Yellow Brick Road: Your Path to Heart & Health

See Every Event as an Opportunity

By Debra Basham, on November 9, 2020

This morning I enjoyed listening to Linda Beushaushen Gunter’s sermon, “Life’s Story.” She told the first “version” of her life and then, reporting on the exact same history, another “version.” The first story focused through the lens of things being unfair, difficult, painful. The second told of the same events, but without all of the doom and gloom and blame and shame. She told of having been the eldest child; her mother’s depression; her divorce; her widowhood…. each was seen as rife with opportunity and blessing, shaping her into the servant leader she is today. Her closing quotation from The Tiny Buddha was not attributed to anyone, so we can each make it our own,if we choose:

In this life we are all just walking up the mountain, and we can sing as we climb or we can complain about our sore feet. Whichever we choose, we still gotta do the hike. I decided a long time ago singing made a lot more sense.

Yesterday while I was out on a bike ride I received this email message from a dear friend, a loyal reader of Yellow Brick Road. She is someone I have shared a lot about life with.

I’m trying to get to a good place about all of this, so I again send you my gratitude for all of your election-related YBR posts. Thanks to you, I don’t feel like a loser, but I fear that our beloved country will become one if the Democrats win in the Senate too, allowing what I view as impractical concepts to become the norm. Chuck Schumer announced that Joe Biden will help the US change the world! I’m not ready for that. However, as much as Trump or Biden want/wanted to believe that were/are/will be in charge, I’m comforted that God is our ultimate leader, yes?

I thought of this friend as I listened to Linda’s sermon, and also when I read Neale Donald Walsch’s daily thought.

Move, then, to gratitude when you encounter your
frustrations. And see every event as an Opportunity.

I posted “Why Cycling Can Make You a Happier Person” on the Imagine Healing Facebook page yesterday before I went on my ride. Truth be told, love of cycling is probably my strongest pull to snow-birding. Cycling is good exercise. It gets me out in nature. To stay safe cycling you really do have to be mindful. From the article:

Within 10 minutes of being on a bike, things that are immediately worrying you – that piece of work you haven’t finished – have been dismissed. Ride for 45 minutes and you hardly know what you were thinking about and then something else drops in – a line from a poem or something your child said.

While cycling yesterday, that happened! Something profound opened up to reveal the structure of the universe. I saw EVERYTHING! And everything is unfolding in divine order.

I sobbed telling my sister, Janis, about my experience, and she kept saying, “You had an epiphany….”

Now the epiphany is similar to the way dream images vanish upon waking where the details are no longer clear but you totally recall having had the experience. The most I can articulate right now is that we are all playing roles, each contributing to the divine unfolding. Some are moving out into the change, some are leaning back to the familiar — together all of it balancing our progression.

I had an epiphany….

I could see with a different understanding the experience I had had in Europe in 2011 where options would close or open depending upon my inner state.

A wave of profound appreciation came over me for my brother-in-law’s having broken the water line installing the new sink in the guest bath. Sure, finding the mold and facing the expense of remediation meant going through all of the frustration, but now John is healthy!

Frances Newton said “I can stand what I know. It’s what I don’t know that frightens me.” Our central nervous systems react poorly in the face of the unknown. Fear of the unknown, often referred to as free-floating anxiety, catches up to us on occasion. But it needn’t. Pompe Strater-Vidal has some great guided meditations you can enroll in for free at Relax Breathe Flow to help you.

We can sing as we climb or we can complain about our sore feet.

~ Kristi Nelson

Photo of Lake Michigan by Kathy Kreager, used with permission.

Active Moment

By Debra Basham, on November 8, 2020

Deep Spring Center
Thought for Today

“Your job, once you understand that the river was never broken, is not to go on campaign to clean up the polluted river, but to help to teach those who live along the river that they are responsible for cleaning it up. The need is to understand clearly what needs to be fixed. Then you don’t enter into it as ‘I am the teacher and I’m going to show you how to do it.’ Perhaps you talk to the people who live there about how sad it makes you to see this pollution. You help them to understand their responsibility for creating it and that they are empowered to clean it up if they wish to.”

A Wall Street Journal headline caught my eye: Bullies Are Everywhere – How to Stop Them. I was reminded of a line Richard Bandler would often use, “The best way to help a poor person is to not be one.”

Right speech and right action (wholesome attitude and behavior) is a central motive for our practice in mindfulness. The best way to stop a bully is to not be one.

My meditation teacher was involved in the civil rights movement when she was a teen. She tells of having been well trained in non-harm before being sent into spots where illegal acts of violence (like lynching) was still occurring. How they responded in those spaces of such hatred and tension brought about life-or-death results. I personally know a man who was holding the hand of a woman killed when a bulldozer plowed into humans lying on the ground in protest of the demolishing of a brand new school building to avoid integration.

