Debra Basham

Living and Loving

Tag: spirituality

  • An Experience of Grace

    Wowser, it has been a wonder-filled day. Six women were present for deep sharing following the 6:30 a.m. meditation. Three of those women I have known previously, two are new friends.

    Right afterwards I scored a Royal Flush and earned a whopping 5,000 points on the poker machine in our guest bath. In the decades we have had that game, neither John nor I have even come close to that score! I think the highest previous score was 500 points. The Royal Flush can be formed 4 ways (one for each suit), giving it odds of 649,739 to 1. This morning I had the ace, king, queen, jack, and ten of clubs!

    A bit later, my friend, Mary Anne, and I sat on the porch drinking tea. We had hoped to go for a bike ride, but now the predicted rain began to fall in earnest. She shared how sad she was feeling after the recent passing of her 34 year-old niece following five years of cancer treatment.

    We talked about how important it is to be open to communication, and just as she was sharing having talked to her niece’s fiance about that a rainbow appeared!

    We watched the rainbow hide and emerge, and hide and emerge, along with a faint double above. We both knew clearly that nature was showing us the nature of life and life after life in just the ways our hearts and words were speaking it to one another. It was an exquisite sharing.

    My nephew has had quite a journey — I have spoken of him before. After being incarcerated for many years and then working his way to release from parole, he has had a roller coaster as an over-the-road truck driver. Today he started a local job hauling concrete, but tonight he learned that he will not have access to transportation, extremely inconvenient given that the camper he has just moved onto the work lot has no electricity or water. Feeling grateful for the work but not at all sure how he can navigate life like this, he returned to the camper to find a co-worker / long-time-friend had left him a generator, a microwave, and a bag of food!


    He called a little bit ago because he had not yet been able to get the generator started. John and I went and picked up his food because he has no way to keep it cold, and does not want it to go to waste.

    As we were driving there, it came to mind how YEARS ago several of us helped the son of one of the women in our community get to work and back after he lost his license due to a DUI. He was a single dad with a young son of his own. I took him to work each Wednesday morning on my way to Kalamazoo and picked him up each Wednesday evening on my way home. Others drove one way or another. Each doing a part.

    Today I am wearing my Bee Kind t-shirt, and this evening I am reading words from Gary Zukav: “The Universe gave you an experience of grace. It provided exactly what you needed to transform an experience of a frightened part of your personality (fear and doubt) into an experience of a loving part of your personality (love and trust).”

  • Clock Chimes After 20 Years of Not Working

    The night of her dad’s visitation, they came home from the funeral home to several beautiful flowers on the steps. As they were carrying them in, they both heard the clock on the porch chime about twelve times. They went out (somewhat in shock) to see why this clock chimed after 20 years of not working.

    The pendulum wasn’t moving, but the clock chimed.

    They knew neither of them had bumped it.

    They also knew this broken clock’s chiming was a message from him!

  • Rock 107.1

    Her radio was tuned to Rock 107.1 when it started playing a Christian hymn. It can sometimes get static once in a while, but this was a clear song.

    It had never happened before, or again.

    That day, her dad had just passed.

    Often, our loved ones in spirit orchestrate events for us to hear music outside of ourselves that remind us of them. As mentioned, there are no coincidences. They work hard to send signs not only through music, but also signs you see, feel, hear, taste, and smell. These signs are their way of letting you know they are around, sending you love and comfort.

    ~ Messages in Music from Loved Ones in Spirit

  • The Same Blue Supermoon Shines in Every Back Yard

    The moon again provides a backdrop for the Yellow Brick Road (see my previous post, Waning Gibbous Moon).

    A friend lives in Colorado where the skies are almost always clear. Each month he takes a photo of the full moon and sends it to me. (If you are not able to see the photo below, please click on the title of this post to read it on the website.)

    That ritual of friendship is housed in a story about a family who left the United Methodist church (which had an aging congregation with no Sunday school program for their young children) and joined the Congregational church where all the young families attended. A bit concerned about any theological differences that might be spiritually dangerous to their souls, they asked their Methodist minister what he thought. His reply was, “The same moon shines in every back yard.”

