By Debra Basham, on July 24, 2026 This morning I was dreaming upon waking: I am in my final childhood home. The basement is flooded. At the bottom of the stairs, it is over ankle deep. I go down and start moving stuff to get the door open so we can get the water out. A man and woman are outside waiting for me to give the word. (Mom and dad?) It is quite dark down here and the water is cold, but I stay focused and am making good progress before I wake up .
After I am up and have written down my dream I look up the dream symbolism: Wet basement in dream meaning: Unprocessed emotions, hidden stress or deep unconscious overwhelm. In dream symbolism, a house represents your inner self, the basement reflects your foundational unconscious or past, and water stands for your feelings. Emotional overload/ feelings or responsibilities you have bottled up that are now seeping into your awareness.
This reminds me of yesterday’s sharing with our eldest grand, Brad, about giving ourselves a pass….
I went to visit a dear, dear, friend today. We spoke candidly about the difficulty that can come when there is need to be a receiver of care. We so prefer to be the one giving.
I shared part of Barbara Brodsky’s blog post from a few days ago.
Three nights ago, at bedtime, my beloved almost 11 year old collie, Banner, (my hearing – dog) suddenly could not stand up. We have a routine of many years; I shut off the tv or close my book, say ”bed time” and we both get up quickly and head to the bedroom. He tried to stand; his 4 paws were sliding to the sides on the hardwood floor, with no traction, and he couldn’t get them under him. He was terrified.
I woke up Hal’s caregiver who lives downstairs and he brought up the old living room rug that we’d stored in the basement for wheelchair/ walker safety, put it down and lifted him on top of it and Banner rested there for 15 minutes while I just patted him and spoke to him. Then I got up and he did too. Just stood up!
Our human minds return to “I can’t” and fear. His mind and body just responded by standing to follow me to the bedroom. The next day, he was happily playing with our granddaughter, with no sign of weakness. Fear and its stories really do block us humans from a deeper reality.
Today I could feel in both my friend and myself the letting down of old habits of wanting to not need help. Then this afternoon, I opened email from my mentor/friend Betty Lue Lieber, in which she had included the message for today from the Daily Word:
Pray for Others
Praying for others is a sacred gift I love to give.
Friday July 24, 2026
When a friend or loved one is going through a challenge, I try to help however I can. When I’ve offered all I can and it seems there is nothing else I can do, I pray.
Prayer is the greatest gift I have to give. Regardless of whether someone knows I am praying, my prayers enfold them in love and care. As I pray, I feel my connection in Spirit to that person. I touch the presence of infinite light, life, love, and peace within them. I have faith these qualities are opening the avenue to unlimited good.
My prayer extends from my circle of loved ones to enfold my larger community and the world. I pray each person knows they deserve a joyous, prosperous, fulfilling life.
I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail.—Luke 22:32
This brings to mind the Biblical story of a man who had been paralysed for 38 years. Jesus simply told him to pick up his mat and walk. May we, may all beings, receive support and love and encouragement so completely we, too, can be freed from suffering.
(Also from Betty Lue’s message:)
“Prayer For A Loved One”
Dear Heart,
I will not worry, fret or be unhappy over you.
I will not be anxious concerning you.
I will not be afraid for you.
I will not give up on you.
I will not blame, criticize or condemn you.
I will remember first, last and always that you are God’s child, that you have His Spirit in you.
I will trust this Spirit to take care of you, to be a light to your path, to provide for your needs.
I will think of you as always being surrounded by God’s loving Presence, enfolded in His protecting care, as kept safe and secure in Him.
I will be patient with you.
I will have confidence in you.
I will stand by you in faith, and bless you in my prayers, knowing that you are growing, knowing that you are finding the help you need, the love you need, the healing you need, the financial freedom you need.
I have only good feelings in my heart about you.
I am willing to let you live your life as you see fit.
Your way may not be my way, but I will trust the Spirit of God in you to show you the way of your highest Good.
God loves you and I love you!
I have confidence in you and I believe in you!!
(author unknown)
By Debra Basham, on July 9, 2026 I bumped into Brian D. Smith’s Grief 2 Growth program years ago and saw his What Is a Grief Doula? What Dina Bell-Laroche Taught Me About Grieving Well today. Dina Bell-Laroche is a Certified Thanatologist, grief doula, keynote speaker, and author of Grief Unleashed.
