Debra Basham

Living and Loving

Tag: spirit

  • Learning to Succeed Differently

    Jack and Cindy continue to amaze me with all they are navigating. They wanted to come from Harrison to Bristol, Indiana, where his son and daughter-in-law are seasonal campers at Eby’s Pines Campground. It was Jeff’s birthday and the end-of-season super soup supper event. Jack had been there for that in the past and has lots of friends at the campground. Saturday they made the trip. Over 200 miles. More than three hours.

    We were supposed to drive down to Jeff’s house Saturday evening to visit a while and deliver chocolate chip cookies I baked for them, but by that time Jack was really tired. We agreed to drop off the cookies on our way to New Buffalo where I was guest pastor in New Buffalo Sunday morning.

    Before we left our house, Jack called. “Stay where you are. There is no heat at Jeff’s so we are loading up and heading to you.” When they got here, rather than have Jack get out of the truck, up the steps onto our porch and into the house for such a short visit, John and I shared some memorable moments with them in our driveway. Shortly after nine they left so we could get to church. Heading back home, they planned a stop at Michael’s for Cindy to get craft supplies.

    We got this message from Cindy about 9:15 Sunday night:

    Well, we just got home probably about 20 minutes ago. Jack wanted to stop at Four Winds, so we did.

    Then we had to stop at FireKeepers. Overall, we did pretty good. We ate Chinese at FireKeepers so that was our dinner. We’re having dessert right now — your cookies.

    Sweet dreams we’ll see you when we see you. Love you.

      It was a big weekend as Saturday was also Stacey’s 60th birthday. It does not seem possible that John and I are parents to such a mature woman. She and Doug celebrated by inviting family and friends to join them for Bluegrass Barnside at Arrington Vineyards.Even with so many significant folks unable to attend they had a great group.

      Stacey told us it was like having a living Celebration of Life. We have used those same words about Jack….

      Sunday’s theme of “Living with Intention, or Living in Tension” was exquisitely expressed through Jack and Cindy and Stacey, along with a host of others we know well and love deeply. The following was copied from FaceBook and seems to speak welcome wisdom to our world:

      I Am Learning to Succeed Differently by Helyn Cornille (Copied from FB)

      There was a time when success meant finishing.
      If I started something, I finished it.
      If there were stairs to climb, I climbed them.
      If there was work to be done, I kept going until it was done.
      I don’t live in that body anymore.
      And one of the hardest things about growing older has been learning that this does not mean I have stopped succeeding.
      Today I may look at a staircase that needs cleaning and know I cannot stand there and clean the whole thing.
      But I can sit on one step.
      I can clean what I can reach.
      Tomorrow, perhaps I can do another.
      The old me might have looked at what remained unfinished.
      I am learning to look at what I did.
      That sounds like such a small distinction.
      It isn’t. Because when our bodies change, we can spend an enormous amount of energy measuring ourselves against the person we used to be.
      What I could lift. How far I could walk. How long I could work.
      How quickly I could finish.
      But perhaps success was never really about any of those things.
      Perhaps success is simply continuing to participate in your own life.
      Finding another way.
      Resting when you need to.
      Starting again when you can.
      Doing something in ten small pieces instead of one heroic effort.
      And refusing to believe that adapting is the same thing as giving up.
      I am still learning this. Some days I am better at it than others. But there is something unexpectedly freeing about no longer asking, “Can I still do what I used to do?” and beginning instead to ask, “What can I do today?”
      There is almost always an answer. And sometimes it is enough.
      I am learning to succeed differently.

    1. Steps

      After her husband had passed, she purchased a place in a fifty-five-and-over community not far from where they had previously lived. As she was moving small loads in her car, she arrived at the new space to discover the steps sitting at an odd angle, rather than flush to the home as they had previously been.

      Curious, she asked the park manager. He knew nothing about the steps having been moved. Maybe the wind had blown them over a bit. (That did not seem likely.)

      Checking in with the previous owners, they also had no idea why/how/when/who someone might have done that. Nothing like that had ever happened when they lived there.

      Oh, well, she thought, she would just slide the steps back into place. But those steps were so heavy she could not get them to budge even a little bit.

      That is when it came to her! Her husband had worked in construction. He was always the one doing things around the house. Perhaps he had moved the steps to let her know he was still around and able to be of support to her….

