By Debra Basham, on March 19, 2023 Last evening we watched “True Spirit” about Jessica Watson, an Australian teen who sailed around the world in a 30-foot yacht. This morning I went online to research some of the details of the account and, not wanting this to be a spoiler alert, I will simply share this reply to the inquiry of how true-to-life the film was:
There’s some “movie magic,” but True Spirit is “scarily accurate” to what she experienced on her journey, she said. In another Instagram, Jessica posted a video clip from the trailer and explains that “some of @teagancroft’s lines ring so true to me today – it’s a little unnerving in a lovely way.”
Watching was a bit more personal to John and me given Stacey and Doug setting sail on The Lady Gail in October of 2019. The pandemic stopped them in their tracks, and they sold their beloved boat in Florida, bought a truck, and drove back to Tennessee.
Not all journeys go where we expected to go, go the way we planned, nor end the way we dreamed.
On the last side street of my normal morning bike ride yesterday morning I had a wonderful but unexpected bird encounter. The first thing I saw was a fairly large bird flying with an impressive-looking branch/twig. It was obviously building material for a nest. The bird landed in the center of an empty lot. I thought it might be a juvenile Great Blue Heron, but a closer look revealed it to be a Night Heron.
I watched the Heron fly into a nearby tree and excitedly present the prized material to a companion. Rebuffed briskly, the Heron was daunted but not dissuaded. Still holding onto the precious branch, it landed on a lower branch before ever-so-gently trying again to present its gift. Success! This time the branch was inspected, accepted, and the pair began working together to weave it into what appeared from the ground to be quite humble beginnings of a home.
Parking my bike, I stood there quite still for a long time just taking it all in. Although the lighting was not helpful, I was able to get a short video and a couple of still shots of the couple. I had spotted another Night Heron a bit higher and off to the left in the tree. Then I noticed a second pair of Herons slightly below and to the right of the pair I had been observing. (This morning’s internet facts: Night Herons likely mate for life, are thought to be monogamous, and form small colonies where both the male and female work in nest building, taking turns sitting on the eggs, and co-parenting the chicks.)
Very few trees of much size survived Hurricane Ian so this may not have been a normal nesting tree for Night Herons, but they were obviously making the most of what was available to them.
This could all be said about my life. I had not set out to be a teen-aged bride or a mom at 16 — the same age as Jessica Watson. While I did not sail around the world in a 30-foot yacht, we have certainly weathered many storms, and our marriage has proved to be a worthy vessel. Fifty-seven years ago today, March 19, 1966, John Basham and Debbie Smith said “I do.” Here is a happy 57th anniversary haiku:
John, I loved you then
And I would still say I do
I am proud of us
We took what we had
Made the most of all of it
We are still sailing!
Spring always follows
winter which leads to summer
Fall is harvest time
What more may unfold?
Final chapters not yet done
And here we both are
Still crazy after all these years!!!!
This is our true spirit!
By Debra Basham, on March 16, 2023 “The truth is that you already are what you are seeking. You are looking for God with his eyes. This truth is so simple and shocking, so radical and taboo that it is easy to miss among your flurry of seeking.
You may have heard what I am saying in the past and you may even believe it, but my question is, have you realized it with your whole being? Are you living it?” ~ Adyashanti
The emotional experience this winter is challenging terrain. It is so interesting that for a while I have been navigating a lot of stuff with a fairly stable inner essence. At this time, not navigating so much, but experiencing a lot of inner instability.
Words seem to be part of the conditions that give rise to this. Co-housing with three others plays a part of the conditions for sure. But these are not what is really happening.
I was sharing something that had happened earlier in the day with the Deep Spring Group 2 on Tuesday night. John had gone in to take a nap. A while later Linda asked me, “Is John sleeping?” On the surface that seems like an easy question to answer, but a yes did not come to be. My response was more honest than a yes would have (or could have) been.
“Say only he went into the bedroom to take a nap,” I heard the words as they were being spoken. “I have no way of knowing if he is sleeping or not.”