In 2001, her younger sister, Tracy, passed away from a rare cancer at just 29 years old. Tracy was pregnant with her first child when she was diagnosed. She lived to hold her baby, and passed thirteen months later, just after he turned one.
Brian shared that when he asked Dina to tell him about Tracy right at the top of their conversation, she paused with gratitude and said, “That’s often something that really opens up the grief heart, is when we invite them to speak their person’s name. So often we’ll talk about our daughter that died or our parent or our sister, but we don’t actually use their name because it hurts so much. And yet when we do, it makes it real and profound, and we can be witnessed in that experience.”
Brian responded, “I understand that in my bones. I say Shayna’s name every chance I get. Naming keeps them present.”
Brian says Dina talked about two kinds of time: clock time we all recognize and kairos time. Dina explains, “Our bodies understand a different language than our head does. We understand chronological time, chronos time. And yet we also have kairos time. This is this liminal space that you and I dance in.
“In kairos time, grief collapses distance. A smell, a song, a stranger who walks like your person, and suddenly you’re back in the moment they took their last breath.”
Dina told Brian these are called STUGS, sudden temporary upsurges in grief. The term was coined by thanatologist Therese Rando, and Dina said reading it brought her enormous relief. She thought she was going crazy.
Then she offered something beautiful: “STUGS can also stand for sudden temporary upsurges in grace“.
I had my own STUGS as I realized just how much grief I am processing currently. Oh, some of it is the deaths of dear ones in the recent past. I name my friend (Linda Higbee), my sister (Johnnie Sue), our long-time music friend (Michael), our dear Florida friend in Canada (Eli). Some aspects of the experience are anticipatory loss, often referred to as pre-grieving. This type of grief includes people I have concern for, but is not limited only to this. It also includes the losses of our own aging. Pieces of this grief, I am quite sure, are universal, and perhaps at the moment not personal.
At the time I sat on the porch tearfully expressing what I was feeling today to John after writing just the two opening paragraphs, I had not yet received news about the passing of a friend of Stacey’s in Tennessee that John and I have had the pleasure of getting to know, and a friend of John’s brother Greg, that they have been having a fabulous time shooting pool with on Monday nights.
A couple of powerful truths:
Doctors are trained to see death as the ultimate failure. Their role ends when the body stops. We’re taught to fight the one thing guaranteed to happen to every single one of us.
Pushing grief out of view only sends it underground.
In the Grief Journey Group we started here in Saint Joseph in 2000 we said you do not get over grief, you get through it. We had only two rules in our group: Do not judge your grief journey, and do not judge another’s. We looked a lot at the way different cultures deal with grief. And we acknowledged experiences we have that remind us people do leave their bodies but they do not leave their loved ones.
The uncomfortable feelings are feedback that I have more energy to process than my central nervous system can handle all at once. That is why it is called a grief journey…. These feelings are a result of our love.
In Grief 2 Growth Brian speaks of love that continues and the ways pain can become purpose. Appreciating this beautiful body of work. Thank you, Brian and Dina.
As she says, “Let us allow the loss to lead the way.”
By Debra Basham, on July 2, 2026 Once again, I appreciate not knowing things until after the fact. This time it was watching the 2025 film “Best I Can Do” which stars Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick as a couple in a romantic, character-driven dramedy about aging.
I did not know they are a real life couple. They first met when she was just 12 years old and he was 19; she saw him in an off-Broadway play and briefly spoke to him at a deli, an encounter he initially didn’t remember. They officially connected on the set of “Lemon Sky” in 1987. Following a whirlwind romance, Bacon proposed on Christmas Eve of 1987, and they tied the knot less than a year later. They are one of Hollywood’s most enduring couples.
This film follows a security guard (Bacon) who develops an unlikely connection with a urologist (Sedgwick) and explores themes of life’s challenges and finding new hope. Seems relevant to many of us right now.
I thought the closing scene was brilliant. Admittedly, we were watching it during the visitation in Canada of a dear Florida friend who passed on Monday. Monday, June 28 was also the birthday of my (late) mother-in-law, the birthday of my eldest nephew, and the birth of our god daughter’s first grand baby.
Here is a photo of our friend (on the left) with our daughter when we were together in February, 2025, enjoying a boat ride and having lunch on Captiva.