        Note* An AI Overview of “How do spirits move things?”

        Spirits are said to move physical objects by manipulating energy, similar to telekinesis. This energy is concentrated and directed to exert force on objects, often for purposes like sending a message, playing, expressing anger, or seeking attention. The exact mechanism is not fully understood, but the ability to move items is considered a form of spirit communication or interaction with the physical world.

    2. A Real No-Brainer

      John and I are in Tennessee at Stacey’s. We drove down yesterday. While he was napping, I logged onto John’s MyChart to check for the last of the test results from his annual exam with his primary the day before. His thyroid is off again. His medication will be adjusted. But the results from the EKG need further investigation. Although he was already scheduled to have an echo-cardiogram, now seeing these EKG results the situation is experienced with a greater level of stress.

      Interestingly, several friends are navigating unknowns related to health. Some are worrisome. Some are severe.Some are life-threatening. It is very difficult to not get triggered into worry brain. I have been working on my upcoming Insights clergy article for the local paper. The theme is how life’s longest journey is the distance between the head and the heart.

      Tired from our travel day I was able to fall asleep, but several hours later I was wide awake in worry brain. In my heart I heard my own words from the Insights article, “If I had my life to live over again, I would ask that not a thing be changed, but that my heart be opened wider.”

      Knowing I needed to activate the heart, I listened to with Dawson Church. I could see that it was even challenging to identify a person or a place which gave me peace. Finally, on the second listening to Dawson (“EcoMeditation”) I was able to remember the joy I feel when watching the birds at our bird bath from my kitchen window.

      The 7 Steps of EcoMeditation

      Before you begin, turn off your cell phone, laptop, and alerts. Give yourself the gift of 20 minutes of undisturbed time. You can do this first thing in the morning (my favorite time), last thing at night, or during a break in the day. Sit upright in a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted.

        1. Use your fingertips to tap on each of the EFT acupressure points in any order, while holding the intention that you are in a calm and peaceful state, and nothing matters except the gift of undisturbed time you are now giving yourself. Tap from top to bottom, and when you get to the last point, start on the first point again. If you don’t know the tapping points, you can find them on the diagram here.

        This is time just for you. Let all your preoccupations vanish, and allow yourself to be fully present. As you tap, say, “I release any and all blocks to inner peace. I release all tension in my body. I release anything in my past, present or future that stands between me and inner peace.”

        2. Stop tapping and relax your hands. Close your eyes, and let your tongue rest loosely on the floor of your mouth.

        3. Feel your hands. Feel your feet. Feel the space inside your hands. Feel the space inside your feet. Feel the space inside your legs, your arms, your torso, your neck and head. Feel the space inside your whole body. Picture a big empty space behind your eyes. Picture a big empty space between your eyebrows. If thoughts arise in your mind at any point during the meditation, just let them go. Watch them drift like clouds across the sky, without attachment.

        4. Breathe slowly, for 6 seconds per out-breath, and 6 seconds per in-breath. Count to 6 silently each time you breathe in, and each time you breathe out. Notice how relaxed your tongue is. Picture the big empty space behind your eyes. Keep your tongue relaxed.

        If physical sensations arise in your body, such as aches or pains, just observe them. You don’t have to do anything about them. Keep your attention focused on your breath, counting 6 seconds in, and 6 seconds out.

        5. Visualize the location in your chest where your physical heart resides. Imagine breathing in and out through your heart, while maintaining 6 second in-breaths and 6 second out-breaths. Maintain a relaxed tongue.

        6. Imagine a beam of love pouring out through your heart toward a person or place that you love with each out-breath. Stay in this state for several breaths. Notice the big empty space behind your eyes, and how relaxed your tongue is on the floor of your mouth

        7. Bring the beam of love back into your body, into the area of your physical heart. Send that love to any part of your body that is uncomfortable or in pain. To end the meditation, take 3 deep 6 second breaths.

        When you feel complete with the meditation, return your attention to the room you’re in. Open your eyes and look at the object closest to you, and observe its characteristics, such as color, texture, and weight. Shift your gaze and look at the object furthest away from you. Notice your breath. Notice the weight of your body on the chair or on the surface on which you’re sitting. Feel your hands and feet. Be aware of the time.

        Bring yourself back to the here and now. While a meditative state supports our well-being, it’s also vital to orient yourself to the “real world” and function there effectively at the end of each meditation period.

