Yellow Brick Road: Your Path to Heart & Health

Before and After

By Debra Basham, on September 5, 2022

Everything that is good in the world
comes from love, land, and labor.

~ Van Jones

My previous Yellow Brick Road posted on August 14. Today is Labor Day, September 5, 2022. This may be the longest time between posts EVER. Or perhaps it isn’t, but it has been (for sure) quite some time.

The great room turned out, well, GREAT! It ended up not being just a low job. I painted everything except the crown molding, the trim around the door, and the beam.

Then I painted the library alcove. The new look is so very easy on the eyes….

On Wednesday, August 17, our Day 6, John and I both tested negative for Covid.

On Friday, August 19, 2022, when I saw the two red lines on John’s retest, all I could say was, “Dammit… dammit… DAMMIT.”

My Day 8, suddenly became my new Day Zero.

Even though Linda thought it was too late to take precautions from exposure now to John, I felt I had to. It is not easy to isolate living in a tiny house, but I was clear on my intention. We both masked any time we were in the same room. We used separate dish towels, and only paper towels to dry our hands. We switched our stuff so he used the main bath and I used the guest bath. Essentially, I moved into the guest room. We ate dinner together, but he sat at the table and I used a TV tray sitting in the little rocking chair from Bozena. He always handled the remote control for the TV.

I was negative for Covid again on Wednesday, August 24, my second Day 6. Negative again on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday – my second Day 8, 9, and 10. On Saturday, we were able to go to Norleen’s Backyard Birthday Bash, to St. John in New Buffalo on Sunday. You have to understand what a relief it was to not have to test on Monday. Woohoo!

Coincidentally, exactly one year ago we had Covid. Exactly….

So much has changed in the past year. On Saturday night of Labor Day weekend last year, John had the horrific anxiety, resulting in Larry Gunter’s taking him to ER on Sunday evening. The very next day, Jerry Basham had the abdominal aortic aneurysm on Labor Day. Jerry passed a few weeks later, on September 24. John had the sciatica flare all of November and December; quadruple bypass surgery in January; TIA in April; low-pressure event May 5 in the neurologist’s office. When I had the transient global amnesia in June, John was in an even worse sciatica flare. On Thursday, August 25, John got very weak and sweaty and then horribly nauseous while mowing the lawn. He was taken by ambulance to ER, and recovered well from what was likely dehydration. We have gotten through it all, and we are both doing very well!

I had to buy more of the expensive primer because next I am going to paint the gallery wall and the furnace closet. In truth, I am going to paint all of the back hallway.

The before and after is remarkable. TRULY remarkable….

A Cloudy Day

By Debra Basham, on August 14, 2022

The past few days have unfolded very differently from my plans. I had expected to share fish-fry with Linda and Larry and Linda and Fred and play Hand-and-Foot on Friday evening, and to make vegetable beef soup with my mother’s cornbread for dinner on Saturday with Janis and Larry. I planned a visit with Delcy Kuhlman on Monday morning (to see the new retreat space already sporting a bed). The bed is on loan. She says the veneer has slivered off the headboard, revealing the image of an angel. Jane Foster was scheduled to come for lunch on Wednesday.

Each of those wonderfully wanted experiences were crossed off my calendar when we received a text from Lora at 8:21 am Friday, “Asking for your prayers. John and I have tested positive for COVID.” John and John had gone out for coffee on Thursday morning and in the evening John and I had been with John for about 40 minutes.

Normally there are 12-20 people at the Thursday jam. When no one else showed up for the jam, we went home.

On Wednesday the CDC updated Covid exposure protocol. Ten days of precaution: first five – isolation or being with others only with a proper medically-approved mask, even if no symptoms test on day 6, and if negative, continue to mask until day 10. Thursday was our Day Zero.

Day 1, Friday, August 12, 2022:
Well before noon, I was painting paneling in the great room.

Perhaps the job was begun a bit too impulsively since I was using only the paint left over from the previous kitchen cabinet project, without any primer. That paneling was soaking up paint like a lawn after a six-week drought when the rains come…

I had the wherewithal to stop.

Friday evening, after a conference call with Larry Britton, I knew I needed to put on gloves and a mask, and make a trip to Sherwin Williams before continuing. I needed supplies.

I’ve begun reading The Rent Collector, by Camron Wright, in which the main character, Sang Ly, learns to read with the hope of creating a way out of their current living conditions: they live in and survive by picking through garbage in Cambodia’s largest municipal dump.