This is so literally true, however it did not feel skillful. I fumbled trying to explain what was happening within my mind that would not let me speak something I knew I did not know. I watched emotion arise: sadness. I have been feeling a lot of sadness of late.
John Orr shed some light on my experience by speaking of the practice of DON’T KNOW MIND. John said just as there is within “the one who knows” there is also within “the one who does not know.” We are encouraged to practice don’t know mind until you are comfortable resting in uncertainty, until you can do your best and laugh and say “Don’t know.”
I can say I don’t know what has my emotions so stirred. I don’t know what will allow those waters to settle.
With certainty I can say it has not been easy living with me these months of co-housing.
With certainty I can say the emotions are not “me” or “mine” but they are mine to navigate.
On Sunday we went to Farmer Joe’s to buy fresh produce. Linda and I had a lengthy conversation about apples prior to our going. My lunch every day is an apple with some cheese. Earlier in the season we got Honey Crisp apples for 99 cents a pound. That day they were priced at one dollar and 99 cents a pound. I told her the price was not much different from the Pink Lady variety we had been buying of late, and, yes, I would appreciate her getting some Honey Crisp apples while they were at the market.
As we pulled into the parking lot, however, John announced that they had Fuji apples on sale, suggesting we buy those. When Linda turned to me and asked did I want her to get those my emotions flared. They got the Fuji apples and I had the first one yesterday. Say only, they are in my experience an inferior apple.
The sadness that rises within speaks many phrases. Why can others in our home be indulged for the things they prefer: John gets yogurt and milk and English muffins. Larry gets his grits and wine. Linda gets her carbonated water. I hear myself thinking, “I ask for so little.”
This could be seen as something happening inside of me or outside of me or both. But what is it really? The one who knows knows it is not about apples. The one who does not know watches the emotions cloud the sky. It has been most interesting to me to notice how much separation I am feeling. Lonely feelings in the midst of my dear ones.
One of my dharma sisters said to me at the end of our Group 2 sharing that I am likely feeling the emotional weight of the collective. We are here in the midst of the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. People still don’t have roofs; have not settled with their insurance companies; are sifting through rubble or do not even have access to rubble. So much familiar and favored has vanished. I have my personal experience of all of this, for sure, but nothing is happening in a vacuum.
Today John and I will drive to Pine Island and clean windows for our dear friend Nancy Green. Nancy has just purchased her half of a duplex near center island; she is now sharing a wall with a long-time friend who also was displaced by the winds and the rains.
We have seventeen days of this season here in Port Charlotte before we will return to our respective homes in Michigan.
Sufficient time for seeing these emotional distortions as real experiences rising out of the conditions but not having any permanent nature; days and nights for shining the light of compassion on it all; an eternity of time for practicing that don’t know mind until we are comfortable resting in uncertainty.
How long will this all take? Say only, “Don’t know.”
By Debra Basham, on February 25, 2023 Opening email this morning and reading Neale Donald Walsch’s words: “… in moments when things look bleak — especially in those moments — see only perfection, express only gratefulness, and then imagine only what manifestation of perfection you choose next.”
Cellular memory of our daughter Stacey’s move to Tennessee shortly after the birth of our first grandchild flooded in while sharing recently with a person who had made a cross-country move soon after her mother’s transition in the Midwest. While she was sure she was where she was to be, she was navigating intense feelings of “missing” her family and the fear of additional loss felt overwhelming.
Speaking about loss, grief, and the necessity of regaining our emotional equilibrium in the midst of a sea of changing conditions was a reminder my current feelings are woven together with the collateral losses resulting from Hurricane Ian.
My deep listening to Adyashanti shed some light on the universal journey with all of this. The talk was called “Self-Realization: I Got It!, I Lost It!” but it was excerpted from “The Timeless Nature of Being” given October 6, 2019, in Palo Alto, California.
Something about it is still with you. Not by grasping at it but just almost like that intuitive sense, “What haven’t I lost?” – just sensing that, making space for it…. ~ Adyashanti
I was at Walgreens waiting at the check-out counter for someone to come help with a rain-check for Ultra Soft Kleenex tissues. A young girl, maybe 10 or 11 years old, was next in line. As my wait time became longer and longer, I told her she was welcome to go ahead of me rather than wait. She said, “Its okay, I have my whole life ahead of me.”