        Do this every day for a week, and you’ll notice a difference in how you feel during the rest of the day. Do this every day for a month, and you’ll be hooked. It only requires 20 minutes, though you may want to gradually increase your time frame to 30 or 45 minutes.

      John is notorious for saying, “I realized that 99% of the things I have worried about never happened. That is proof worry works.”

      If you are not so sure that worry works, you will be interested to know that MRI scans show EcoMeditation decreases activity in the brain regions associated with self-focus and suffering, and increases activity in the areas of compassion.

      This seems like a real no-brainer to me….

    3. Take Another Look

      Below is a Yellow Brick Road from October 28, 2020. The theme is floating back through my consciousness and might be helpful for others at this time again as well.


      Need to Do

      You must cherish one another.
      You must work —
      we all must work —
      to make this world
      worthy of its children.

      ~ Pablo Casals

      Is this opening quotation, as it is written, true? Less and less I am concerned with being a doer, as more and more I am aware of the importance of how I am being. Listening to Rupert Spira speak about there being no doer, however, I also recognize the stages of learning we are experiencing around all of this. Spira says the belief and feeling “I am a person” is the same belief and feeling of “I am a doer.”

      In mindfulness, this thought “I am a person” could be seen as operating from ego.

      New Years Eve 2000 — twenty years ago — our meditation focus was a powerful writing titled “The Recovering Hero Proclamation.” Here is the last stanza:

      I allow things to unfold naturally, and I trust the flow.
      I joyfully accept and experience my humanity.
      I need nothing.
      All already is.
      Blessed be.

      ~Aaliyah LivingWell
      aka Gina Dawn Gavaris
      GeneratingLove@aol.com
      www.GeneratingSolutions.org

      It is important to realize that this does not mean all action ceases. As Spira says, “No…. Cars continue to be driven, meals continue to be cooked, inquiring into the nature of experience continues to be undertaken.” Everything continues, but it doesn’t imply that there’s a doer.

      I found this note in my journal: I forgive myself for believing it is my job to be the hero in any situation or save anyone else from having the experience they are creating.

      Wow.

      Those familiar with the SCS/NLP materials recognize fully we are moving off the Drama Triangle and experiencing life from the transrational perspective.

      If we are able to drive, cook, and inquire into the nature of things without identifying ourselves as a doer, notice how much more can be done through the expanded awareness.

      Recently a friend who hosts two of the Florida Zoom groups I participate in sent a message saying she has reached her stress limit and is going off the grid. We are still able to use her Zoom account, but she is not meeting with us.

      William Wordsworth’s opening line in, “The World Is Too Much With Us”: The world is too much with us; late and soon.

      Spira invites us to imagine a pink elephant under the chair. Both the statement, “There is something for the pink elephant under the chair to do,” and the statement, “There is nothing for the pink elephant under the chair to do,” are equally absurd.

      Is there something we need to do? Today’s Daily Word:

        Guidance
        I am divinely guided from within.

        There are times I find myself wondering which way to turn. Rather than feeling stressed or pressured into making quick decisions, I know these instances are perfect opportunities to calm myself and check my internal compass for divine direction.

        The source guidance I receive allows me to perceive possible paths and shows me the way if I veer off course. All I need to do is become quiet and feel aware of my connection with God by pausing, breathing deeply, releasing, and relaxing into my intuitive knowing.

        From this place, I instinctively know which way to turn and what to do. In faith, I follow the guidance of my inner wisdom and know everything I will need for the journey ahead is already mine.

        Though we stumble, we shall not fall headlong, for the Lord holds us by the hand.—Psalm 37:24

      Of course we do things. Until the mind jumps in after the activity and claims, “I did this, I did that” there is only a sense of the raw experience. A baby probably does not draw from the mother’s breast and think, “I just ate.” The nourishment and the nurturing and the satiating of hunger are the raw experience. No commentary is necessary.

      Note* Is it significant that the “About Debra” page I am working on for launch of DebraBasham.com opens with a quotation that might appear to be in conflict with my own words?


      She wanted to be able to look back over her own life
      when she was much older and say,
      “Yes I did that.
      And that.
      And that, too.”
      ~ The Gazebo, a novel by Emily Grayson, (p. 288)


      John sings a duet of “When Did I Get Old” with his music friend, John Smith. The lyrics are by Derrick Clinton Dove & music is by Derrick Dove and The Peacekeepers. Don’t you love those names?