Day 2, Saturday, August 13, 2022:
Saturday morning at 8 o’clock I called Sherwin Williams to say I did not have Covid, but would be coming into the store in gloves and a mask because I had been exposed. “Laney” said that was okay. She did keep her distance, and as she carried the two gallons to my car she told me in two weeks she was going on her first vacation in two years. I told her I understood completely and that was why I could not come in without calling first.

The name of paint color is Cultured Pearl. According to Wikipedia, cultured pearls are formed within a cultured pearl sac with human intervention in the interior of productive living molluscs in a variety of conditions depending upon the mollusc and the goals.[1] Just as the same as natural pearls, cultured pearls can be cultivated in seawater or freshwater bodies. Nowadays, over 95% of the pearls available on the market would be cultured pearls.

By dinner time, two walls were painted and everything in the area cleaned and furniture put properly placed!

Day 3, Sunday, August 14, 2022:

“That is a wonderful lesson, Sang Ly. Remember it.”

“What was it again?” I ask, not certain to what she is referring.

She repeats it for me. “In literature, everything means something.”

We open the pages and read.

~ The Rent Collector, by Camron Wright

It is cloudy today. My knees and hips are sore from all of the squatting. This is a low job…. I am not sure if I will take the day off or persevere.

I had anticipated Friday, August 12, 2022. Sixty years earlier, when I was twelve years old, my dad and I were in a serious auto accident — an accident in which I had an out-of-body near death experience (NDE) that has shaped my view of the world. I had expected to write, to ride my bike, to give space to be on a very inner journey. I certainly had not anticipated painting paneling.

A poem gives rise on the page in my journal.

Daily light replaces darkness
and light begats light
Where nothing reflected
now everything does

Oh, for sure
you can see perfections
formerly hidden
now quite obvious
but soooooo worth it

Seeing all in the light
even the flaws
are lovely
each adds an element
of uniqueness, telling a tale

Today the sun is hidden
clouds rule the sky
But still the sun shines
and the light is, only
waiting to reveal its gloriousness

The sun still shines
even on a cloudy day

~ Debra Basham, August 14, 2022

P.S. Word came last evening from Gary Zukav, author of The Seat of the Soul, that his beloved, Linda Francis, transitioned on August 6. Linda Beushausen Gunter and I had the honor of spending a day with them some years back. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

Linda Francis, my Beloved, my spiritual partner, my life partner, my co-creator in everything, my co-author, my inspiration and model, completed her journey through the Earth school on August 6. Her soul returned home to nonphysical reality. When a soul decides to return home, nothing can stop it. I saw this happen before my eyes. Linda was at my side in our kitchen when the stroke came. Within hours an experienced surgeon had attempted three times to remove the clot in her brain, yet it could not be removed.

I am still reeling. Each time I turn to say something to Linda and realize that she is not here to answer me, and each time I rush home with groceries to be with her again and remember that she will not be there when I arrive, and countless experiences like these are each a source of great pain for me and also an opportunity to create authentic power. Each hurts a lot before I recognize it for what it is – a frightened part of my personality – and move my attention away from “what ifs” and “if onlys” to what is actually happening in the moment, and toward an opportunity to love, to support, to contribute.

This is not over for me, and it is probably not over for you. I and our precious support team will send you some practical thoughts and suggestions over the next few weeks so you can practice transforming your experiences into opportunities to create authentic power. You will receive your first emails next week. I invite you to experiment with them and to let me know at garyzukav@seatofthesoul.com what happens.

I hope you are healthy and joyful and appreciating the power and beauty of each moment.

Linda joins me in sending you love.

Love,
Gary

Things Said and Unsaid

By Debra Basham, on August 10, 2022

How was it that her whole life could be
distilled down to that simple truth?
Words mattered.
Her life had been defined
by things said and unsaid….

Winter Garden: A Novel
by Kristin Hannah

Yesterday morning on my bike ride I had one of those mundane moments that reveal such eternal truth it almost takes your breath away. Making the left turn into a short cul-de-sac, I saw a cat stretched out on the driveway. In my best, high-pitched voice I spoke my heart, “Hello, Kitty!!!”

Every rotation of the bike’s tires revealed deep yearning for a close encounter of the cat kind. Since 2000, I had cat energy in my life weekly, when I was in Kalamazoo at Joel’s home. The current generation of cats: Bobbie, McGee, and Zeus, were adopted into a new home after Joel was moved to a memory-care facility in Tennessee late this spring.

Loss of Joel’s intellect, his collaboration, his witness to my birth as a writer was entwined with the loss of the satiating love of cat.

During the winters in Florida, I would go to Great Licks Ice Cream Parlor, to pet the cat. Many a morning bike ride took me to St. James City Automotive, home of Sonny, who would enjoy the affection so much he would forget to swallow – dripping drool all over himself and me and the floor. (See Sonny in “Fingers on Fur” from 2018.)