Unable to stop myself, I responded, “I have my whole life ahead of me, too, but I suspect you have more time than I.”
A very wise expression came over her face….
The sea of conditions is ever changing, that is for certain. But notice how much our expectation creates our experience of what is, what was, and what is yet to be. That young girl might have transitioned before I got up this morning. No, the odds are not in that direction, but the life that we experience is not always what the odds might indicate.
We played a crazy-fun game this week while Linda’s sister, Brenda, was visiting. Poetry For Neanderthals is a word-guessing game like Password, but with a couple of quirky twists. First, you can only use one syllable words as clues. Second, if you use a larger word you get bopped in the head with a 2-foot long inflatable club.
For example, if you are trying to get your team to guess the word broccoli, you might say “Green thing you eat for live long and have good health.” The game forces you to explain complex ideas using simple words. I like that. I am good at that. That is why this post is SEA OF LIFE NOT STAY SAME.
One might go on to add SEA OF LIFE CAN STILL BE GOOD.
It takes a bit to be good at it but you can even say SEA OF LIFE CAN BE GREAT.
WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR YOU TO BE GLAD FOR WHAT IS WHILE YOU STILL FEEL SAD FOR WHAT WAS?
I THINK YOU GET THE POINT NOW. RIGHT?
By Debra Basham, on February 17, 2023 Here is a new spiritual practice for you:
don’t take your thoughts too seriously.
~ Stillness Speaks, by Eckhart Tolle
Overall our co-housing continues to go well here in Port Charlotte. I am noticing a subtle communication pattern that feels a bit like argumentativeness or attachment to view. Note: I said a SUBTLE communication pattern.
The content of the communication is irrelevant, other than there has to be something that reveals the pattern. We had fish for dinner. Fresh catch Sheepshead from Lon Maas.
Dinner talk shifted from how good the fish was to a freshwater fish by that same name that Linda had become familiar with fishing Lake Erie. I mentioned my niece having caught a Sheepshead while she was visiting Pine Island about ten years ago and my first understanding that the salt-water Florida fish is Sheepshead (plural sheeps), while the freshwater fish is Sheephead (singular sheep). My niece had said, “I think I found Grandma Smith’s dentures!”
Linda did a quick search and read aloud several tidbits, a couple of which were not at all what I thought I was remembering from the past. That was the end of our conversation. We went on with dinner and then played cards. But…. the following morning when I noticed my mind was still engaged, I did a quick search and opened to read:
Sheepshead fish (Archosargus probatocephalus) are a species of ray-finned, predominantly marine fish commonly found along the eastern coastline of North America and South America. Sheepshead fish live in marine habitats and estuaries in the western Atlantic Ocean, from Nova Scotia in eastern Canada, down the eastern U.S. and Central American coastline, and as far south as southern Brazil. They are known for their front teeth, which can look uncannily like human teeth (opens in new tab). While sheepshead fish usually live in salt water and slightly salty brackish water, they are sometimes found in freshwater habitats in winter.
Sheepshead fish should not be confused with a similarly named species of fish on North America’s western coastline called the California sheephead (Semicossyphus pulcher). While both fish species have teeth, they are not closely related and belong to different families.
Sheepshead fish: Facts about the fish with ‘human’ teeth:
Linda and I did talk about this some, specifically about how the browsers have a hand in shaping what information comes up in our searches. Years ago I was with three friends when we all put in the same key words using the same browser and totally different links came up for each of us. Whoa…
An English professor wrote the words: “A woman without her man is nothing” on the chalkboard and asked the students to punctuate the sentence correctly.
All of the males in the class wrote: “A woman, without her man, is nothing.”
All of the females in the class wrote: “A woman: without her, man is nothing.”
Punctuation is powerful. Words are powerful. Intention is powerful. Silence is powerful.