      As the two John’s sing, “When did I get old, when did everything change? I don’t recognize this world, I don’t remember this pain. Did time speed up or did I slow down? When did I get old, it’s all behind me now. When did I get old, it’s almost over now,” I realize today is a good day for me to take another look at this blog post. Likely it is related to the timing of my older sister nearing her transition. Of course, it is not only old people who transition and even when it’s over it’s not really over.

      Ah, there is time to take another look, and another look, and another look….

    4. Agitation and Imagination

        Agitation is interesting.

        Instead of trying to make it go away, allow it to be fully present, so that you can watch and learn its nature clearly.

        ~ The DailyTejaniya

      It is difficult to recall how long ago now I saw so clearly the futility of speaking about a situation that is causing agitation. Any idiot can speak about the problem, but only someone with imagination has the wisdom mind to see solutions.

      You are the only one who knows the conditions in your own life that are currently playing this dynamic out clearly, however, everyone has something going on right now that invites feeling helpless and perhaps even a bit hopeless.

      I have previously mentioned my friend having SERIOUS health conditions in Florida over the winter and since returning to Michigan. (See Anxious Feelings – Power of Presence)

      Well, conditions continue….

      Last week I spent the morning with them at the hospital. She was having the long-awaited cardio version to return her heart to a normal sinus rhythm. We had opportunity to laugh at ourselves and one another. She had been desperate for a hair cut. The day before the cardio version she had an appointment, but when it came time to leave the house she refused to put her slippers on, going to the car instead in her bare feet! Helpless to reason with her, he drove her to the salon only to have her unable to navigate the unbearable heat of the blacktop parking lot. (Plus, with all the shenanigans they were already too late for her appointment!)

      While the three of us waited in pre-op they were both willing and able to confess to and laugh at the absurdity they had collaborated. Unfortunately, we are all prone to mind states and habitual attitudes and unconscious catalysts that augment agitation and interrupt imagination, robbing us of the peace we truly are.

      We talked about how counter productive human behavior can become when conditions prevent us from being able to have or do or be what we desire most — and sometimes actually need. You only have to think for one moment about the political or environmental or institutional climate crisis we are experiencing on this planet to understand fully the feelings leaning toward helplessness or hopelessness. Add as backdrop the layer of the inevitability of old age, illness, and death (from Buddhism: This body is subject to breaking up, subject to being laid down).

      So, this morning I am allowing agitation to be fully present.

      I am remembering how consistent I had to become with taking John’s vitals EVERY DAY and reporting them to his doctor EVERY WEEK for over two years now. You can watch and learn agitation’s nature clearly. The doctors’ agitation with the insurance stranglehold is not other than my own. The agitation with delay in getting access to what we want or need. The agitation that is precariously leaning toward helplessness or hopelessness, but also can open us up to imagination.

      This comes from the preface of Imagine Healing: Guided Imagery to Help You Heal, by Debra Basham and Joel Bowman.

      Woven into the fabric of your illness or health crisis, are the emotional, mental, and spiritual dynamics of both “dis-ease” and well-being. That simply means what is in the way, is the way. The use of your imagination can help you heal now.

      By activating your imagination, you will not only be healing the physical ailment, you will be healing on all levels—body, mind, and spirit. Why settle for healing that is just skin deep, when you can activate your innate healing capacities. Although we cannot “unhappen” history, you are able to experience relief from painful memories, beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, even as you physically heal

      Agitation is interesting.

      Blessed be.

    5. Grow Through What You Go Through

      Light rain was tap dancing on the metal roof of the lanai as I sat in the darkness waiting for the sun to make its debut thinking about a dear friend of mine whose brother-in-love is going to be having lung cancer surgery soon. She has been a champion of ours for decades, having thrived through cancer herself. A video interview of Jane’s Imagine Healing Journey is featured on our website.

      I imagined her sharing the Imagine Healing process with him….

      Opening email from The Daily Tejaniya I read: “Practice with the idea of not trying to create an experience. Instead, just take your experience as it is and try to learn from it.”

      You can see the middle path!

      Doing the process of Imagine Healing supports the central nervous system so the physical body has the best opportunity for healing. Having done the process, you are much more capable of being present to learn through your experience.