A few days ago, my sister posted on Facebook: There is no greater earthly privilege than to have been loved by a cat. My comment on her post was this emoji with a cat on my head.

A lively conversation with a dharma sister about the nuance that unconditional love is probably really unconditionED love has opened my heart to so much truth these past days. This morning I was led to a Yellow Brick Road blog post from on February 17, 2019. In that post “Acceptance” I feel a sacred circle of truth: Saying exactly what you need will allow a new pattern to emerge. Be willing to say it gently over and over until the new pattern is stable.

Circling that cul-de-sac I could feel the grasping for that cat encounter. In my head was a tug-of-war about stopping or not stopping. Approaching the driveway from the other direction, I still did not know if I was going to stop and approach the cat.

As my subtle energy began making the turn away from the drive, that voice called out, “Have a great day, Kitty!”

Then and only then, did my awareness expand and notice that the kitty was not the only four-legged in that driveway: A robust German Shepherd had been lying on the asphalt a few feet away from the cat!!!!

So many times in life grasping or aversion have dictated words said or unsaid.

One New Years Eve, somewhere about 1980, my resolution was to every day say to Stacey, “I love you”….

Be willing to say it gently over and over until the new pattern is stable.

Dissent with Love

By Debra Basham, on August 3, 2022

Love takes off the masks
we fear we cannot live without
and know we cannot live within.

~ James Baldwin (Gratefulness.org)

Group 2 sharing last evening was active with exploring the question of the value of being ordained (in Buddhism). This was not so much an intellectual discussion, but a sincere reflection of the yearning many expressed toward living in a community that honors, respects, and supports those deeper dynamics of mindful living. Several in our group have been exploited by spiritual leaders in this lifetime — emotionally or mentally or sexually — and sometimes all three.

Many said the time of hero worship or guru gazing have personally passed us by.

Interesting, just yesterday morning out on a bike ride, Larry was telling me about the great-grandmother of a child Linda had the privilege of doing a baptism for last week. He said this woman is Hispanic, and he assumes she likely has a Catholic background. She also has dementia and, although she never said a word, he felt he could see in her eyes the accusation, “That woman is no priest!”

Over the years, many miles on this Yellow Brick Road have been walking away from the past where patriarchy choked the rights of women out of our collective lives. This morning, two daily writings address the benefit of having “right view.” The first is from Neale Donald Walsch (author of the series of Conversations with God books).

… that a point of view different from your own might be well worth entertaining. Sometimes it is not easy hearing an idea that is different from the one you are advancing — yet it might be that second idea for which you were actually reaching. Answers arrive in more ways than one. Sometimes they come through us, and sometimes they come to us.

Brandon Morton’s son with a baby goat!

Our bicycle-riding conversation continued, “The church Linda’s brother and sister-in-law and her sister and brother-in-law go to still will not allow women in leadership. The husband is the head of the house, and the wife is by scripture ordered to be submissive to his will. Do you think Linda would go along with that?”

I responded to Larry, “I would hope she would not, and more than that, I would hope you would not ask that of her.”

Reading online this morning from The Discrimination of Women in Buddhism: An Ethical Analysis: “Men and women are considered the two wheels of a cart. They should be considered equal if we want the cart to move ahead. If one wheel is smaller than the other, the movement will definitely be impaired.”

One of the headings in that article leapt off the page: Is Buddhism a Sexist Religion?

I would also ask, Is Christianity a Sexist Religion?

Perhaps (blatant or latent) sexism, along with other forms of discrimation, is within all religions and all of our human history. It is HIStory, for heaven’s sake…. But where do we go from here? We only pretend to repair a cart with imbalanced wheel size by exchanging it for a different cart that also has an unbalanced wheel size.

The second writing that speaks us forth in love and wisdom and respect for all beings comes from Deep Spring Center for Meditation:

Thought for Today by Aaron

As we work with these practices, please realize that they are leading you in the direction of trusting your own ability not to enact anger or other negative movement when it arises. To hold it in the heart with compassion until it dissolves. To reclaim your power as higher density beings— no longer a third density human but higher density, able to trust that those around you will not be projecting negativity so it’s safe to share, and you will not be projecting negativity so it’s safe to share. But that you are still capable of saying, “No, I disagree with this or that.” That’s very different than expressing negativity. Expression of view is not an expression of negativity, it’s simply an expression of view. And we learn how to hold different views and deeply hear each other. Then one unified understanding arises and we move forward with it. Or, if one is not in full agreement, one sees that the rest of the group is and abstains from obstructing the process. But if one person thinks, “This will be totally destructive,” one will still hold, “I cannot agree. Go ahead and do what you need to do, but I dissent. But I dissent with love.”