Early morning texting with her husband included a message that is spoken quite often during this time in our lives. “You are right about how loved she is/was/will continue to be. You won’t stop loving her. We won’t. And she won’t stop loving us. We will miss her physical being with us like crazy…. Don’t say goodbye, say aloha. You don’t have to wait until you are out of your body to be together again. You can learn to be together with her not in a physical body, while you are still in one.”
I will not give anything away about that closing scene because you might want to experience the film for yourself. It was powerful before I learned that the couple is a real-life couple, but the emotions I felt seemed even more significant after I discovered that.
Best I can do is to say this has been quite a week….
By Debra Basham, on June 25, 2026 Last evening as I was crawling in to bed, I checked the Facebook page of my niece. She is an amazingly inspiring woman, and often I am uplifted by the video-to-music posts of the “nature” of her life: cats, dogs, butterflies, moths, and (more recently again) chickens. Last night’s post was not of the same emotional tone:
Things are quiet and sad in the coop tonight, and it’s hard to hold back tears. For the first time ever, we experienced a dog attack on our flock, and 9 of them were killed. One more is showing signs of shock or internal injuries, and I’m not sure she’s going to pull through.
The dog belongs to a young couple who live at the farm across the field. The dog had had been doing fine off-leash on their property, and was far enough away that she couldn’t even see our place. For whatever reason, she wandered farther away this afternoon, and saw our chickens. By the time Brian could get out to catch her, she had killed 9 of them. With 60+ in the flock, and several of each kind in most cases, it’s hard to know which ones I lost. I do know I lost one of my little silkies that I adore. I’m worried that I’ll have a moment of realizing certain favorites are gone.
Even though I don’t ever want the dog to be able to come onto our property again, I still feel really sad for her because of the freedom she’ll lose because of this. And I feel sad for her owners, too. It’s never a good feeling when your dog does something that causes pain for someone else. I told them I didn’t want them to view her differently. She just followed instincts, and had no idea what her actions would cause.
It had already been a difficult few days because of three wild animal deaths I witnessed. I tried to turn my car around to save a young groundhog that was wandering on the road – only to watch another car hit it. I picked up the box turtle that had badly injured by a car, took it to Paw Paw to a vet that works with replies. Found out later its injuries were too severe, and it had to be put to sleep. Then I saw a post about baby raccoons who were displaced when workers cut down a tree. The babies were scared and running back and forth across the road. By the time I got there, two of them had already been killed on the road, and I couldn’t find any other ones.
All of that being said, I’m just really grieving tonight. Loving animals brings some real pain along with all the joy.
All of this comes along with preparations I am navigating for my being blessed to guest pastor at St. John UCC again — this time on the 29th anniversary of my ordination July 12, 1997. The theme of this sharing is “The Way Forward.”
I wrote to my niece right away saying I was awake if she needed to talk. When I did not hear back from her I continued to pray as sleep came.
Awake VERY early, I found the opening paragraph timely in Barbara Brodsky’s blog post: “I’ve been looking at feelings of powerlessness this morning. What is power? Are we ever truly without it? These pictures are not about my garden but about life, about all the things I feel are out of control. When that ‘no control’ feeling comes, it’s the inner contraction and negativity that really stops me, and creates a blockage of energy, much more than any external force.”
I also saw an invitation to a 3-day program by Heart Mind Institute, DAY 1: Effort Doesn’t Calm the Nervous System. Before I left my bed, I listened and then did the Surrogate Tapping exercise by Jessica Ortner of The Tapping Solution.
After a cup of tea, I posted the video my niece posted about her loss on my Facebook page with this message: “Asking for prayers. Knowing she recognizes that great wonderful gifts can come from unthinkable losses. Years ago she lost a beloved horse and her home schooling classroom in a barn fire. Out of those ashes a youth ranch was born. This devastation can also birth breathtaking beauty. Prayers for her and all involved as our human emotions can be sooooooo challenging.”
All of this is totally intimately related to how I came to be ordained a Minister of Reunion and the message I plan to share about the way forward….
By Debra Basham, on June 12, 2026 This post was inspired by my early morning reading of Barbara Brodsky’s most recent blog about the summer she could not swim because of an infection in a toe bone and the risk of amputation. Reading what she wrote of her experience, along with her appreciation to again be basking in her love of swimming, I had memories to share.
