure would be convenient if a UPS truck was in the neighborhood to take my package.”

    A UPS truck rounded the corner heading directly toward her!

    She waved to him to stop next to her car and handed him her package.

    It’s the littlest things that can make the biggest difference. That week her life had gotten very dark, sometimes scary, lonely, and pretty heavy.

    She says, “I felt heard. Ask and you will receive.”

    It was just what the doctor ordered.

    These are sacred stories. What does this all mean to you? If you have a story to share, send email to debra@scs-matters.com.

  • Aphorisms: You Already Know

    “In the deep end, every stroke counts.”

    “Best not flirt with disaster, lest it decide to commit.”

    “Take two opposites, connect the dots, and you have a straight line.”

    These are a few of the pithy wisdoms included in Where Epics Fail, an upcoming book of aphorisms from Egyptian-American poet Yahia Lababidi, who also said, “Poets, thinkers and artists do not really teach, but remind us of what we already know.”

    This was certainly the case on Sunday, May 21, 2017, when I was honored as guest minister at St. John’s UCC church in New Buffalo, Michigan. The title of the sermon was, “The Light that is You.”

    I opened with a story from way back in the days of full-service gas stations, about a minister who waited in line to have his car filled with gas just before a long holiday weekend. The attendant, a member of the church, worked quickly, but there were many cars lined up ahead of the minister.

    Finally, the attendant motioned the minister toward a vacant pump. “Reverend,” said the young man, “sorry about the delay. It seems as if everyone waits until the last minute to get ready for a long trip.”

    The minister laughed and responded, “I know what you mean. It’s the same in my business.”

    In the perfect style of aphorisms, the sermon was summed up by this wonderful image on the bulletin cover, selected by Sandy Orange:

    I was blessed to share the work of some wonderful writers, including Zan Lombardo’s poem “EVERYTHING IS INDEED REACHING OUT TO EVERYTHING ELSE” that is done in calligraphy along the bottom of her amazing 30-foot watercolor (See: Three Sylables), and “Social Ethics,” a poignant opinion article by Kathy Zerler which had recently been published in our local newspaper.

    Confessing that I have already created my own eulogy so I can feel honored while I am still here living this life, and to save my loved ones from having to work to do it when I transition, from that I shared “When I’m Gone,” a poem by Mrs. Lyman Hancock, and “Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep,” written in 1932 by Mary Frye.

    Kathy, my sister-from-another-mister, was with me at church on Sunday, so she got to hear me read her piece. Following the service, Kathy blessed me with the most delicious lunch at Pierre Anne Crȇperie. An authentic French restaurant in a charming Victorian home has been there for 19 years waiting for me to discover it. I am still feeling the lingering effects…

    From the sermon:

    Our lives live on. Our lives are important. Children watch how we live. And children watch how we deal with death. We can live in ways that teach children death is not the absence of goodness, nor the absence of beauty. Perhaps life and death can each be seen as the place where true beauty can be known.

    Death is the only inevitability we all face.

    It seems only fitting to close this blog with another powerful aphorism that reminds us of what we already know—this one found on the St. John’s UCC web page:

    Never place a period where God has placed a comma…

    Can I get an AMEN to that?

  • Candy Striper

    Sacred Stories

    Her son was two-and-a-half. Friends had come to swim. Just before dinner, she bathed her son and was bathing her daughters when her husband screamed her name. Her son had been pulled from the pool unconscious!

    Water poured from every orifice in his body. She rode in the ambulance, praying.

    At the hospital, she stood by helplessly as they were unable to revive him. She was led to a room to wait.

    The woman in a pink candy striper uniform came in and told her, “Your son is screaming bloody murder.” They prayed together, and the woman in pink stayed with her until someone came to get her. They needed her help to calm her son so they could run some tests. He was alive!

    After the situation calmed down, she wanted to thank the woman who had stayed with her. No one knew anything about a woman in a pink uniform. This hospital did not have candy striper volunteers.

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

  • Casey

    Sacred Stories

    Casey was a bit of a handful. She was one of those dogs who refused to stay in her own yard. For weeks now, Casey would disappear every afternoon. Her owner had no idea where she was, but Casey would come back home by dinnertime.

    Quite the surprise, one day Casey stayed home all day.

    The following day, a man came to the house, asking if the Alaskan malamute lived there. He said he just wanted to thank Casey.

    The past few weeks Casey had been spending every afternoon with the man’s father. He said his father had Alzheimer’s and had been very agitated and fearful. Petting Casey kept him occupied and calm.

    Casey had not come to visit yesterday because somehow she knew!

    The man’s father had died peacefully in his sleep two nights previously.

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

  • Mojo

    Sacred Stories

    On Sunday evening he was visiting friends to play dominoes. Addressing the wife, he said, “I need you to do some of your Mojo. We need to find a rental for next season.”

    She told him he did not need her Mojo, he just needed to use his own. He was to simply say or think, “Whatever she does, I need some of that now.”

    The following evening, at euchre someone told him about a rental. It was perfect!

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