I was just about ready to push “publish” when I received this additional confirmation from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation Thought for Today:

We pray for wisdom, and sometimes we achieve it. The strongest and wisest of men are not threatened by questioning their own answers. If we draw conclusions and blindly stick to them, we can never learn anything new. We have often made the mistake of avoiding the appearance of ignorance.

Instead, we are at our best when we give ourselves the privilege of being a learner. When someone tells us something we don’t understand or agree with, our best response is to ask for more information. We can take our ego out of the equation, surrender our need to be right, and simply try to learn what is being told to us. What is it that I don’t understand here? What does the other person see that I am missing? When we attain a moment of wisdom, we are open to learning.

Today, I will give myself the privilege of being a learner.

From the book Stepping Stones: More Daily Meditations for Men.

Once your intention is clear, perhaps the answer is also already clear!

Momentum Being Gathered

By Debra Basham, on July 23, 2022

For years I have been fascinated by a particular wind feature in the Memorial Garden at our local hospice office. There is something inspired about the way the moving parts cooperate. I only visit on days the offices are closed. Today was one of those welcome days.

As I leaned against the utility case watching, an understanding of the movement dawned on me. Parts would move backwards, then stop and wait, and then turn and move in the other direction. The momentum being gathered by this “seeming” reversal was obvious. The pause was deliberate.

Tears streamed down my face as I got on my bike and rode toward home.

I am not sure if I have shared this poem on the Yellow Brick Road previously or not.

Poem Double Standard

It was 1966
when the rabbit died
killing a rabbit to test for pregnancy
is recognized as absolutely ridiculous now
as is allowing the father to attend high school, while banning the mother
for being obviously sexually active
a bad influence on the other girls
but I did not get pregnant by myself
and unless this baby too is an immaculate conception
it took two to tango

Double standards did not stop there
and sadly they continue today

A woman who has more than one lover is labeled “promiscuous” or “a slut”

A messy house reflects on her character

Overweight men attract sexy women but a fat female is seen as unattractive and told she let herself go to pot or hell or the dogs

The knife of double standards cuts in both directions

By the age of two, boys hear that big boys don’t cry

We tell them only sissies eat quiche

Women are not taught to lead and men are not taught to follow

Not being allowed to attend high school shaped my destiny
Feeling less-than, became a part of me

Formal education would not be part of my life
crossed off the list when I became a wife

But after decades of yearning and a lifetime of learning
I’m finally free to be me
I can honor my past—
thank god-at last—
proudly hang out dirty laundry where all can see

I would do it all again
except for the guilt

I’m a great mom
he’s a great dad
our baby girl
the only one we had
over fifty now
time has flown
already her kids
out on their own

If I had it to do over
I certainly would
I’d let go of the hurdles
and remember the good
I’d refuse to allow
another to say how
my life should be
can’t they see
it’s time now
to tear down the double standard
or to step over it at least
live and let live
in kindness and peace

Yes, looking back
it is plain to see
what has been there
was shaping me
into the woman I am
the one I’m very proud of
that double standard
filled my life with love

~ Debra Basham 5/30/17

Arundhati Roy, author of the novel, The God of Small Things, is a political activist involved in human rights and environmental causes. This past week our daughter, Stacey, was let go from her job as an administrative assistant to a regional director for Speedway Corporation. She has loved her job, her “team,” and the Speedway corporate culture. In August 2020, Speedway was sold to 7-Eleven Inc. for $21 billion. Stacey was one of over a thousand employees who were let go just this week, and this sort of thing happens every day, a product of the way things have always been.

Arundhati’s words send a shaft of light into my soul:

The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability.

Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them.

Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”

― Arundhati Roy

Our beloved friend lost her power in a strong thunderstorm on Thursday evening. Friday morning she received a call from the facility where her beloved husband has been in a memory care unit for over five years. He had taken a turn for the worst, and could she come right away. Today is Saturday and her power had not yet come back on. As John began action to get help to take our generator to her home, I sent him a text message, “Does it make sense to wait to see if it does come back on?”

He wrote back, “It’s probably time we get it running.” Before he pulled in our driveway with Larry in the van, I had a message from her saying the power was back on.

The conversation that followed was not isolated. It is woven into the web of patriarchy that has outworn any benefit it might have ever had. As John shared with me that “the guys at coffee” said the refrigerator stuff was critical by this time, I spoke truth. This was just the most recent of his discounting my opinion in favor of the opinion of his male friends. Earlier in the week we confirmed what I had known since 2019: we had a roof leak in the guest bathroom. Before the market crash in 2008, we met with our financial advisor and I expressed worry I had about our investment. I wanted him to move our investments out of the market for a while. The investment broker said, “If fear takes you out of the market, it will keep you out of the market.” He used logic to override what I had no logic to back up. All I had was a feeling.