I told her of a time when I had briefly overcome fear of deep water (in this lifetime generated by a near-drowning while a pre-teen). I was taking an adult non-swim course at the YWCA in preparation of leading high school youth on a wilderness canoe/camping trip. Buoyed by confidence, I quickly enrolled in the next level class. But that class had a different instructor.
Something about the combination of that teacher’s style and the tasks required for this next level set me back…. by the end of the session my competency had digressed. Fear had set in again. I have not yet regained the joyful jaunting Barbara thoroughly enjoys.
I told Barbara how much I appreciate the way she and John Orr teach the dharma by telling their own experiences. The term “dharma” has no single-word English translation, its exact meaning depends heavily on the context in which it is used. Derived from the Sanskrit root dhr — meaning to hold or to support — dharma is the truth of what is. Dharma represents the truth of an underlying order that sustains the universe.
Last Sunday’s sharing as guest pastor at St. John United Church of Christ in New Buffalo was about “Mindful Morality” — differentiated from morality as a concrete idea. We were not looking at something always being right and another something always being wrong. We touched on an understanding of how the insular cortex processes physical disgust (like tasting rotten food), and also lights up during moments of moral disgust (like witnessing unfairness or cheating).
I told Barbara when John and I were here in our 42-year-old mobile home while tornado warnings were going off last evening, I calmed myself by sweeping the floors. I could not control what was going to happen. I could only do what I could do in the moment. I remembered the story of Jesus calming the storm. I remembered when my colleague/mentor Dr. Mary Jo Bulbrook had a group of indigenous healers from all over the globe at her place in North Caroline with a hurricane coming. They created a healing circle and each did what he or she drew from his or her lineage to “calm the storm” both literally and figuratively. That hurricane dissipated all around them! The group gave great gratitude that they did not even lose electric power.
Before the storms came through last evening, I had filled a bucket of water to be able to flush toilets if we lost power. John can use that to water flowers in a day or so.
“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.” ~ Edward Everett Hale, American author and clergyman
By Debra Basham, on May 29, 2026 A pair of goldfinches are active just outside my window on this early morning. I love early hours and beautiful bird songs that accompany their activity.
I look up the spiritual meaning and am informed by AI:
The goldfinch spiritually symbolizes unbridled joy, positive transformation, and divine grace. Because of its bright yellow plumage and cheerful song, its presence is a reminder to embrace optimism, celebrate life’s simple beauties, and express your true self without constraint.
My attention leaves my window as the birds find some privacy in the lush leaves on the large shrub. I continue to hear their sweet singing as I begin to check Facebook. This message (attribtued to Deep Spring, and posted by a woman I used to attend their retreats with) speaks to my heart:
“Hold in mind what you wish to create. Chaos is always uncomfortable for you. I’m not supporting the disruption of the world, but I’m reminding you that perhaps some of this disruption is a necessary process to move from the old into the new. The most important thing here is first, to watch your fear of letting go of the old, the fear of what will replace it. Will we all die in this process? Will everything be lost, everything we have loved? And then, to remind yourself of your power to co-create. As the old falls away, it is so important that you are able to step in and say, “Now, in this space that has opened, here is what we choose to co-create: a world of mercy, peace, friendship, loving kindness, well-being, joy.” You are being invited into that time, a time of letting go that is so hard for the human, a time of dreaming the big dreams. What would a world look like that is truly at peace? Envisioning a world of peace, of cooperation, of co-creation, of well-being for all beings. What would that look like? You are not the politicians who are going to put together the political structure, but the political structure is an outflow and not a ground. You are the ones who create the ground as you are able to be present with your feelings of fear, your presence with a world out of control, your feelings of anger at some of the authorities who are trying to push this world only for their own individuated use. Stop and note, “I am Shanti Das, a servant of peace, and I can use my energy to support peace in the world, or I can use my energy to further hatred and oppositionality.”
I treasure the reminders we have to see the gifts life is offering. It is grace that holds steady the willingness to see this day as alive with possibilities. Of course there are conditions that challenge us. I certainly see that living here in our 55-and-over community. We have neighbors in wheelchairs who cannot even get out of their house and onto their porch. We have friends and family members who are navigating ongoing situations that call for Herculean strength every day.
I don’t remember where I saw this, but these are wonderful words: Sometimes the things we can’t change end up changing us.