    Whether full, waning gibbous, blue, super, or dark — we sleep under the same moon.

    A lot is happening to cause this particular blue supermoon to occur. The red wavelengths do not reach the earth, so the blue ones make the moon appear blue. It is the second full moon in the month of August, a supermoon, and this year’s closest to the earth (100 miles closer than the August the August 1, 2023 supermoon).

    And this particular moon is visible everywhere on the planet….

    One post I read mentioned that it also falls on the Hindu festival of Raksha Bandhan, which celebrates the bonds between brothers and sisters.

    Another mentioned this as a time of heightened emotion and intuition. It’s rarity suggests an opportunity to connect with our innermost dreams and visions.

    Katherine May writes, “It’s as if the universe is inviting us to lean in, embrace our aspirations, and make heartfelt decisions about our relationships. Our sense of enchantment is not triggered only by grand things; the sublime is not hiding in distant landscapes. The awe-inspiring, the numinous, is all around us, all the time. It is transformed by our deliberate attention.”

    And under this moon magical things are in the making in my family. I have shared the success my nephew has had getting his life together following years of incarceration. I published an “Insights” clergy article about how difficult it is when someone gets out of prison with no car, no job, no home, no money. He did not even have a drivers’ license, and his profession is driving truck!

    It has not all been song and dance. But he was able to satisfy the conditions of and get off parole. Nothing short of a miracle, but he has made it. He says he could not have done it without some of his family.

    Just last week he was really down. He was without a job again, and therefore without a vehicle, money, or home. I reminded him how much better off he is now than then, and how Abraham Hicks says if your life is not working for you there is only one non-cooperative part: YOU.

    One website broke the influence of the blue supermoon down by Zodiac signs. The specific meaning for those whose birthday falls between November 22 and December 21, Sagittarians: brace for a home and family shift. Delve into emotional ties within your kinship. It’s ideal for a home refresh – renovate, cleanse, and invigorate your space. My nephew’s birthday is December 3….

    And this week, under this August 2023 blue supermoon, healing is happening. His sister and her husband are helping him renovate a camper trailer so he and his dog will have a stable base rather than ending up homeless every time he would change jobs. They are feeding him and providing him with a vehicle. He will be starting a new job, with a company he worked for previously (when he was not as stable as he is now). They see value in him and are giving his a job again.

    Soooooo much to be grateful for.

    In the Christian New Testament, Matthew 12:48-50, Jesus replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

    May all brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers and neighbors and friends even enemies do the will of the Father (and Mother) in heaven and love one another. It is happening in this blue supermoon.

  • Gold Accent Wall

    It was traumatic having been let go from the prestigious salon she had worked at for 13 years. All because she asked to have two weeks before coming back after the shut-down due to Covid.

    She and her husband prayed for guidance. She began doing skin care in clients’ homes, but it was soon obvious she needed a place to open a small salon. She saw an available space conveniently located next to her daughter’s school, but it was only 300 square feet. Too small…. Nothing else was available in the building, but she left her name with the landlord.

    That night she dreamed of the perfect space, including vivid detail right down to the furnishings. The following morning she made a sketch. The accent color was gold, her favorite color.

    Two weeks later she received a call about a larger space which had opened up in that building. It was perfect. In fact, it looked just like her drawing with a nice waiting room and a service room. She knew this was the space for her spa.*

    The back wall was already painted an accent color: gold!

    *You can read “Blessings in Abundance, by Tam Jones” of Fort Worth, Texas, in Guideposts Aug/Sept 2023. Check out Tam’s website at www.SKINBYTAMNICOLE.com and like Tam Nicole Esthetics Studio on Facebook, follow tam_nicole_Esthetics_studio on Instagram, phone or text at (817) 404-8641.