As I was riding my bike away from that amazing wind feature with its powerful lessons, a song came into my head. Here are the lyrics:

Oh, I wish I were famous
Like Sarah or Ruth
I wish people would listen
When love speaks the truth

I wish knees would bow
And hands would clasp
When we all remember
Who we are at last

I wish I were famous
I don’t think it’ll take long
If someone would pray
Another sing a song
Write a poem
Paint a picture
Let everyone see
I belong to you and you belong to me

Oh, I wish I were famous
I’d give it all away
I’d lay down my weapons
And go out and play
I’d let the sun shine on me
I’d dance in the rain
Oh, if I were famous
I’d end all our pain

Seemingly backward motion might just be momentum being gathered….

July 16

By Debra Basham, on July 16, 2022

The passion to alleviate suffering is itself part of the path, you know. To whatever degree we are able to do that.

And to honor that place in us that wishes to see the world as different.

~ Beverly Lanzetta, “Engage 2022“

Today is a momentous day in human history, when 13,152 Jews in Paris were arrested, including more than 4,000 children. Likely few individuals alive, exactly 80 years later, remember that date.

I just finished reading Sarah’s Key, a historical fiction novel by Franco-British author, Tatiana de Rosnay. On July 16, 1942, when the French police took Sarah and her parents into custody, this innocent child locked her younger brother in a cabinet — their secret hiding place — thinking he would be spared the trauma of the arrest. Even though Sarah’s Key is not historical fact, you can see why this is not an easy read (also made into a movie).

In 2012, as I was going through surgery to remove a 22cm mass on my ovary, I received a message from the Holy Spirit that the “divine feminine” could not be stabilized on the planet until human women could forgive human men. (The divine feminine is the spiritual concept that there exists a feminine counterpart to the patriarchal and masculine worship structures that have long dominated organized religions. The divine feminine extends well beyond one belief system, and instead can be used as a spiritual lens to balance our perspective.)

More from Beverly Lanzetta, in a talk titled “Becoming Wisdom:”

make

Last evening I received an email message from a friend on the dharma path asking me how I manage when there are so many people whose names we have to say prayers for. “It can become a very long prayer session, several hours, to say individualized prayers for each. Yet it feels insincere and superficial, irresponsible, to do some sort of group prayer.”

I shared some of my process. “In a practical sense, I first set an intention for the GROUP – meaning all beings – not just the sangha. I then allow (trust) spirit to bring to mind (I think of it as focusing a lens) individual aspects or persons. I do not try to manage this from my conscious mind.”

I went on to share about the time I was providing surgical support for a colleague in Tennessee who was having knee surgery. I used my customary process but on the day of her procedure she and her surgery did not come into conscious awareness. The following day she called to thank me and said my presence with her was palpable!

Yet another phase of softening around a “personal” identity.

Here is some more of the conversational stream with my dharma friend:

D: Yes! No “separate I” praying for or to, just awareness of that stream of consciousness called prayer. I read once, years ago, that prayer does not change god, it changes us. This makes a deeper sense to me now.

A: I know I spontaneously and periodically think of them throughout the day. I remind myself momentarily that they are in need, are suffering in some way that needs God’s attention and help.

D: Yes! I am in awe of how someone will pop into my mind and I will reach out and discover there is great need for support at that exact instant. One time, I received a mailing from our church conference. I saw the name of a woman I had counseled with at a youth camp. I knew her husband had been ill. I picked up the phone and called her. He had just passed…. I mean moments before. His body was still there in the house. When she asked me what had made me call, I told her seeing her name on the conference mailing prompted the call. She said she had not been in that group, and when I looked again at the list, her name was not on it!

A: Maybe Spirit knows and hears despite my drifting consciousness.

D: I am convinced you are right about this. In Christian terms it is said that the holy spirit prays for us. “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans …” Romans 8:26.

On this July 16 (2022), the wordless groans of those 13,152 Jewish men and women, including the 40,000 children are heard….

“You can’t wait until
life isn’t hard any more
to be happy…”

~ Nightbirde

Dear Heart

By Debra Basham, on July 14, 2022

Several times yesterday I felt great sadness and compassion for my body. This is likely the result of talking to my primary doctor about what I observe related to blood pressure and heart rate. She said the medications are not causing the things I am observing, so it makes her wonder about my heart. I am already scheduled to have a Coronary Artery Calcium Score test done next week.