      Our granddaughter is going through a lot right now. I sent her a photo of a sweatshirt I had seen on Facebook with the words: Grow through what you go through.

      A quick internet search for that phrase took me to a sweet website which listed 12 Hacks to Grow Through What You Go Through. Number 3 on the list is about how you can grow through your fears.

        We don’t run from our fears; we go through them. To get past our fears, we need to do three things:

        1) acknowledge them,

        2) let them go, and

        3) replace them with something else.

      That list took me to a post by another Facebook friend and colleague, Lisa Gordon (I was trained in Healing Touch by her mom, Janet Mentgen). Lisa posted a sweet reminder from “The Female Hustlers” offering a perfect way to navigate these last days of December 2023:

        De-cember
        de-clutter
        de-tach and
        de-lete
        anything that
        de-values your life.
        Don’t bring
        it into 2024.

      Whatever is happening in your life right now, may you grow through all you go through.

    6. Good Can Come From This

      This post was started on October 17, 2022. Today is now ten days later. I cannot explain fully what derailed my completing the entry, but, say only, a lot has changed during this interim. The post began with this:

        On Sunday, October 16, this loving blessing came through Barbara Brodsky:

        The Mother to Debra (10/16/2022)

        I love you.

        I know you heard what I said to the friend before you. The joys, the challenges, and with the challenge, “What gift have you brought me?”

        You are wise, My Dear One, and you understand that the challenge comes with a gift, but sometimes in your hurry to get through the challenge you don’t pause long enough to really see and to know the gift. Watch that fix-it mind that wants to push through it rather than pausing and saying, “Yes, ah…. Challenge, challenge. I am here to receive your gift.”

        And just rest there for a bit.

        The gifts reveal themselves to you but you’re still in a hurry to move through the challenge rather than experiencing the fullness of the gifts.

        “What gift have you brought me? Thank you. Thank you.”

        And it’s fine at the same time to say, “Yes, but this is too heavy for me right now so I wish to release it.” It’s fine to ask that, and the gift will return again in another form.

        I am with you and helping you. I love you.

      The “challenge” over the past few days surrounds our 22-month-old great grandson, Jackson. On Monday evening, October 24, Jackson had a seizure. He was taken by ambulance and admitted to Pediatric Intensive Care at Children’s Hospital at Erlanger in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he has continued to have absence seizures, meaning they are detected on the EEG, but not by the human eye.

      Imagine a toddler with tubes and leads and restraints, and lots of pokes and lots of medications, and nothing at all normal…. that is where Himz (one of our nickname for Jackson) still is at the time of this post on Thursday morning, October 27.

      Of course, our concern and compassion is for Jackson, but also for his mom, our granddaughter, Courtney. And for our daughter, Stacey, Courtney’s mom. And for Jackson’s dad; Papa Bear, G-Pa…. Uncles, Brad and Adam. We are all shook to the core with these developments.

      John is so bonded to Jackson. Jackson was a major part of John’s healing goals when he went through the open-heart surgery in January. Getting to Tennessee in April on our way back to Michigan was about seeing Jackson.The color of Jackson’s favorite green blanket became a cue image for John’s recovery.

      This has been such a clear time for me of noticing myriad points of view in a single experience. My own childhood medical trauma (being hospitalized and treated for polio at age five); my terror when Stacey was about that age and face-planted into a fieldstone fireplace requiring a trip to the emergency room for stitches; month’s old grandson Brad’s being taken by ambulance during a Saturday night snowstorm with RSV…. Seeing every condition like waves in the ocean. Each appearing as separate, but part of the whole.

      Here is a recent photo of Jackson happily eating his first sandwich.

      I was not very skillful when Stacey had to have stitches. In fact, they would not allow me to go into the room with her because I was so distraught. The memory of John and me leaving the hospital with our baby (Stacey) folded into the crib under an oxygen tank with her baby (Brad) is as active now as it was 32 years ago.

      Each experience is woven together. Some threads are more obvious. Some patterns are more hidden.

      On Tuesday afternoon as Jackson was being sedated for an MRI, having a spinal tap to rule out some infection that might be causing the seizures, and wired with a continual EEG…. I wrote in my journal: “Good can come from this.”