  • Waning Gibbous Moon

    I was restless at bedtime last night. It had been a pleasant day but late in the evening I got a text from a friend who had ended up at the ER over the weekend, John’s bedtime blood pressure reading was a bit elevated, and I read an email from a person who is asking something of me (again) that I am not comfortable with.

    The next email I read was from another friend. I did not respond to her before going to bed, but as I spent time answering her this morning it felt like a journal entry so I am sharing it here.

      What are some of the catalysts for you? I hope you are managing okay?

    D: The catalysts are feelings of being unsure, not trusting, afraid I will make a mistake that will bring about pain or loss. John has a primary physician; an endocrinologist for his thyroid condition; a neurologist because he had a TIA; two cardiologists because he had the quadruple bypass surgery (one in Michigan and one in Florida).

    They all have opinions about the medications and they make changes and he develops a side effect from the medication so they give him another medication to counteract that side effect. We end up constantly at the doctor’s office and living with our finger on his pulse instead of enjoying the quality of life we do have.

    The catalysts are always things we recognize from our practice: hindrances, worldly dharmas…. and we all have habit energies around grasping and aversion — things we want or don’t want.

      I have catalysts too 🙂 An ongoing deep sense of wanting to belong with a group I resonate with.

    D: Are you familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? From the bottom of the hierarchy upwards, the needs are physiological (food and clothing), safety (job security as well as physical or emotional safety), love and belonging needs (friendship or group affiliation), esteem, and self-actualization The idea is that the upper needs cannot be satisfied until the lower needs are. The sense of not belonging to a group blocks confidence and self-acceptance. It is an interesting way of seeing. Others are coming forth with more contemporary ways of looking at these with greater dimension, but they seem to follow this essential pattern.

    May you be happy; may you know love, may you know perfection and peace. That is the great prayer, isn’t it….

      There is also some fear, which I recognize is my lack of confidence and faith in the practice.

    I appreciate how some of the teachers of the direct path speak about it. Mooji and Adyashanti, for example. Seeking will keep us seeking.

    Perhaps because I am much older now I am more OKAY with what is. Even these current catalysts are gifts. I have watched John lose consciousness now twice, and both times in a doctor’s office!

    I had a dream MANY years ago. John had been hit in the head by a part of a boat, like a boom, while he was working at the dock. His head was bleeding profusely and I knew he was dying. I was sitting on the sand in shallow water holding him in my arms totally knowing he was dying and yet we were just present with one another in such deep love and devotion and gratitude for our lives together. It was beautiful.

    This summer I had the honor of watching a friend be held by his wife as he died in much that same way. Claudia held Wayne that way as he was dying.

    We are capable of living life and facing death with confidence that whatever happens it is OKAY.

    And in the moments when we are not feeling that it is OKAY we can let go of the grasping and allow our true essence to return. And it does. The moon is not always full in my sight but it is never larger nor smaller than it is…. And you and I are not always visibly awake in our thoughts and feelings and sensations (aggregates) but we are never more nor less awake.

      Have a good night 🙂

    I was a bit restless, but morning came and the windows are open and the air is fresh and my coffee is hot.

    Last night as John and I walked home after playing cards with Linda and Larry a beautiful waning gibbous moon hung low in the sky.

    “A waning gibbous moon phase is a time to look inwards and re-evaluate your goals. It’s a time to feel grateful for what has been this month and re-adjust your intentions moving forward.”


    I am grateful for you in the world, Dear Friend.

  • Consecrate This

    Compassion becomes real
    when we recognize
    our shared humanity.

    ~ Pema Chödrön

    Posted on Facebook by a Reunion Living Ministry colleague:

    “To bless whatever there is, and for no other reason but simply because it is, that is what we are made for as human beings.”

    ~ David Steindal-Rast

    I bless the heat and the fact that I can experience it. What do you bless today?

    I commented on her post: I bless a clean toilet tank and bowl.

    Yesterday afternoon some workers broke a water riser three houses from us.The park notified all residents that we would be without water for a few hours. Shortly after the water was back on VERY rusty water came pouring in! If you do not see the photos, you can click on the title of this post to read it on the website.