By Debra Basham, on May 6, 2026 My stomach’s rumbling reminded me it was almost dinner when I noticed a woman moving swiftly from door-to-door across the street from our home here in Glenaire. It caught my attention firstly because neither of the two houses are currently occupied. Directly across, friends are navigating health challenges that have prevented them thus far returning from their snow-bird location. And a new-build adjacent is yet to be purchased.
I could see a vehicle parked in front of our house and a man came onto our porch but then quickly dashed away. Opening the door, I saw a handbill had been taped onto the glass. “There is no solicitation in the park,” I called out to him.
“It is not a solicitation, it is a courtesy,” he called back.
There was the logo of a roofing company, announcing they would be putting on a roof two doors down, apologizing for noise, saying it would be done in one day. The phone number of the company was at the bottom. “It looks a lot like solicitation to me,” I said while I went down the steps to return the paper. He muttered something about it looking however, and saying I could refuse the courtesy if I wanted to as he started walking quickly in the opposite direction.
It was not a pleasant interaction so I decided to grab my phone and get the license plate. The woman had crossed the street by this time and she started hustling back my way calling loudly, “Karen!” I asked if she had gotten permission from the management, and when she called me Karen again, I asked why she kept calling me something other than my name. “Look it up, Karen!” she yelled, adding, “Don’t bother calling the manager, I am going there myself.”
An internet search informed me “Karen” is a pejorative slang term used to describe a person—typically a middle-aged white woman—perceived as entitled, demanding, and overly indignant. The term is used to call out behavior that abuses privilege, such as demanding to “speak to the manager,” making racist or discriminatory remarks, or harassing others in public.
Hmmm…. her behavior was certainly not very professional! I did call the park manager, and she had gotten to the office before my call. I clarified that her notifying the office of their “courtesy” only took place after my exchange with them. I asked him if he would have given them permission had they stopped before. He said he would have told them there was no solicitation allowed but he would notify the neighbors himself.
I was shocked how dis-regulated my central nervous system was by the exchange. But the painful and the pleasant can be a dance duo.
This morning, sharing text with my niece about the anniversary of my father’s (her grandfather’s) passing on May 7, 1992, we spoke our gratitude of his having found sobriety before my sisters and I had children. The grandchildren were spared. She wrote, “Mom and I both benefited from Neil T. Anderson’s work. One of the ways he summarized the Biblical principle of forgiveness/unforgiveness is how when we forgive, it lets that person off our hook (no more control or connection) but it doesn’t let them off the Lord’s hook (whatever unrepentant sin they have in their lives, they will be accountable for).” This shows up clearly in the teachings about karma. My dad’s active alcoholism was very unpleasant. His decades of sobriety before his death was very pleasant.
A few days ago welcome warm air waffled into the house through the open windows as flies were also getting in. The pleasant and the unpleasant dance as a duo. After catching and releasing 4 flies (also seeing John kill one with the flyswatter) I looked up the spiritual meaning and read:
The spiritual meaning of a fly combines contrasting themes of relentless persistence and survival with messages of decay, negativity, and spiritual impurity. It symbolizes the need to adapt, overcome obstacles, and examine one’s life for negativity.
As my eyes and heart took the unpleasant and the pleasant in, what was revealed was grace and forgiveness. I recalled a time in my life when financial fears and genuine desire to help hurting people resulted in my seeing clients by circumventing the health insurance system. My actions, like this roofing company’s, were in a while-not-quite-illegal-definitely-not-fully-ethical manner.
That neighbor’s new roof went on yesterday. How am I like this too? Awareness with non-judgment is healing….
By Debra Basham, on April 25, 2026 Grateful, Friday was an extraordinary day of shifts in perspective….
I had been being drawn down a dim alley when our grand-daughter-in-love-to-be had not responded to text or email about their upcoming wedding ceremony. Thursday evening she and I had opportunity for a call that answered a lot of questions. As I rode my bike early the next morning, I was feeling a tremendous amount of love along with relief and gratitude for clearer understanding.
Returning home from my ride, Barbara Brodsky’s email response to my request to share her recent journal post touched me in that soft spot as I read, “Thank you for loving the journal, Debra. Of course you may share it… anywhere…. I’m honored.”
April Journal #7
I sat in my hot tub at dawn looking with wonder at the tiny new maple leaves just emerging, that precious, vibrant pale green of spring; seeing the red buds on the crab apple tree; the lawn sprinkled with dandelions; garden filled with daffodils and tulips; tiny pale green cones emerging on the giant spruce tops, awed by the deep blue sky. Here is the wonder of life emerging into a new spring, a new season.
