Debra Basham

Living and Loving

Tag: Zan Henigan Lombardo

  • It’s ALL Better En Masse

    Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

    So here we are it’s Christmas,
    The most wonderful time of year,
    When our minds turn to our loved ones,
    And those we hold most dear,
    May the memories and traditions,
    That have always played a part,
    Make this season special,
    Bringing joy into your heart.

    I had intended to post this on Facebook, in fact, I thought I had, but we were navigating lengthy internet outages on Sunday and Monday morning. I just now found the unpublished post, so it will launch today’s Merry Christmas and Happy New Year message.

    Yesterday a precious Jewish friend sent an email wishing me a Merry Christmas. When I asked Google to search, “What is Christmas to non-Christians?” this was the response: For many, it’s an opportunity to connect with family and friends, enjoy festive traditions, and embrace the warm atmosphere of the season. The appeal of decorations, music, and shared meals transcends religious boundaries, making Christmas a celebration of human connection.

    The days leading up to Christmas this year are filled with more raw emotion than any I recall. On Sunday Jane Foster surprised me with a telephone call after her major complications following a 12-hour ileostomy surgery in late September. She has been hospitalized for weeks now. When she was not able to talk on the phone we figured out I could send brief text messages recorded with Voice Memos.

    Our beloved Florida friends are still in Canada as they continue to navigate her having been diagnosed in June with glioblastoma, one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer.

    Yesterday, Stacey’s dear friends made one of life’s toughest decisions and removed life-support for their wife and mother following a severe stroke this past weekend. She passed 8 hours later.

    Also, yesterday, John’s cousin posted on Facebook that his beloved wife passed the previous evening.

    Tonight, on Christmas Eve 2025, John and I have tickets to attend the 7:45 pm showing of the film Wicked For Good. When I selected our seats online late last evening, we were the only seats purchased for this time and date. My only other “private” showing at a cinema was for Lion King in 1994. It is bittersweet because last year we were with our grand children when we saw Wicked in Smyrna, Tennessee, and then met the rest of the family (including our great-grandson Jackson) for Mexican food afterwards.

    Zan Henigan Lombardo is a beloved artist friend here on Pine Island I have mentioned many times over the years because she paints amazingly significant ginormous (30-foot!) water color paintings. She hosted a Flash Mob Art event for her current project “Swimming Towards the Light” this past Saturday. I would have loved to attend but we were going to the magical musical launch for Bonnie Makepeace with Rochelle Morris that day. This morning I saw a video of Zan’s group and this is what I replied: This looks like a visual-version of a group meditation or a concert by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir — the good stuff is all better en masse!

    As all are wished a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, my heart holds the pleasant and the unpleasant life events happening simultaneously. Perhaps the simplest truth may be the same for everyone: It’s ALL better en masse….

  • SOAR

    When the loving heart simply asks, “How do we best find forgiveness in this situation?” and you take it into meditation and you ask for help, the help that comes is not spirit help versus your help; it’s simply love, one voice of love coming through whatever source it can come through. Let go of “Who is it coming from?” It’s just the voice of love. You can tell when you are tuned into that voice of love because there’s not a lot of contraction and grasping. The body energy is open, connected. ~ Aaron

    This morning begins the fall retreat with Barbara Brodsky, John Orr, and Aaron. I will be physically at home, serving as Zoom host, but my heart is also with each of you.

    This morning as I readied my space, I noticed some words on a promo piece for Zan Lombardo’s Forge & Scroll exhibit:

    It is time to give up deeply….He could do no more. Transformation appears as the death, at its right time.

    As I wrote the words into my journal, along with the comment, “I’m not sure from where the words came,” I also hear: “The words came from the ONE.”

    I played with the letters in one.

    O – N – E

    Only now energy.

    I had selected some special healing stones to place on my side table. I put the spirit (or love) rock that says FORGIVE YOURSELF on my computer.

    Then I wrote in my journal my often-expressed desire of spirit: What would you have me know?

    The voice answered:

    “No one is going on retreat. The ONE is present. You will have a split second of grief as you let go before you soar.”

    S – O – A – R

    See once and release.

    The retreat ends late Sunday afternoon. The Buddhist practice of dedicating merit is that we practice not only for ourselves, but for the benefit of all the people in our lives and in the world as well.

    May all beings come to the end of suffering.

    May all see once and release.

    May all know peace.

    Namaste’

  • Cultural Peace

    Time is at once a limited commodity and an illusion. We an spend time, waste time, deny time, and transcend time.

    At a workshop with Zan Henigan Lombardo, the focus was on how she let chaos in her life create something beautiful. Her work of art is an impressive 30-foot watercolor painting with an equally impressive 30-foot poem along the bottom, created by an even more impressive artist/poet/teacher over many years.

    As is the case in most group settings right now, the most recent school shooting came up. People from all walks of life are asking why, and some are asking what can be done. This morning I read again Glen Snyder’s article (Lion’s Roar is from the Buddhist perspective) which invites some possible answers to the question how. The article is titled Why We Go for the Gun. Greg Snyder is a Zen Buddhist priest and President of Brooklyn Zen Center. You may want to take time to read his article for yourself. Here is a brief excerpt:

    This is not to say we should not work for legislative change, organize to reduce homicides and suicides in our communities, stand up to systemic violence and law enforcement abuses, critically engage our own consumption of violence as entertainment, and actively address our nation’s child-soldier problem (that is, gangs). But these efforts alone will not change the soil in which this violence grows. We must illuminate this culture of domination, grieve our shared karma, and introduce the sacredness of spirit and all life back into our nation.

    Glen’s article touched a sensitive spot for me. As my husband is in the living room watching TV in the evenings, I am often in the other room working on a jigsaw puzzle. Hearing the soundtrack only of what he is watching, the movies he watches all sound the same. I hear two hours of gun shots, guttural grunting and desperate breathing, along with the repetitive use of the four-letter-nasty. I told him I don’t think they even make individual sound tracks….

    Reading Glen’s article, the thing that was most salient for me is how what I think, say, and do contributes to our collective experience. This morning I appreciated today’s thought from the Brahma Kumaris:

    The ability to enjoy one’s own company is one of the greatest gifts life has to offer. Learning to turn my thoughts away from all my responsibilities at the day’s end and take my mind into a state of peace and benevolence enables me to carry greater and greater loads without feeling the burden. When my inner landscape is full of beautiful thoughts, everything I do is a pleasure. Gently, I calm down chaotic situations and offer solace to troubled minds.

    Perhaps enjoying one’s own company and cultivating the sweet sound of silence is the how of inner and cultural peace….