Debra Basham

Living and Loving

Tag: spiritual healing

  • Reunion

    It was 1:53 AM when he got up to pee. Faint shadows from the streetlight danced lazily on the wall. It had been almost midnight when she got to sleep, but she forced her eyes to open sufficiently and adjust to the darkness. He expected it, and she predictably said, “It is 2 o’clock. We might as well get up and get on the road.”

    They never think of themselves as leaving their winter paradise. Nor do they think of themselves as going home. They think of themselves as going to see the kids.

    Two days ago a good friend died. He probably didn’t think about himself as leaving or as going home either. I can imagine him thinking of himself as going to see the dogs.

    Traffic was pleasantly light, obviously one of the benefits of their 3 AM departure. More than a few vehicles passed, bicycles obediently following behind. Ontario license plates. Wisconsin license plates. Michigan license plates. A few Florida license plates, but mostly snowbirds driving north.

    A snowbird is a person who moves from the higher latitudes and colder climates of the northern United States and Canada and migrates southward in winter to warmer locales. Snowbirds think they have the best of both worlds…

    While nonsnowbird friends, family members, and colleagues scrape ice from the windshield, shovel snow from the drive, and brace against the cold wind, snowbirds ride bikes, play shuffleboard, watch Eagle chicks grow and fledge, play music, and go out to eat dinner at five o’clock in the afternoon.

    Some snowbirds write poetry.

    From a source of poets and writers poetry prompts “Creative Guidance for Writing Poems and Experimenting with Forms” comes a great exercise:

    If you’re having trouble starting a poem, begin at the end. Take a single collection of poems and make a list of the last two words from each poem. Then write your own poem using only these words. Be vigilant at first utilizing just the vocabulary from the list. After a couple of drafts, stray from the limited words to help bring the poem to its full realization.

    Here are two words from a collection of 9 poems by Mary Oliver:

    could save
    something better
    of things
    a star
    to pray
    your life
    morning light
    the universe
    of dust

    This poem, written on 3/3/2016, is dedicated to Joseph, now reunited with his beloved dog,Tramp.

    Of Dust—Version One

    Your life, of dust; of things?

    Something better?

    To pray…

    Could save the universe; morning light, a star.

    A Star—Version Two

    Longing for something better

    Pray to the universe—celebrate a star—dance in the morning light

    These are some of the things worthy of longing for

    Turning longing into loving could save your life

    From dust we come, and to dust we return. Farewell, Joseph, we celebrate a star! Enjoy your reunion.

  • Edema

    Perhaps you remember having heard the name Dr. Saul Shaye. If not, I certainly hope this post gets your attention.

    I had swollen feet after the drive home from Tennessee for our Thanksgiving visit. I chalked that up to having eaten way too much junk.

    On Sunday (Christmas Day) I had edema. On Friday evening, we had had friends in for bunko and heavy hors d’oeuvers. I indulged in salami wraps and cocktail franks and sausage balls. Christmas Eve we did fondue with the kids. Again, these foods were much more sodium-laden than is normal for me.

    The swelling did not go down overnight, and it increased some as I was on my feet during the day so I still had some puffiness Monday. Tuesday I spent about 12 hours in the car.

    I confess to having a bit more angst about health stuff since my blood pressure crisis this past May. I had another spike in my readings (thankfully not as high as in May) the week after Thanksgiving when I was at the foot doctor for a recheck.

    This is what my feet looked like on Tuesday evening when we stopped for the night:

    That is when Dr. Saul Shaye popped into my mind. I sent him an email message, with the photo of my feet and told him, “I would appreciate a distant healing session at your earliest convenience.”

    My phone rang.

    I have previously written about having been a demonstration subject for Dr. Shaye. (See Spiritual Healing.)

    The following day, we did more driving, and then I was on my feet for hours and hours unpacking. It was a very long day and I was exhausted when I crawled into bed, but the edema was gone!

    If my relief of symptoms was all of the story, it would be amazing, but as I was busy unpacking I received a frantic text message from a friend. Her adult son, living out-of-state, has struggled with alcohol addiction. Earlier this fall he had a severe incident, and although he had said he would come home for Christmas, he did not show up.

    She made some calls and discovered her son had not shown up to work. Because of the earlier incident, the police were dispatched to his apartment. The police confirmed that he was drinking again, but since he said he was not feeling suicidal they could do nothing.

    Her son was not answering his phone. Her husband was driving there, terrified of what he might find when he arrived mid afternoon the following day.

    I suggested she have Dr. Shaye do a surrogate healing for her son. It would help her, and it could not hurt her son. She made contact and received the healing. She wrote, “Dr. Shaye went through me to my son, but I felt a huge shift and then a touch on my sternum.”

    This text message came from her earlier today:

    I just got a voicemail from my son saying he was in the same medical unit he was in earlier this year. He gave me the code so his dad could get in. I also got a call from the Human Resources department where my son works. They sent him leave papers, which means he could still have his job! I now have the number of the friend who took him to the hospital.

    Fortunately we never have to know how things might have played out for my friend’s son without the spiritual healing session with Dr. Shaye, but even the most skeptical personalities can not miss the significance of the timing of his distant healing. And we may never know what caused the edema in my feet to dissipate.

    But don’t just take our word for it. Check out Dr. Shaye’s free ebook, Bigger Little Book of Miracles. Who might need you to have a healing experience yourself and then share it with them? I certainly appreciated having just had that experience when my friend reached out in desperation. And I have great appreciation to Dr. Shaye’s willingness to be such a clear channel.

    The cost? $30.

    The result? Priceless.