      At meditation online that afternoon Sheilana’s poignant opening words, ”Why do we try to figure it out? Why don’t we just live and breathe and let it just be what it is? Is there any reason for me to believe that it should be anything or any way other than it is?”

      The theme for that evening’s class with Barbara Brodsky: When something startles you, or pain arises or fear, what state and stage of consciousness opens habitually with that challenge?

      Wednesday morning waiting news about how they were all doing, I put the following scripture on the Basham Family list:

      Romans 8:26

      In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans….

      Again this morning I wrote in my journal: “Good can come from this.”

      P.S. On Wednesday afternoon Stacey stepped out of Jackson’s room to give us a call. It was the first time we had spoken on the phone since all of this occurred and she was crying. A stranger handed her a card. Many of you have seen that card in a Sacred story post, but for any who have not, here is the link: Card From a Stranger
      P.S.S. Just as I was about to push publish, news that when the EEG was taken off Jackson sat up and smiled. His mom said, “I never knew how much I missed that smile!”

    7. A Clean Slate


      On Tuesday night in class the teacher told us, “Karma is never a punishment; there is always a desire to learn.” I was so drawn to the words and to the implication of that truth. A subtle curiosity dawned as to from where the idea of a punishing supreme being came.

        When love and hate are both absent
        everything becomes clear and undisguised.
        Make the smallest distinction, however,
        and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.

        ~ From “Views of the Faith Mind”

      We are so very conditioned to polarities, we sometimes take for granted they “exist.”

      What if polarities are really just conditioned states of mind?

      In The Sound of Silence, Ajahn Sumedho describes a state that is “ever present but only noticed if attended to.”

      My blood pressure has been up again since Hurricane Ian came onshore in our beloved community in Southwest Florida, before driving destruction onward across the state and on up into North Carolina. As I was sitting with all of that on October 12, I realized the elevated blood pressure might really be Europe anniversary energy from 2011. I was going to the foot doctor later in the morning so I sat a clear intention to have everything be released with the day’s procedure.

      Before leaving for my appointment I did a drawing and heard song lyrics in my head: What goes up, must come down; spinning wheel got to go round; talkin’ bout your troubles, it’s a cryin’ sin.

      Then a poem:

        A Clean Slate

        My past is a thief robbing me of today
        but only if I hold on — that’s the only way
        I breathe in
        I breathe out
        I let go
        I move out

        No more ruminating
        this is the root
        today renders all those yesterdays
        absolutely moot

        Today the autumn hues
        can erase a history of blues
        the reds
        yellows bright
        orange shining
        with glorious light

        These cells and pores
        win or lose
        when I’m saving scores
        wipe the slate clean
        that’s what we mean

        Do it now
        let it go

        Compassion
        can and will flow

        Debra Basham October 12, 2022

      After I got home from the doctor, I had the first normal blood pressure reading in several days. I finished reading The Cherry Harvest, by Lucy Sanna. I did not like the ending. Online I saw this line in one review, “Really digs into the hidden behaviors that people often have but would never admit.” I wrote in my journal that I prefer a happy ending.

      John Lennon is credited with saying everything will be okay in the end, so if it’s not okay, it’s not the end.

      More from “Views of the Faith Mind” that resonates with all of this:

        Do not search for the truth;
        only cease to cherish opinions.
        do not remain in the dualistic state.
        Avoid such pursuits carefully.
        If there is even a trace of this and that,
        of right and wrong,
        the mind-essence will be lost in confusion.

        Although all dualities come from the One,
        do not be attached even to this One.
        When the mind exists undisturbed in the Way,
        nothing in the world can offend.
        And when a thing can no longer offend,
        it ceases to exist in the old way.

      A few minutes ago I went out and took a video of the sky. To the left and to the right of a heavy band of clouds there was blue sky. It was so obvious that what you see depends on where you are looking.

      A lot of life related to wintering in Pine Island has ceased to exist in the old way, yet another opportunity to breathe in and out and let go….

    8. Invite to Arise and Allow to Dissolve

      The days feel a bit otherworldly since hurricane Ian paid a visit to our seasonal paradise in St. James City on Pine Island, Florida. Devastation is the best descriptor. The island has been deemed “uninhabitable” for the unforeseeable future with no power, water, sewer, or emergency services.

