Debra Basham

Living and Loving

Tag: Sacred Stories

  • Preparations

    I love order. Maybe I am not totally excessive compulsive about it, but I when I have been called a “neat freak” I have taken that as a compliment.

    This week, as many others are busy with holiday preparations, I am preparing our tiny house for a big construction project that will begin right after Christmas. As some areas are being emptied out, other areas are being jam-packed.


    One of the things I notice is that even my chaos must have order to it.

    I took a break from my preparations yesterday and enjoyed listening to the December 17 talk given by Reverend Linda Beushausen at St. John UCC in New Buffalo. The talk was on Joy, specifically that joy is not an emotion but rather a choice we make. She told about a person who admits to having a challenge letting go of the stuff she has held on to that has kept her a victim and let joy in. Gay Hendricks calls this the challenge of expanding our upper limits. He says those profound shifts in your internal set points do not generally happen overnight, but Linda gave us a hint how we can access more joy.

    She said gratitude is how we get to joy. When I put that phrase (gratitude is how we get to joy) into the search bar, it yielded about 6,950,000 results! A few of those include:

      Daily Habits of Gratitude That Will Attract Joy into Your Life with Jack Canfield

      12 Powerful Gratitude Practices That Bring Joy by Joel Almeida

      5 Tips to Supercharge Your Gratitude List and Infuse Your Life With Joy by Tree Franklyn

    Today, my business partner lost his wallet. He had been running errands and when he stopped to get gas, his wallet was gone. He back-tracked to the previous stops, but his wallet was not yet found when he sent a message telling me it was missing. A few minutes later, he sent word that his wallet had been returned with everything still in it. His message ended with this: “Certainly guardian angels seem to have come to the rescue, and I’m grateful….”

    That reminded me of “Package” published July 18, 2015, in Sacred Stories. If you are not signed up to receive the Sacred Stories each week, you can sign up to do that. Sharing them gives me joy!

    As you continue with what ever preparations you are involved in right now, may you find that your gratitude is a bridge so you can find then find joy in the journey.

  • Honesty is the Best Policy

    Sacred Stories

    “You will want to know that I am out on parole. I got into trouble with drugs and have a felony,” he laid it out there.

    “My son is in prison right now related to drugs, and my daughter is addicted to opioids. I will do everything I can to go to bat for you,” came the reply.

    He realized how important it was to be honest, even if that was not easy. He was glad he could be there for this father. To demonstrate the good that can come from difficulties.

    While he did not end up getting that job, he knew his sharing was significant to both of them.

    These are sacred stories. Pay attention to happenings in your life. Do you have a story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.

  • I Lived in This House

    Sacred Stories

    A young man was out in the yard when an elder German man stopped. “I used to live in this house,” the old man said, before going on to add when he had lived in the house it was on another lot—over by the church.

    He would love to see inside.

    The old man pointed out the original part of the house, and the addition which he said had been added after it was moved to this location.

    The young man wondered if this was true and later discovered it was.

    The old man had an unusual feel.

    Later the young man realized he had been visited by an angel that day.

    These are sacred stories. Pay attention to happenings in your life. Do you have a story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.

  • Golfing with Papa

    Sacred Stories
    She was golfing with her grandson about 9 months after her husband transitioned. His papa had taught him to golf, starting around the age of 10. He loved it, both the game and spending time with Papa while browsing for great gold gear together on sites like https://acegolfcartcovers.com/. The little guy thought the old one to use the internet this way.

    She was sitting in the cart watching her grandson tee off and imploring her husband that she hoped he could see what a good golfer their grandson was and how much he had affected his grandson.

    At that very moment a butterfly landed on the scorecard on the steering wheel of the golf cart!

    She instantly felt her husband’s presence and smiled as he let her know that indeed he was watching….

    These are sacred stories. Pay attention to happenings in your life. Do you have a story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.

  • No Flood!

    Sacred Stories

    They were very anxious. The water bill for their winter home in Florida was about $500.

    He must have forgotten to turn the water off.

    A neighbor was going to check. They worried what damage might have been done to their home knowing all of that water had to go somewhere.

    He had forgotten to shut off the water.

    Fortunately, she had also forgotten to close the drain.

    There was no flood!

    These are sacred stories. Pay attention to happenings in your life. Do you have a story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.

  • Kaleidoscope

    Last evening I attended my brother-in-law’s wedding. He has been a care-giver for many years for the woman who is now his wife. The hospice spiritual care coordinator performed the ceremony. Theirs is not young love, and the decision for them to marry is not something everyone will understand, but it is precious none-the-less. When I crawled into a warm bed last night yoga was the only thing on my calendar for today. As I moved into my day, however, opportunities popped up. Like the pieces of glass in a kaleidoscope, my schedule has kept moving and showing me life and love.

    I was able to have lunch with my dear friend and her two young children. Her son will be two in December and her daughter is almost three months old. You can imagine how wonderFULL her life is!