The content of the next communication catalyst here in sunny Florida was palm oil. I will leave the conclusion to you: By the Way, Doctor, Is Palm Oil Good For You?, but after writing some in my journal about all of this, and talking to a friend who is fluent in all things metaphysical, I would note some of the current astrological influences written by Leah Whitehorse.
February 16, 2023
A strong karmic overtone is in the air. With Mercury’s square to the Nodes, we’re pressed to address a skipped step, a missed conversation or connection that is vital for our evolutionary journey. Independent thought, without rejection of the perspectives of others, is important now. Talk about your past, what you found difficult, what you overcame. Free your mind to move forwards.
Today is the last time that the Sun will meet Saturn in Aquarius for almost 30 years. This then is the jewel in the crown of this transit, the illumination of ancient teachings, the foundation stone of innovative changes. Maybe we now understand the lesson, get a sense of a greater pattern or receive a glimpse of the future, a hint of things to come. Sitting at the feet of the Great Architect we learn that we have an integral part to play in the world. Step into your authority. Shoulder responsibilities with grace. Commit to your soul’s journey. You are capable. You are wise.
On February 14, 2022, Leah wrote about the US Pluto Return:
Pluto is a symbol for profound change, regeneration, cleansing. It is the phoenix born from the ashes, death and rebirth. As ruler of the underworld, Pluto rules all those things that are unseen. The unseen might be treasure – like diamonds and precious metals that form deep in the earth. Or the unseen might be crime, abuse, theft, the sleazy stuff that goes on behind closed doors.
More from Stillness Speaks, by Eckhart Tolle:
Throughout history humans have inflicted countless violent, cruel, and hurtful acts on each other, and continue to do so. Are they all to be condemned; are they all guilty? Or are those acts simply expressions of unconsciousness, an evolutionary stage that we are now growing out of?
Jesus’ words, “Forgive them for they do not know what they do,” also apply to yourself.
Silence is essential to remain loud and clear.
My silence inspires me to find my own voice.
Silence is the environment and atmosphere, the sacred vacuum into which God speaks.
Silent people have the loudest hearts.
In simple terms: Anything we did not totally clean up previously is getting stirred up. Everybody is going to be uneasy. We are going to experience anger. We can’t get out of it. Denial, projection, rationalization – none of the psychological defense mechanisms will protect us from Pluto. Because Pluto won’t let anything be hidden any more!
By Debra Basham, on February 13, 2023 The meeting of two personalities
is like the contact of two chemical substances:
if there is any reaction, both are transformed.
~ Carl Jung
It’s been said that no one comes into our lives by accident. It might also be said that no experience we have is by accident either. The conditions of our lives are simply arising and ceasing out of conditions.
On Friday morning we were driving from Port Charlotte to Naples for a follow up appointment with Dr. Steven Deutsch, the cardiologist that diagnosed John’s cardiovascular disease and referred him to the surgeon who did the quadruple bypass surgery. I had a flashback of the 7-Eleven cashier who came from behind her counter to put her arms around me and pray for us, saying, “Lord, let all of the news this woman gets today be good news.” Accompanying this cellular memory was the guidance for me to bask in the years of “Sacred Stories” that have been published.
Seated in the way-back seat, I asked Linda to send back the small notepad. She said, “I have the addresses if that is what you are after.” I wanted the pad because I felt the need to journal. Pad in hand, I noted a subtle trying to anticipate another person’s needs and wrote: Another habit energy I see, bless, and release.
We picked up Nancy Green and Claudia Mierau and then proceeded to Naples where we met Pat Jordon and all enjoyed a fabulous lunch at True Foods. It was truly a holy Holistic Alliance Reunion!
As we were driving from the restaurant to the doctor’s office, I asked Linda (who was in the front seat navigating for John) if John was going to turn left or right when we got to the address. Linda said to John, “Does she not think I would have told you?”
I said out loud, “Even if he knows where he is going to turn that doesn’t mean that I not also like to know,” and then added, “Am I pissing you off today, Linda?”
She did not respond, but we had opportunity to talk about all of this the following morning and Linda confessed she and John had previously shared some of his energy about my backseat driving. I understand his frustration with that behavior. I also understand how challenging it is to be in the way-back as he is driving — even though I totally trust Linda’s navigating. It is nothing personal — for almost 57 years now I have been the one navigating EVERY time John and I drive somewhere together.