    The water in the toilet bowl began to clear some after MANY flushings, but the inside of the toilet tanks were very stained this morning:

    To see that coming out of our water lines was pretty shocking. The young man who manages our park day-to-day assured us it was rust from the loss of and then re-establishment of the water pressure in the lines. He even came over late last evening. We sent him home with our appreciation and some of John’s garden bounty: Sugar Rush cherry tomatoes.

    Today my thoughts and prayers are with those who lost loved ones and have been devastated by the fires on Maui. John and I had one of our best ever breakfast-out experiences in the historic town of Lahaina when we stayed on Maui and we fully understand things are not over just because it stops making the news. Friends and neighbors in Florida are still navigating the devastation of Hurricane Ian, now almost eleven months ago.

    A friend just brought her elderly father home following a hip-replacement. Thankfully they are receiving support from hospice, but even with that support there is a lot to navigate.

    Another friend leaves her home here in Michigan and goes to Wisconsin for weeks at a time in support of her 100-years-plus father’s staying in his own home.

    Many of you are aware of Barbara Brodsky’s caring for her husband, Hal, in their home in spite of his being paralyzed on one side and having aphasia post-stroke. Plus Barbara is deaf, and she just spent months non-weight bearing due to infection in the bone on her toe. She is recovering well and grateful to be able to shower and now to swim!

    People navigate many challenges every day, day-to-day.

    Readers know about our precious Jackson. He has been seizure free since the first week of November, however, he is not yet talking and things like potty training that would be expected about this age (he will be three in December) is out of the question at this time. They will be evaluating him related to his possibly being on the autism spectrum, and we hope for benefit of more early intervention services and therapy. This is not the parenting experience our granddaughter dreamed of.

    When something happens many prayers and thoughts come flooding forth, but, then life goes on and we may not always remember that life goes on….

      Daily Reflection from Deep Spring

      There are places in this universe where there is terrible pain, darkness, misunderstanding, which lead to hatred, greed, and fear. What you do on this simple planet Earth as you raise the vibration here has the ability to move the expression of Divinity, Buddha Nature, Christ Consciousness—whatever you want to call it—out into the universe. It raises its vibration. It makes it more powerful. This is the core of the work you’re doing. It is not just for you, to wake up or to live your life more comfortably. I’m delighted to see you living your lives more comfortably, but that’s not the end result. And if that were the end result in your mind, can you see how it would limit you? But when you immediately consecrate this goodness, this opening heart, this clarity, “I consecrate this. I offer it to all beings everywhere, in all the universes, that all beings truly may have an end to suffering,” that heightens it for yourself and it makes it available everywhere. No insight, no movement of the open heart is ever lost.

    The opening words from Pema Chödrön say it all: our humanity is shared. Recognizing this makes compassion real.

    Whatever we go through, we consecrate this….

    Amen.

  • Our Real Power

    We cannot forget that our real power is not necessarily to change the world, but to make a world of change to the people we encounter every day. ~ Cory Booker

    Last Thursday morning while I was out on a bike ride I got a call from a friend here in the park, “I have some bad news.” I knew what she was going to say. “I just tested positive for Covid.”

    We had been together for a couple of hours the prior evening at the Glenairs Jam. Linda and Larry were not there but when I told her the news she sent me the current Covid exposure guidelines from the CDC.

      After being exposed to COVID-19 START PRECAUTIONS IMMEDIATELY. Wear a mask as soon as you find out you were exposed.

      Start counting from day 1. Day 0 is the day of your last exposure to someone with COVID-19, and day 1 is the first full day after your last exposure.

      CONTINUE PRECAUTIONS 10 full day because you can still develop COVID-19 up to 10 days after you have been exposed.

      Wear a high-quality mask or respirator (e.g., N95) any time you are around others inside your home or indoors in public.