The feelings of sadness and compassion for my body are like one would feel for “another” person. Awareness of all that my body has endured, plus a desire to care for it, fills me with great love.

The “Voice” assures me my heart is healthy.

The same “Voice” said it has assured me I was done with melanoma, and that has been the case.

At 2:00 am I received an email from a woman in our dharma study group. She is in her last trimester of pregnancy and she and her husband, their toddler son, and her parents are all ill with Covid. Two of Barbara Brodsky’s sons have tested positive and are quite ill. Another of my dharma buddies is also navigating.

I pick up crayons and a pen and begin to draw and write.

I draw a four-chambered heart, as observed in The Four-Fold Way: Walking the Paths of the Warrior, Teacher, Healer, and Visionary, by Angeles Arrien. Arrien is a cross-cultural anthropologist. She is a leading expert on native spirituality and shamanism. In The Four-Fold Way, she reveals the four archetypal principles of the Native American medicine wheel and how they can lead us to a higher spirituality and a better world.

Flowers spring up and I write a haiku (poem).

A Heart Haiku
Be strong, my dear heart
Be clear, like the open sky
Be full, like the moon

Opening can hurt
But being closed is not life
Break open, my dear heart

I write about beating. Beating all the odds. And that a heart breaks in only one direction: open. I write a an acrostic poem, in which the first letter (or syllable, or word) of each line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word or message.

O – Only
P – Perfection
E – Exists
N – Now

I write a letter to my own physical heart.

Dear Heart,

I’ve taken you for granted most of my life. Please feel my gratitude for your constant beating — for moving blood through my body. For keeping time.

This day I pray for all hearts to awaken.

This day may all hearts be strong, clear, open and full.

May the heart of my body and the heart of this planet beat in harmony that all beings come to the end of suffering.

May all beings know peace.

Love, Debra

~ Daily Quote by Aaron

Moments of Choice

By Debra Basham, on July 11, 2022

If you want to go quickly, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.
~ African proverb

Several weeks ago I saw a coyote pup in the field adjacent to Pilgrim Congregational UCC Church, directly across from our park. I mentioned it in a previous post titled: Coyote Pup and Purposeful Purse Project. I had stopped and we watched one another for quite some time, but it made the pup nervous, so, “He pulled away first but I continued to watch as he gingerly picked his way to the church parking lot and out of my view.”

Edward Salim Michael (1921-2006) was an extraordinarily talented composer and had tremendous potential as an artist, but most importantly, he was a mystic, almost a natural mystic. For those who have never heard of him, it is worth noting that his work was about how you can achieve a direct inner experience of your higher nature and the after-death state (from which you originate and to which you will return).

If you are interested in what is referred to as “the law of attention,” or you know you long to have an experience of “hearing the holy sound,” you might want to check out The Price of a Remarkable Destiny: The Life and Spiritual Journey of Edward Salim Michael.

This book–at once simple and powerful–stands as a monument to the lifelong spiritual struggles of Edward Salim Michael, struggles that he heroically surmounted on his path to enlightenment. Due to the circumstances of his birth, Michael had no education, no mother tongue, and no book learning when he was drafted at the age of 19 into the British Royal Air Force during World War II. After learning to read and write he became an accomplished classical composer in France. In 1949, after seeing a statue of a Buddha for the first time, he experienced a powerful awakening of his innate Buddha Nature, which inspired him to begin a sustained and extremely disciplined meditation practice.

On Saturday morning, I rode my bike to the remembrance garden at the hospice building in preparation for meeting with my friend Kim, to officiate the Celebration of Life of her 32 year old son. I saw a dead coyote pup on the edge of Maiden Lane. I cannot say with certainty that it was the pup I had seen previously. I was instantly reminded of having seen both the peaceful fawn corpse, then the traumatized doe corpse. I looked up “coyote” totem meaning again:

The coyote is here to remind you that even if you don’t feel it, you actually have the capacity to handle any situation you find yourself in.

It seems right now every human being on the planet is experiencing many moments of choice.

This morning, looking back over my notes from a healing workshop with Barbara Brodsky, and Aaron, on Wednesday, May 24, 2017, I read about ancestral baggage.

Aaron: When I think of ancestral baggage, I think of literally the karma one has taken on from one’s physical ancestors, both family and of a wider group – cultural group, religious group, even human karma. The personal karma is different.

For example, as I meet, counseling and working with people, there is a generation today, many of whom experienced the Holocaust from one side, one perspective or another. Many who experienced it, not personally but had parents and grandparents who experienced it, are carrying some of that “personal baggage” from it and in healing it through finding forgiveness for the places of fear and hatred in their own hearts, healing that in themselves. They don’t have to be thinking of the situation of the Holocaust, but they are helping to free the anger and fear and hatred of their ancestors.