I have been noticing what I would say is Linda’s subtle tendency to try to anticipate some one else’s need. Of course, this habit energy is within me! Oh, my….
I open the Daily Reflection from Deep Spring Center:
Look at that part of you that feels you should be able to do everything for everybody. Can I be spacious with myself with any guilt, with that little voice that says I should be able to do it all? Why? Why should I? ~ Aaron
Nancy asked about another Holistic Alliance friend who has for a number of years lived on a boat at Marathon Key after having lived quite near Claudia in Michigan. I have been able to reach out to Shirley and let her know we had been wondering about her. She is now living in Clearwater and was very glad to know she was being thought about by her Holistic Alliance friends.
We are so fortunate to have one another….
I am so glad Nancy Green was willing and able to go with us on Friday. It was wonderful to have Claudia staying with us for a couple of days. It is always so special to be with Pat Jordan. And the opportunity to have things amplified by our living together for three months is a holy alliance with Linda which I am wholly grateful for.
By Debra Basham, on February 6, 2023 
Some of my clearest insight and inspiration occurs when my mind is occupied with other things, for example, while riding my bike or putting together the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. This morning I was finishing up a puzzle which had been fairly challenging for my skills and processing a powerful scene we watched in the miniseries “From Scratch” that is now showing on Netflix. Many layers of depth expose themselves from a simple plot: an American student studying in Italy, meets and falls in love with a Sicilian chef. I am glad I did not realize it is based on a true story as I was watching last evening….
The scene moved me to a tearful remembrance of an experience with a client years ago, the details of which are included in Falling Together in Love: Stories From My Heart. The story begins on page 53, under the heading “Working with Words: Conversations that Changed Lives.” It involves the birth mother in an open adoption having had second thoughts after holding the baby she had just given birth to.
My role was in helping the adoptive mom to find a way of assuring the birth mother that she could take all the time she needed to be 100% confident that she wanted my client to raise the baby. Those specific words that changed lives resulted in the completion of the adoption.
The part of their story that did not make the book was the birth mother’s also having tearfully said to the adoptive mom, “I wish you could adopt me, too.”
A bit ago I was triggered by some interaction related to planning a Zoom event honoring a friend that recently passed. Our convoluted email exchange was certainly also working with words, but in this case the words were not working, but all conversations change lives.
Doctors tell patients what they have been diagnosed with is going to kill them.
Parents tell children they will never amount to anything.
Earlier today as Linda and I were talking about tonight’s menu, it became clear that everything on the list for tonight are things I normally make for John and me, so I told Linda I could make dinner tonight. Her response was, “Are you sure that is OKAY?”
Walking over to the desk where she was sitting, looking her in the eye, I spoke the truth clearly, “You know me well enough to know that I do not offer to do something I am not in alignment with doing. You know it is OKAY or I would not have offered.”
The exchange results from the beautiful way our co-housing has evolved. Linda and Larry love to meal plan, and they love to cook. John and I love to eat, and I am a bit compulsive with cleaning. Ours is a match made in heaven.
Now, it is going to be interesting to see if I still clean up the dinner dishes. I have already set the table and made the salad. The green beans are in the pan ready for steaming, and I have added baby carrots with tarragon onto the menu. None of this is about the tasks. It is, however, often about the roles. It is about how our genuine being-ness can get hijacked by our doing. Yes, it is the evolved order of things for them to cook and me to clean, but that does not mean if I cook tonight they have to clean tonight.
Evolved mindful living is not about tit-for-tat. It is about giving and receiving. While many of us were taught that it is better to give than to receive, the profound truth is that receiving is as essential as is giving. It is vital to give and receive.