      The sense of loss comes in concentric circles. The smallest circle is the interruption to our coveted winter life-style. Then to the homeowners, and finally to those whose only home is (was) there. The island is also home to so much wildlife that must be shocked as well. Bald Eagle, the Gopher Tortoise, the Pileated Woodpecker, the Great Blue Heron, to name just a few.

      We received a video after our homeowner made it to ground zero yesterday. The damage is overwhelming. So many of our friends are affected. John’s shuffleboard buddy called to say they are not coming back. “We are too old, and I am too tired,” Richie said. Again, those circles.

      We view the damage from a safe distance within the comfort of our tiny house here in Michigan.

      Our grandson, Brad, drove to Florida from Tennessee with donated supplies to assist his dad in Englewood, who lost a roof. It is estimated that 90-95 percent of homes in that community were damaged. Brad’s paternal grandparent’s home was a total loss, like so many others we know and love.

      I realized it feels like going through the grand letting go that happens for us all at the time of death, but we are going through it now without leaving our bodies.

      I appreciate that a friend sent a passage from Eckhart Tolle’s Stillness Speaks: “Death is not the opposite of life. Life has no opposite. The opposite of death is birth. Life is eternal.” (p. 103)

      Betty Lue Lieber (my beloved teacher and friend who founded the interfaith ordination program of Reunion I was ordained through) sent the Daily Quote from Abraham Hicks:

        You cannot be less than you are now. You cannot achieve a vibration that is less than the vibration that you have achieved. That’s why when someone achieves an empire and then something happens where it is lost or destroyed, they still have the vibration that they’ve achieved, and the empire will come back again—you see it all the time—because it is the vibrational status that the Universe is responding to, not the financial status.

        Excerpted from Philadelphia, PA on 5/7/03

        Our Love
        Esther (Abraham and Jerry)

      This morning when my sister, Janis, and I turned over our 2022 Magic Eye Calendar to October we saw myriad animals — including buffalo, bear, deer, eagle, and feather. It is a very BUSY image. Key words that came to mind are Native American; Mother Earth; and Nature.

      The underneath (3D image) is simply two sets of human hands coming down on to two drums. We both thought: Heart beat of the earth.

      There is soooooo much going on on the surface, but underneath we can feel hopeful. First Janis said it felt hopeful, but then the word ENCOURAGING came to mind.

      Reading on in Stillness Speaks:

        People tend to be uncomfortable with endings, because every ending is a little death. That’s why in many languages, the word for “good-bye” means “see you again.”

        Whenever an experience comes to an end — a gathering of friends, a vacation, your children leaving home — you die a little death. A “form” that appeared in y9ur consciousness as that experience dissolves. Often this leaves behind a feeling of emptiness that most people try hard not to face.

        If you can learn to accept and even welcome the endings in your life, you may find that the feeling of emptiness that initially felt uncomfortable turns into a sense of inner spaciousness that is deeply peaceful.

        By learning to die daily in this way, you open yourself to Life. (p. 106-107)

      Two experiences from my past come to mind. The first was when the entire lower level at Holistic Alliance was flooded with grey water. That was a total BEING of awareness that what would be would be. Like Doris Day’s singing Qué será, será, whatever will be, will be; the future’s not ours to see; Qué será, será.

      The second was the night I unknowingly ate food containing shellfish while I was in Thailand and I became violently ill. I was alone with no way to get any help. After the vomiting and diarrhea slowed to where I could crawl to the bedroom and lie down, I turned on my Everlasting Peace CD fully aware whatever will be, will be. If I was going to die, I wanted to live until then in everlasting peace.

      This morning, Aaron’s words point to a new way of navigating this feeling of emptiness.

      There is nothing to create; there is nothing to destroy. There is only the power that is inherent in your essence, which is the essence of All That Is, the power of love that is able to fully invite that which is wholesome and release that which is unwholesome. To create and to destroy are 3rd density concepts; invite to arise and allow to dissolve are 4th density concepts. Are you ready for it? ~ Aaron

    9. Embrace Your Radiance and Power

      Sometimes it takes hindsight to see most clearly how to move forward.