    John cancelled his pool match with Charlie on Thursday and his practice music session with John Smith on Saturday, and he stayed home from coffee. I wore a mask when Linda Allen and Princess and I went for a bike ride, and during any errands I ran. We canceled our Saturday plans for the taco-bar-birthday celebration with my sister, Janis, and our brother-in-love, Larry, the birthday boy.

    This morning I was catching up on emails and read about how rather than developing skills for drawing on our inner resources, many of us developed skills for looking outward and reacting to whatever confronted us. Earlier in the week I got twisted up with our friend who hosts the jam sessions. He and his wife obviously were not isolating. Admittedly, they were on the other side of the room the evening of our exposure, but he said he believed they were exposed so their choice for navigating is deeper than where in the room they were on Wednesday.

    I am surprised that I am quite the stickler about following the guidelines because I am generally more of a rule-breaker than a rule-follower. (Common Metaprograms from the personality preferences in SCS/NLP.) Of course, you cannot do one without simultaneously doing the other. They reside in pairs – opposite ends of a continuum, just like heads and tails on a coin.

    I am not paranoid about Covid any more. I was. But I do not want to get ill or to be sick, and even more than that, I don’t want to knowingly expose someone else. For me, it is an easy choice to experience the frustration of missing something I was looking forward to.

    After I got twisted up with our friend, I later got twisted up with our daughter, Stacey, about having gotten twisted up with our friend. Both of them used the exact same words that sent me over the edge: “It is just like flu.” Well, that is not how I see it….

    So, I read a book.

    I did a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. The title of this one was “Fun Fair Foods” and I made hamburgers for our dinner that night. LOL.

    I painted the deck box that sits on the front porch the same powder blue of our barn.

    Yesterday’s project was beautiful, bright new paint and hardware on the vanity in the guest bathroom.



    The book I read was Beaches, by Iris Rainer Dart. It is about two women who met as children on a beach during a summer vacation and how they first became pen pals, then life-long friends. As the stable one in the relationship was dying of cancer (SPOILER ALERT), the drama-queen stepped up to support her friend but over-stepped by bringing the woman’s young daughter there to be with her mom against the mom’s wishes.

    Needless to say, that did not go over well, with the friend saying essentially,”You had no right. I hate you. Get out of my house, I never want to see you again as long as I live.”

    The flamboyant-bordering-on-hystrionic friend’s calm response brought me a laugh mingled with a couple of tears: “I am glad you are the crazy one for a change.”

    Grateful to report that we have both tested negative for Covid, have no symptoms, and we are approaching the ten-day mark.

    Sometimes it is better to step over an obstacle than to try to go around a difficult situation. That may be our real power….

  • Empath

    She was catching up with Facebook while listening to the story of Heidi Craig who explains how she had a near-death experience while giving birth to her third child. Heidi said the messages she received helped her practice faith and forgiveness.

    At the exact moment Heidi was speaking about having suffered so much and gotten relief when she found a group for people called ’empaths’ a post from the Empath Sanctuary popped up. Here is the information in that post. Perhaps you or someone you know will benefit. Synchronicity is God’s way of remaining anonymous….

    (The image on the post shows the empath burnout cycle.)

    FEELING GOOD
    Start to recuperate
    Energy feels better
    Ready to get back into the world

    TAKE ON ALL THE THINGS.
    Not recognizing limits
    Over-commit
    Do too much

    BURN OUT
    You’re exhausted
    Can’t do anything
    Wonder what happened

    WITHDRAW & HIDE
    Have no energy for anyone or anything
    Don’t want to ‘people’
    But also feel lonely
    Feel stuck with no motivation

  • 25th Wedding Anniversary

    She had been thinking about her husband and missing him. He passed last year at this time.

    While out for her walk she looked down and saw a quarter.

    She picked it up.

    This year marked their 25th wedding anniversary.

    The quarter is now on her altar.

    Note* Looking through some stock photos for this post I found one. When I noticed the year I grabbed a pen and paper to check what year they were married… 1998. The year of this stock image!