This Daily Quote from Aaron today:
You are used to thinking of dana as a payment that’s made. It’s not payment. This generosity within you is a strong force that inspires you—the heart opening in generosity, holding as the highest value an alleviation of the suffering of all sentient beings. That’s a profound form of generosity. Not putting yourself first, not caught in the small self, but asking of yourself that you look at the challenges that come forth and give that deep breath and thank-you. Be mindful of the habitual tendencies that say, “I can’t give this; I can’t give that. I must keep myself sheltered. Must I? Perhaps I can open this way…” This is generosity. This is love. Then you give this love to the others in your life. You cook food for those in your families, if that is what is asked of you today. You walk the dog. You sit and meditate because it’s a form of generosity to yourself. This is one of the spiritual qualities that truly help carry you and support you.
So, today I will cook food for those in my family.
I will do so knowing that I give that freely, regardless of who cleans up the kitchen!
That is not tit-for-tat….
By Debra Basham, on February 1, 2023 When God Winks: How the Power of Coincidence Guides Your Life is the title of a book but it certainly can also become a way of life.
An amazing response from a dear friend to my Happy Birthday Haiku blog post was an immediate offer to purchase a stove for the family still without one four months after Hurricane Ian ripped away the fabric of everyday life here in Southwest Florida.
Words fall short to describe my heart’s joy at that kindness.
Today when the generous benefactor’s teammate sent a text message related to her handling the purchase and making arrangements for delivery, I was again made aware of the magnificent magic of the fabric of this universe.
This is close to my heart. My family has been vacationing on Sanibel Island for the last 47 years. My mom and I were actually supposed to be on Sanibel in our timeshare condo during the week that Hurricane Ian hit. Unfortunately, as you know, Sanibel was devastated and our condo community was destroyed. I thought many times of coming down and trying to assist an area that is so beloved to me. This is making me very happy that I’m able to help in a small way with getting this family a new oven. ❤️
Claudia, beloved friend and wife of Wayne who transitioned in August, is coming to visit one of her grade-school friends. That friend recently bought a home here in Southwest Florida.
John had a doctor’s appointment in Naples so we scheduled to have lunch with our friend, Pat, who has lived in Naples for many years. We try to get together while we are here for the season. After we made the lunch date with Pat, we got an earlier date for John’s appointment, and then we were bummed to discover Pat could not meet us on that day. The morning of his appointment, however, we were notified the doctor would be at the hospital all day and could not see John. His rescheduled rescheduled appointment now is during Claudia’s visit, so we plan to have lunch with Pat. Incidentally, we all met Pat through Wayne while she was living in Michigan….
Also during Claudia’s visit with us, Wayne’s dear friend Bob, and Bob’s wife, Sarah, will be less than ten minutes from where we are staying, so we are planning a time we can all have dinner together….
It certainly is a small world after all. I guess I am just short on words today. I am exceedingly grateful the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Grateful when God winks.
By Debra Basham, on January 27, 2023 A friend wrote this week asking me, “So tell me your blog experience. How did you get into doing that? How many people follow you? Is it hard to get it up and going technically?”
It took a bit of thinking time to respond, and, still, I had to start with the easiest aspects first. Here is my response to her:
Not very many people follow me. In fact, most of the people who know me well and love me are among those who do not read my blog regularly. I have a few very loyal readers. I have come to the conclusion if it is true that ‘We read to know we are not alone,’ – the character of C.S. Lewis says this line in William Nicholson’s play, Shadowlands, I write to know that we are all one. I would write if no one would ever see what is written. If it means something to someone else, that is just a bonus.
That said, I first set up a blog on Blogspot. It was super easy and you can read over 180 posts from December 24, 2011 to July 26, 2016 made on this platform. https://dbasham.blogspot.com/
Then my blog was set up on Word Press by our webmaster. I “think” there is a way to know who follows you, but I have not paid attention to any of that, especially now that I am in the business of not maintaining a professional business. My grandson is working to dismantle the online persona of Debra Basham of SCS-Matters, the professional partnership I had for 20 years with Joel P. Bowman.
The Word Press blog is called Yellow Brick Road. https://scs-matters.com/YellowBrickRoad/
I do not allow comments. It is a full time job that I am not interested in: cleaning out spam, phishing, and obscene stuff. People who know me and are touched by something I write and share have legitimate ways of reaching out to me.