    My afternoon was spent sharing with a colleague in the healing arts I met for the first time today. It was tender to appreciate one another and to witness the divine movement that brought us together. She understands the privilege to work with another. As Ram Dass says, we are all just walking each other home.

    This evening I will share a letting go ritual with a mom and her adult child who is in hospice care.

    As I let myself notice, it is obvious that everything that occurs in our days is an unfolding of the highest interest of all.

    This morning I watched a video talk by Mary Reed, author of The Unwitting Mystic. I think I would have noticed the unfolding anyway, but I appreciated Mary’s starting my day with that expanded awareness. This afternoon I also watched a video where Mary led a box exercise about our attention and shifting out of mind constructs. She says to put all of our thoughts (including all of our past, fears, beliefs, memories, etc.) into a box so we can let our mind be in service to and in partnership with Divine Love.

    Our precious life can be lived not wanting to be where we are and not wanting to feel what we are feeling. Mary says Mooji tells us to find that place which is effortless at rest within itself and be one with that. It would be marvelous if we can all slip into this place as easily as slipping into a comfortable pair of jeans or listening to a favorite piece of music.

    It was raining here again today as I was out-and-about. I observed how I had a choice to resit the rain or just notice that the wet and the wind was cold against my face as I had a judgment: uncomfortable. My body contracted. From my meditation practice I remembered simply to note aversion.

    Grateful for that awareness.

    Grateful for the opportunities to be present in my own life.

    Grateful for teachers and learners.

    The phrase, “We are each a single piece of glass in a kaleidoscope” keeps coming to my mind. We are not together by chance. We are not fastened together. Life is not some random shaking of the glass. Purpose and meaning are inherent in everything, and the placement of each piece and the subsequent shifting yields yet another beautiful view.

    May all beings come to the end of suffering.

    Here is a photo of the sweet little one I was with today:

  • Heaven is Beautiful

    Sacred Stories

    Although they had both read Peter Baldwin Panagore’s Heaven is Beautiful: How Dying Taught Me That Death Is Just the Beginning her mom passed without determining a vehicle for after-life communication. Her mom’s body had just been removed from the house. A bit numb, family members were all sitting in the living when they heard a clicking sound coming from the kitchen.

    Going to investigate, they discovered the electronic igniter on the gas stove was sparking. What a perfect communication!

    Her mother was a home economics teacher….

    These are sacred stories. Pay attention to happenings in your life. Do you have a story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.

  • Frogs and Fairies

    Sacred Stories

    They were out on a walk. She was telling him a story she had heard in a talk about Edgar Cayce’s teachings (Fairies, Angels, and Unseen Forces). Some children were on a walk in the woods and reported seeing a fairy. A couple of the adults were able to see it, too, but not everyone was able to see it. Cayce said this is dictated by the level of consciousness of an individual.

    Just then, they noticed a very large bullfrog (about the size of his fist) sitting on the pavement. They agreed it was such an odd place for the bullfrog to be as they were quite a distance from nearby ponds or lakes.

    He helped the bullfrog to the grass, and they continued their walk.

    Later they read,”Frogs have an ancient mythology about them. Being amphibians with links to the water and the land, they are often associated with the magic of both elements. This also links them to the lore of fairies and elves.” (Ted Andrews Animal-Speak, pg. 356)

    These are sacred stories. Pay attention to happenings in your life. Do you have a story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.

  • Men’s Mission

    Sacred Stories

    He had only been out of prison 32 days. A family member was driving him to a Men’s Mission in another county. Not knowing if the Mission would accept him because he had no proof he had been in that county for 30 days, emotions on the drive were tense. He had not yet eaten today, and it was now almost 5 pm.

    Google Maps first delivered them to the women’s shelter. Someone there gave him the address for the Men’s Mission.

    Then Google Maps took them right past the Men’s Mission and on to a senior facility. Explaining that he was trying to find the Men’s Mission, a woman with kind eyes and a soft voice said, “I don’t know how the GPS got you here, we are not even on that street, we are on a different street.”

    Another woman—a colleague of some sort—stopped and got a map for him and gave him directions to the Mission. Then the two of them brainstormed other possible resources, the one woman taking time by providing addresses and phone numbers.

    He dialed the number. The person who answered the phone made a call and got him into the Mission for the night!

    Arriving there, he was greeted kindly, with these very welcome words: “You are just in time for dinner.”

    These are sacred stories. Pay attention to happenings in your life. Do you have a story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.

  • Comcast

    Sacred Stories

    The Comcast technician was hooking up internet at their new home. She mentioned having lived in their previous home for 40 years.

    “Where was that?” he asked, seemingly just small talk.

    “On Lincoln Avenue. Just south of Glenlord Road. Did you ever notice the Johnny on the Spot Window Cleaning vans parked in the drive?” she asked.

    “No, I never did, but yesterday I did a service call for Johnny on the Spot. The guy’s name is Danny. I asked him why it was not called Danny on the spot and he told me there was a Johnny who had owned it and he had purchased the business.”

    Wow…. what are the odds?

    These are sacred stories. Pay attention to happenings in your life. Do you have a story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.