Those from the other perspective, who were among those who were doing such great harm, may experience the same thing. There’s often enormous shame and guilt in the incarnate self, without any real understanding of where it came from. Its not personal karma, but they came in to the incarnation with the intention to help to heal, to free some of the ancestors who are very much trapped in the terrible things they did and the self-remorse and self-hatred over those things.

Tavis: Can one heal, then, these longstanding ancestral issues by addressing one’s own guilt, shame….

Aaron: Absolutely. And this is the best place to release it. When you release it for yourself, you release it for everyone. So, this is very powerful.

What to do if you see a coyote?
If you see a coyote during the daytime, you should exhibit caution, as that coyote may have become habituated to humans (and may be more likely to attack). If you are approached by a coyote, you should yell, wave your arms, and/or throw something at the coyote (do not run away).

May all beings resist the urge to run away when we witness ancestral karma, and may we each make the most of many moments of choice.

It’s a Gift

By Debra Basham, on July 6, 2022

And I said to my body, softly,
“I want to be your friend.”

It took a long breath. And replied,
“I have been waiting my whole life for this.”

~ Nayyirah Waheed

Speaking about his book, All for Love: The Transformative Power of Holding Space, Matt Kahn shares,”I look back at these times and all the stories that I tell — I’m telling some very deep stories, I’m telling some very emotionally stirring stories. But as I’m telling the stories, even when I’m recalling the deepest pain, I’m really recalling them from a place of gratitude, because I look back at my life and I really do see how everything was a divine setup for who I came to be and all the lives that I’m so blessed I have the chance to touch.”

This has certainly been true for my life as well.

In 1988 I was living with chronic pain. I was having bad days and worse days. I NEVER had a day back then that was free of pain.

Experiencing relief of unrelenting chronic pain resulted in my passion for getting certified in Healing Touch.

It is other-worldly to even imagine what would have unfolded differently without all of it.

The focus circle is based on the work of Jerry and Esther Hicks (The Vortex), and the sample used below is adapted from one that was created by Arvind Singh.

Step one is to identify what you think of as a current limitation. The sample I have used is: “I feel insecure about my body.” Write about whatever you are working with in your own words so you know what will help.

Next, make a short, positive statement of what you do want: “A vibrant, healthy, sexy, body.” Be sure to avoid anything that might seem unrealistic or unattainable right now, like the following: “My body could be on the cover of a fitness magazine, “or “I can have my dream body in a week.” Again, using your own words for your goal.

Now, easily start your change in attitude, belief, and behavior, from a place you have experienced because, as Singh says, it is hard to have emotional resistance about something that you have already had.

1. I like the way that I feel in that new outfit.
2. I have a desire to be healthy.
3. I felt so vibrant that night in Cancun, just dancing all night.
4. I feel my cells responding as I write this, getting brighter and healthier.
5. Everything I have ever really put my mind to, I have accomplished.
6. I’ve been told I have amazing eyes.
7. What I’m experiencing right now has created a strong desire for change.
8. I can see myself feeling confident and attractive.
9. My inner-being loves me unconditionally.
10. I appreciate the fact that I can deliberately achieve what I want.
11. When I close my eyes I can see and feel my vibrant, healthy, sexiness.
12. I am a beautiful and beloved creation.

I always like to look again at my positive statement and notice I can actually feel that now.

State your current positive statement, “I feel vibrant, healthy, and sexy now” and just relax a bit as you think about all the things that are wonderful that came to be out of a process. Plants, babies, houses, your goal for better health and well-being – they are all things that take a while to achieve and they are worth the time and commitment.

All human beings are navigating life.

Rather than be disappointed or angry or sad about what someone (even if that someone is you) is experiencing, realize that you might be moments from a breakthrough.

While it is undeniable they are not pleasant, breakdowns can lead to breakthroughs. We end up having more compassion, more understanding, and more wisdom. We learn something helpful and share that with others.

At first, we can feel out-of-control and overwhelmed with our feelings of despair and anxiety. It’s hard to see that what we are going through is often a gift wrapped in a not-so-pretty package. ~ Kristen D. Boice

Its a gift that I have been waiting my whole life for!

Out-flowing – Getting Free (By Setting Others Free)

By Debra Basham, on June 29, 2022

Thought for Today

Imagine a whole world of beings deeply committed to expressing themselves with some kind of beauty, not necessarily physical beauty but beauty of generosity of spirit, of kindness. Imagine a world where this can flourish. Here we have the imaginal cells at work.