It may be worth some insight about what you want to give (and/or receive) by creating a blog.
Willing to muse about this more if something is helpful! Love, D
As I was out for a bike ride yesterday I was musing about Aaron’s Daily Quote.
How can a third density human co-create a fourth or fifth density Earth? You can plant seeds. But for it fully to happen you need to come into the fourth density, fifth density aspect of yourself. Imagine you are a fourth or fifth density being. How would that feel? What would it be like? There would be joy and sadness; those are experiences for fourth density also. But there would not be suffering, loneliness or separation. There would not be fear or hatred. What would it be like to be a fourth or fifth density being co-creating a fourth or fifth density Earth by sharing that energy and light that you are? ~ Aaron
That sent me into the Deep Spring archives where I read a bit more about what Aaron calls densities. I think of them as stages of consciousness but not in a linear way, more like the mighty oak tree that is already within the acorn, or the butterfly that is already within the caterpillar.
Simply put, Fourth Density is about learning compassion, and Fifth Density is about deepening wisdom. Think about these as already being within in that same way. Just as a bird needs two wings to fly, to be wholly wholesome compassion and wisdom must be used together. Unwholesome compassion commands us to sell all you have and give it to the poor without the wisdom (spoken by Richard Bandler) that understands clearly the best way to help the poor is to not be poor.
Densities remind me of the chakras. The fourth chakra is the heart chakra. The fifth chakra is the throat chakra. The heart chakra is associated with unconditional love, compassion, and joy. It is the source of deep and profound truths that cannot be expressed in words. The throat chakra is about hearing and being heard, where you find your voice, where we speak our truth without blame or shame. From the Deep Spring archive: Fourth Density is beyond the dictates of the emotional body that would lead you to feel shame or pride.
Awake VERY early this morning I was grateful to sit in the silence feeling the night sky. Now past dawn, the busyness of the day will likely soon push the stillness out of my awareness.
Perhaps that fourth or fifth density earth already is in the same way the butterfly already is within the cocoon and the oak tree already is within the acorn.
As Adyashanti said, “The more okay we are when we are not okay, the more okay we are.”
ALL ready….
By Debra Basham, on January 24, 2023 “You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.” ~ Thomas Merton
Last night after a rousing game of Hand and Foot, John announced that there was a LOT of water under the kitchen sink. Larry and I sprung into action. I got things mopped up and he was able to finger tighten the elbow joints on the drain that had come completely disconnected. We had a leak previously and insisted the homeowner get a repairman to tend to it. This morning I was writing in my journal:
D: What would you have me know about this house?
V: We know you are feeling that the owner has been rather dismissive and you are wondering about whether or not you want to come back here next season.
D: Yes… these things cross my mind.
V: If you did one of Linda’s spread sheets what might you notice?
D: There are some pros and some cons, and a subtle contraction of not having a place or having something EVEN worse. A fear of loss.
V: It is a heavy feeling in your sacral chakra, and a sinking feeling in your gut?
D: Yes.
V: And can you feel it in your friend who is awaiting results on Wednesday of a breast biopsy she had done on Monday?
D: Yes.
V: Can you feel it in your dear friend who is now on hospice care, or in his beloved wife?
D: No. Not any more.
V: That feeling is impermanent. That feeling is a part of a process.
D: Yes.
V: Read some of the poems your friend, Janice, shared with you on your birthday.
OMG… I begin to read from A Hundred Falling Veils: There’s a Poem in Every Day, by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.
from “Getting Out”
January 9, 2023
we are made of—
more energy than matter,
more nothing than something,
more everything than we ever dreamed.
from “Everything is Changed”
January 11, 2023
…everything is possible, sweetheart, everything.
Moments later, I open to these words from Neale Donald Walsch for today and read …its not only possible, it is indeed the truth!
By Debra Basham, on January 22, 2023 “Our inner lives are every bit as astonishing,
baffling, and mysterious
as the infinite vastness of the cosmos.”