I’m aware that I’ve been in internal winter, dormant and frozen. It’s time to emerge.
Asking what has led to closure is a necessary step: it’s painful to become aware of body discomfort, anger and sadness, old habitual ways of dealing with physical and emotional pain. This is partially just the mammalian “fight, flight, freeze” reflex. For me one important step is just awareness that I’ve turned to “automatic,” and to remember my intention to be present and awake. I choose not to become a Tesla! I am driving this vehicle! That connects me to intentions: do no harm and I DO harm others by withdrawing. And harm myself. The flowers need the nourishment of rich soil, water and warm sunshine to flourish. Armoring myself, the sun cannot reach me.
Aaron asks me gently, what do I fear? Aging, increasing personal feelings of diminishment and lack of any control in a world gone crazy! Sadness, really grief, that we are destroying ourselves, each other and the earth and I cannot do anything about it. I’m feeling the full weight of my years, running out of time to do anything positive. I see grief is predominant. The anger is an expression of the grief, and grief of the anger.
Aaron: And what helps to resolve the causes for grief?
Barbara: Joy, but how do I get to joy?
A: Joy is inherent in you and will be experienced when the blockage releases.
B: Are you saying I’m holding on to the blockage?
A: Not consciously, with intention, but if you touch each of those places of pain within with gentle love and light, as a parent holds a frightened child, you will feel gradual opening. Then you will see the base for blockage. There must be intention for release to happen, and consciousness of the pain of continued closure.
We leave off conversation here as I begin to meditate. “Breathing in, I touch my heart with love; breathing out, I choose to let go of old pain.”
I see it like October leaves releasing from a tree.… no force, just releasing whatever chooses to go, and again… after a few minutes, mind settles into presence, with body, mind, breath, nothing sticking, opening into more spacious presence.
Barbara closed her post with this precious photo of her youngest granddaughter swinging from the flowering crab apple tree planted from a seedling in 1974.
My emotional load was certainly lighter as I headed to my sister’s to assist with some spring cleaning. We ended up doing her kitchen.
As I began, she was sharing frustration with the messes made by her husband. I had already shared Barbara’s Journal #7 with her, and I had been sharing my insight and relief after the previous night’s call about the wedding. I stopped in the middle of cleaning and said, “It is frustrating to have the same messes over and over, but if you got a call saying he had died your heart would be broken and you would pray to be able to clean up after him again…. We are learning to hold all sides of our emotions.”
We shared some tears and a hug as I whispered, “We live in a world of our own making giving our experiences their meaning.”
As we worked our way around her entire kitchen she shared, “It feels so good in here now.”
We both knew mammalian messes of our own made were also being deep cleaned as she and I worked side by side….
By Debra Basham, on April 16, 2026 Grateful John and I had an uneventful trip North. We sauntered along Georgia’s secondary roads to avoid Atlanta and stayed the night in Alabama before arriving in Smyrna on Thursday, March 26. We had a busy week of fun family time and an easy drive to Michigan on Monday, April 6. No one feels sorry for snowbirds who speak of the work of moving twice per year, and we get that, but it does take more energy every year.
We loved our time on Lazy Lane and the fragrance of friendships forged still linger in our hearts. It is interesting to feel at home in so many places.
There certainly are changes here. The neighbor whose porch light is left on. That person, and others, now “gone.” Another neighbor is now in assisted living. The evidence of impermanence is everywhere.
Everything is presenting as precious and passing….
A couple days ago the Daily Reflection Quote from Deep Spring seemed to have said it all: There are two ways in which one may experience God, the God without and that within. To experience the God without is to experience an expression of God. To experience the God within is to experience God directly. There is nothing in the drop of water that is not of the essence of the sea. There is nothing lacking for it to know the whole essence of the sea. When we enter into that divine-most essence of our being, it is a direct experience of God.
I have stripped the bed and linens are in the dryer. My niece, Jen Marie, is bringing her mom’s cremains today and we will be meeting at the cemetery to determine if that will be their “final resting place.” Of course, we are not our cremains and the neighbors passed are still present in our hearts. What lasts? A very common question with not-so-common realizations.