      This morning I came across a Beyond Mastery Newsletter post from ten years ago. The title of that post is “You’re Pushin’ Too Hard.” Here it is:

        I may have been affected by a week of flu, but these words to the song “You’re Pushin’ Too Hard,” by the Seeds, just keep rolling in my head: “You’re pushin’ too hard, what you want me to be, about the things you say, you’re pushin’ too hard every night and day…. All I want is to just have fun, live my life like it’s just begun.…”

        In Jin Shin Jyutsu, pushin’ too hard is called efforting, and in ways perhaps known only to the soul, it is based on a lack of trust. I don’t often think of myself as lacking trust, and I often speak quite to the contrary, expressing ultimate trust in Divine Intelligence, or LIFE, or the Universe, what is sometimes in this culture called God. What does it mean, then, that efforting is oh, too, familiar….

        An exercise I have invited myself and others to play goes something like this, “If you could have anything you wanted, what would that be? And if you had that now, what would your having it now allow you to do or have or be that you have seemed unable to do or have or be currently?”

        Recently, I am very aware of the gap in ease I experience about that answer. I know my life would have an element of service in it, and yet, I am not called to anything concrete in the ways I used to be. I know my life would have time for balance of body, mind, and spirit. I would exercise, preferably by riding my bike most days. I would eat healthy food, and enjoy well-prepared meals. I would meditate daily, as well as join group meditation. I would write. I have come to recognize how much writing is central in my spiritual balance.

        When I ask if I would work, I cannot answer that with perfect clarity. Would I teach? Maybe. Would I preach if I had the opportunity? Maybe.

        One question that can still bring tears to my eyes has to do with a sense of failure. I know my mother felt she had wasted her life. At the time she was expressing those feelings, they struck me as so odd, after all, she had me! Perhaps she had been responding to a deeper dream that had not revealed itself in her doing. She was an amazing cook. She could make an eight-course meal look easy. Her own needs for food were minimal, but her need to feed those she loves was nearly insatiable. Meatloaf for one, roast beef for another. Lasagna. Cornbread. When the kids were all young, and several of them preferred the center of the pan of cinnamon rolls, she would make several, so everyone got a center!

        I am not sure my soul needs that level of pandering to, but it does need to be heard, and honored, and allowed a say in what I do with my time and energy.

        I shall give my soul pen here and see what is desiring to be shared!

        What small gift can I bring?

        • I can open the door for someone who is rushing in or out.

        • I can listen to someone who is feeling alone or confused.

        • I can remember to breathe when those around me are in stressful moments.

        • I can pick up a piece of trash when I see it and not harbor a thought about how it came to be there in the first place.

        • I can tip well when service was poor and tip even better when service is great.

        What might it mean that I find no lofty goals when I look deeply inside? Perhaps nature has seeped into my being and contentment is being born where restlessness once whipped my moods like March winds working kites as delighted children watch with their eyes all aglow. I cannot imagine the roses pining or the Bluebird considering a life being lived a failure.

        Maybe seen in its true light, even the greatest loss is really a gain. I am willing to think of it this way and give it time to see if that is what is happening.

      Re-reading this is especially significant after the message I received during Darshan (a blessing from The Mother) during Remembering Wholeness with Barbara Brodsky yesterday.

        I know you are familiar with the experience of shame. I don’t mean an intense horror “OH!” of shame, but just, “Oh, I only got 98 on that. I could have gotten 100. I could have put a little more love into it; I could have paid a little more attention.”

        Sometimes being more perfectionist can be helpful — if someone is lazy or sloppy about things — but when one is already giving so much love, then being perfectionists is a way of negating the gift of the self. What does that mean?

        I think it’s mostly an old habit, but not entirely, so, I’d like you to ask when you move into that sense of subtle smallness, that sense of, “I could have done it better,” to ask, “What do I gain by putting myself down in that way? Why can I not embrace my full radiance and power?”

        And, especially I’m talking about power.

        What if you are as powerful as I know you to be? What then?

        I look forward to seeing what evolves as you start to open up to your power.

        I love you, and I am with you.

      When I read down my bulleted list from 2012, I can see that I live all of those desires. It is time for a new list….

      What might evolve as I open fully to my power?

        • I will welcome each day with expectancy that the power of the Holy Spirit is alive within me.

        • I will give each experience room to reveal the Holy Spirit’s grace and gift that experience offers.

        • I will worry less about dying and care more about living as a radiant expression of Holy Spirit.

        • I will express exuberantly the power of the Holy Spirit for the good of all.

        • I will see a 98 as “Well done, good and faithful servant.”


      A monarch butterfly travels as much as 100 miles a day
      during its 3,000-mile migration south.