~ Adyashanti
Adyashanti’s words speak volumes to me as I am in the pondering process related to culling everything SCS-Matters in preparation for a new DebraBasham.com website. What to keep, what to save. What to repackage or repurpose. What to give away, what to sell; what to forget and what to savor. Timely for my birthday today.
I wake up this morning having turned 73. While some dread aging, I experience each day of aging as grace. It seems having had birth trauma, and medical trauma at age 5, and a near-death experience at age 12 prepared me for LIFE.
Again today a mocking bird was sitting on the fence directly outside of the kitchen window of the house we are sharing with Linda and Larry this winter. The title of To Kill a Mockingbird has very little literal connection to the plot, but it carries a great deal of symbolic weight in the book. In this story of innocents destroyed by evil, the “mockingbird” comes to represent the idea of innocence. Some of the key characteristics and attributes of Mockingbird Animal Spirit include inventiveness, keen-mindedness, happiness, playfulness, protection, thankfulness, security, and, most of all, communication.
For sure, the Imagine Healing process is something I want to have available to the world. It is such gift to see in every surgery or injury or experience myriad opportunities. Why just go through whatever it is on the surface level. Let that bruise be an evidence procedure of healing of memories, beliefs, behaviors, or attitudes that lessen the amazement of living. Every moment of every day we are meeting life on infinite levels and awareness provides a HUGE happening from the most mundane. I don’t even just brush my teeth!!!
When Joel Bowman and I were actively training folks in the Imagine Healing process we always did mock surgery as a role-play and students experienced an ectomy (removal of something they and others in the world would be better off without) and implant (something beneficial they and others in the world had not been able to have previously). Imagine a fear ectomy and a joy implant….
January 22 is a birthday I share with my friend Wayne Kaiser. This is the first year since we have been friends that I am in body and Wayne is in spirit. I do not think of Wayne as dead. In fact, I cannot comprehend death as different from birth, and this week I listened to an amazing account of Rabbi Stephen Robbins (who has had 8 near-death-experiences!!!) and, as my birthday ritual, will share some of his beautiful comments about life.
“Every soul is formed to do one of three things. One is to take something out of the world which no longer belongs — either a treatment or a system of genetics which don’t belong in the world anymore or a spiritual quality that can be stopped. The other is to bring something new into the world of knowledge or experience — an insight that has not been there before. And the third is to synergize both of them so that what comes in is the sense of what it means to live a life for service and for purpose rather than for our own gain.”
“So that in our leaving this world and realizing there is no death, we change the genetic out-pour that will stop the repetition of the destructiveness like drug addiction, child abuse, violent acquisition — and at the same time will add a sense of insight and understanding which will lead beyond living with a sense of the limitation in this life.” (Rabbi Stephen Robbins 8 Near Death Experiences)
If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Yesterday Linda and I spent our day busy in the kitchen. She roasted a turkey and we have made a dinner for friends out on Pine Island that are living in (while doing rehab) after Hurricane Ian filled their manufactured home with four feet of floodwater. Four months later they do not yet have a stove. Mind you, theirs is a three-generational family including their adult daughter and their 4-year old grandson. Today we will deliver turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots, two-corn casserole, and brownies. These can be warmed in the microwave oven they do have. I told Linda that this is my best birthday dinner ever.
After the delivery, we will attend a matinee of “The Sound of Music” at the Cultural Park Theater in Cape Coral, before meeting Nancy Green for dinner at Miceli’s in Matlacha. In 2013 John and I went there for my birthday dinner and discovered they give you a free entree plus desert ON YOUR BIRTHDAY. We have gone back every year since. It is bittersweet to go this year after soooo much of what was familiar and special about our beloved Florida community was damaged, devastated, or destroyed.
Even in the midst of loss there is gift….
A Happy Birthday Haiku
I am young no more
Neither am I old
I am timeless like the wind
I do change a lot
No longer the same
I’m here and there however
Here and there am I
Not one single place
Ever moving, always free
Happy Birthday, Wayne Kaiser. Happy Birthday, Debra Basham.
And many happy returns.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart. – Ecclesiastes 3:11
Don’t Go Back to Sleep
by Rumi
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth
across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.
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