We are finally caught up with The Voice and as John and I were watching the final nine episode last night many times I had a catch in my throat. I love seeing those with so much passion receive recognition for what they do. And although the judges are competing against other judges and the contestants are competing against other contestants, genuine appreciation, admiration, and awe for all is palpable. That touches my heart.
Last year when we came home from Florida, the haunting song I had heard at jams was “The Whole World” by Vince Gill.
This year I come home with Dale Ann Bradley’s “In the End” resonating. This song was brought to us by our dear music friend, Kevin Mabry, and I previously posted those lyrics here on the Yellow Brick Road.
What matters in the end? The whole world. There is nothing in the drop of water that is not of the essence of the sea.
By Debra Basham, on March 18, 2026 We were blessed to enjoy a visit with our granddaughter, Courtney. She is mom of our great grandson, Jackson, and it is tax season at work for Jackson’s G-ma, Stacey. It took a lot to get Courtney here, and we loved being able to spoil her while she was here.
Our central theme was karaoke! She sang at the American Legion out on Pine Island, then here at Lazy Days in North Fort Myers, and finished her run with her favorite Karaoke DJ, Bobby Mann, at the VFW back out on Pine Island.
She played shuffleboard with her Gampie and puzzled with me. Whether here at the house or out-on-the-town we fed her a few of her favorite things. We enjoyed watching 25 Words or Less, finished the current season of Virgin River on Netflix, and were all thankful she had time to read and nap. She and I often found ourselves in deep conversations about the most mundane subjects.
Her flight home was delayed and delayed, stranding her at the airport from 4 to 9 pm, until she finally got home safely sometime after midnight!
It had been exactly 7 years since she was here for a winter visit with us, and so much has changed. Her previous visit was pre-Covid for our world, pre-Quadruple Bypass Surgery for Gampie, and pre-Jackson for all of us. But life is about change. In fact, it is said that change is the only constant.
It has certainly been an unusual season for John and me: (1) Not co-housing with or being within easy walking distance to Linda and Larry (2) Colder than ever for longer than ever temps (3) Learning curve with a new residence and area (4) Meeting and loving new people where we are.
Gene, one of our new neighbors and friends, underwent open heart surgery while we were here. Jim and Mary, homeowners of our beloved Blue House we shared in Punta Gorda have listed their home with the hope of moving to the northeast coast of Florida. We did not get to see several of our Pine Island friends. Davey and Eli are in Canada navigating her health situation. We are grateful for and already missing our new homeowners, Jimmy and Renee. We have loved our time spent with Florida music friends! And the relationship with Travis and Brenda has been such a shared journey.
We are grateful for all the friends we were able to spend time with! Now, packing has begun in earnest, with some loading already happening. We are leaving things here with the intention of being back in this space next season. With every passing day, this beloved home is feeling and looking less and less like our home and we are now earnest about eating our way out of the freezer and back to other people and spaces we love.
This morning’s “Daily Reflection Quote” from Deep Spring speaks to the truth of the heart with life’s constant comings and goings and shines a light onto what is truth beyond thought and belief. Yes, there is truth that exists even beyond our own perceived experience!
“You’re on a boat,” he said. “The boat is riding too low on the water and there are waves. You’ve got to toss one person out. In the boat are a loved one, a person about whom you feel neutral, a person who is a difficult person, and yourself. You’re the one to decide: which one are you going to cast into the water?”
She thought about it a while and said, “There are no grounds for decision.” He just smiled and bowed and indicated that the interview was over.
“Did I get it right?” she wondered.
But of course, when you get to that place where you understand your interrelationship with all beings, there are no grounds for decision. You cannot cast yourself into the shark-infested sea to save others, nor can you throw others in to save yourself.
~Aaron
John’s brother, Jack, is back in the hospital again with Cindy’s heroic plans in place to get him safely home to Michigan from Florida early next week. Asking for prayers for them and for everyone and everything in the way your heart earnestly prays.
“May all be at peace” is a universal, compassionate wish often associated with the Buddhist Metta Sutta (Loving-Kindness prayer), aiming for all beings to be free from suffering, happy, and safe. It is a mindfulness practice used to cultivate, promote inner peace, and foster well-being across the world, including, and without, exception.
May all be at peace. Here, we are wrapping up winter….
|
|
Subscribe to Blog via Email
Join 43 other subscribers
|
Comments are closed 
You must be logged in to post a comment.