So, if we talk about what conditions
are needed for a world that can be at peace,
all beings living in a wholesome way,
not destroying themselves and each other,
what’s needed here?

Can you begin to imagine it?

Because if you can’t imagine it,
you can’t plant the seeds that can co-create it.
~ Aaron, Deep Spring Center For Meditation and Spiritual Inquiry

Oh, my…. yesterday I came out of my center and went off like the olden days. I have distant memory of allowing fear to totally dictate my days.

One very memorable moment from long, long, ago in a far-way land, took place when John and I were in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. I had been there previously without John so I knew that they drove American-made vehicles on the English side of the road. Navigating through the downtown was nothing short of terrifying, so I had UBER planned our trip to pick up our rental car at the remote end of the island near where we were staying. But when the guy came to bring me the car, he had come from the Airport!!!

I made such a scene! He told me the remote location had closed. I told him I did not care about any of that, my contract was with the Red Hook location and that was where I was going to take him. He could hitchhike back to the airport, walk, or call for someone to come and get him. That was his problem.

Oddly, I am not sure how it resolved itself, but I admit I have often imagined him telling the story of a berserk customer having a meltdown in the lobby of Frenchman’s Reef.

Yesterday’s trigger was around politics.

When I told Stacey I had gotten triggered by something political, she said, “How did you even get close enough to something political to get triggered?” I am grateful she knows my true nature is apolitical (not interested or involved in politics).

This morning I woke up feeling shaky inside. It was the sort of feeling that would encourage me to take 1/2 of the Zanax, but I was going to my primary, Dr. Mancini, for the post-hospitalization visit and I did not want to mask my state. I was honest about how I was feeling, and she was beautifully present with me. I agreed to start on a low-dose prescription to lower blood pressure, and to continue the statin until we have results of the cardiac plaque test. As we navigated, I could feel myself regulating. Then I went with John to the pain clinic…. oy vey!

After he was home and resting, I decided to ride my bike to pick up the new medication. This was the first time I had been back on my bike since the TGA event one week ago today. Riding really does balance me, but the transformation came not while I was riding, but while I was in line at Walgreens.

The person in front of me (it was a long wait) was arranging to pick up her prescriptions next week. She said something about needing to wait until then (for financial reasons). She completed her consult, and left.

When I stepped up to the window, I said I wanted to pay for her medications. It was such a spontaneous action, and it took approval of a manager, but we figured out how it could be done with my not having any information other than the total cost.

I floated out of that store.

Yesterday I shared a handout on Essentials of Self Care: Breath and Emotions with a colleague who is teaching a mindfulness course in the fall. The handout includes a quotation by Norman Vincent Peale, from The Amazing Results of Positive Thinking: Dramatic Proof of How Positive Thinking Has Changed the Lives of Millons… and How it Can Change Your Life!. His words of wisdom were written in 1959, but they have never been more timely.

When people get rid of fear, anxiety and self-centeredness they develop a kind of ecstatic joy and delight in living. The world seems so different and newly wonderful that they tend to love everybody and everything. And they become so warm-hearted and delightful that people take a real liking to them. They change from withdrawn, worrying persons to ones with vitality and charm. They become “out-flowing” personalities; that is, personalities which now flow outward towards others in kindness and helpfulness. (p.60)

Sunday I will be guest pastor at St. John UCC again. The theme is “Freedom From and For.” We will share a beautiful exercise on getting free from Reunion Living Ministry. Thank you, Betty Lue and Robert.

By freeing actively and willingly desiring that the key people in our lives be totally free and powerful, we get to be free and powerful ourselves. So here is an affirmation-prayer that may help us begin by freeing others, so that we can begin to free ourselves.

I, (your name), want you, (his or her name), to be the highest, clearest, most powerful expression of God that you can be. I would not limit you in any way, knowing that only as I encourage you to expand, and grow, can I myself be free. So I fully support you in being and expressing all that you are.

I want you to go where you feel called to go, to speak and act as you feel guided, and to express yourself in whatever ways seem right. There is nothing I do not want you to do, for I know that all movement is contained within the mind of God and always leads us to Him.

I am at peace with whatever decisions and choices you make, no matter how they may seem to affect me. Since I know that God loves and supports me perfectly, then I know that however you choose to be with me must be a manifestation of that divine love and support. Because I trust God, I trust you. And because I trust you, I trust myself.

So be free, be powerful, be unlimited. And know that I, (your name), want you, (his or her name), to be the highest, clearest, most powerful expression of God that you can be. I fully support you in being all that you are.

In the blank I wrote: I, Debra, want all human beings to be the highest, clearest, most powerful expressions of God.

We must be the change we wish to see in the world. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Amen.