Rather than relying on a thin,
idealized hope that
we will all
one day
just get along,
we can approach conflict resolution
as an art form that
we are privileged to
develop and hone.

~ Diane Musho Hamilton

Aggravated anger that erupts in deadly violence does not just jump on us out of thin air. We are constantly utilizing or missing opportunities of grace which is continually creating active moments.

A couple of days ago, our daughter, also a supporter of President Trump, sent a text message to her dad saying it was a mathematical miracle that 100 percent of the late mail-in votes were for Biden. Before he responded to her, I said, “I can conceive of some tiny sampling where that statement was true. These distortions are what is fueling the hatred and distrust of one another.” (The tilting of truth I wrote about in a previous post….)

He responded to her saying he hopes one of the things that comes out of this is an end to voter fraud. He also reminded her to keep this all in prayer, that she has a very strong faith in God. He utilized that active moment!

The article about bullies addressed the underlying drivers of the behavior of bullying. At the top of the list was narcissism. Craig Malkin, a clinical psychologist, lecturer at Harvard Medical School and author of “Rethinking Narcissism” is reported as saying, “People who are very narcissistic display a trio of behaviors called the Triple E: exploitation, entitlement and empathy impairment.”

A poignant point to you and me is to realize that excessive interest in oneself and a sense of entitlement actually occurs on a spectrum. All humans have some. As Abraham Hicks says, being self-interested is just hard wired into humans. Brad Bushman, a professor of communication at the Ohio State University in Columbus, who studies narcissism and aggression adds, “Have you ever rushed into an open spot in a busy parking lot before someone else can grab it? That’s narcissism.”

My dharma sister shared having a very tender awareness on a recent retreat, her voice choking as she said, “My father was a bully. My brothers are bullies. What I realized this week is that I am a bully too.”

I have been a bully as well. We all have. I have been a religious zealot. That term was first used in reference to a political movement in the Judea Province in the 1st Century. They were trying to incite a rebellion to expel the Roman Empire from the Holy Land, by force of arms. Reference the FIRST Jewish-Roman War. Oh, my…. we are slow to learn, but we are learning.

It is our river of life that has been polluted by our narcissistic behaviors — on both sides of every issue.

Over the next days and weeks and months following this election, speak honestly about how sad this pollution has made you. Speak words that lessens distress — in ourselves and in the one with whom or about whom we are speaking.

On occasion we might even feel superior to some people — like the gruff man in line ahead of us at the bank or the rude cashier at the grocery store. But in all cases, the moment we compare and thus create a separation between ourselves and others, we deny the blessing of God’s all-encompassing plan for each of us.

We are all one in God. When we realize our connection to one another, we learn our task is to care for each other rather than artificially set ourselves apart.

~ In God’s Care, Daily Meditations on Spirituality in Recovery

We are all one in God. With each active moment we are able to clean up our own river of relating. If we wish to….

Lone Dove

By Debra Basham, on November 7, 2020

At the end of our Zoom dominoes game last night I asked if anybody knew what was going on with the election results. John said, “Biden won.” I was shocked. Linda clarified that results have not yet been declared because of laws suits.

John’s first comment when I asked him if he was OK with Biden’s being elected: “I can’t do anything about it. All I can do is live my life, be the best person I can be.”

David R. Hawkins said, “Make a gift of your life and lift all… by being kind, considerate, forgiving, and compassionate at all times, in all places, and under all conditions, with everyone as well as yourself. This is the greatest gift anyone can give.”

I could see in sadness in John’s face and feel his concern as he added, “Biden won’t be president long because his cognition is failing.” He spoke of the good that Trump has achieved as President and gave as example stopping the U.S. giving money to Germany to protect them from Russia while Germany was buying natural gas from Russia instead of buying it from us. I know nothing about that stuff, but I can respect that John does.

I encouraged John to hold a view of humans acting out of positive character.

“If Trump had won there would have been riots in the streets tonight,” he said quietly. I told him it had been surprising and distressing to me that my dharma friends were so unskillful about Trump over the past 4 years. I spoke of it like a teeter-totter, of our taking turns being up in the air.

In the light of day, I see it more as taking turns carrying a burden. We are all working toward a higher vibration on the planet (a better world; John’s ‘America is a great country’), and it is like we are having to ‘tack’ along the way.

Tacking is a sailing term. When the wind is not in your favor, you can still get to your destination. You have to turn your bow toward the wind so that the direction from which the wind blows changes from one side to the other. This maneuver allows progress in the desired direction.

Perhaps President Trump’s winning in 2016, and Joe Biden’s winning in 2020 is humanity’s tacking — the wind blows changing from one side to the other.

Recently Aaron had this to say:

The challenges of your present world, while unpleasant and in some cases, deeply concerning, are also part of what is necessary for the shift, the transition to higher consciousness.

We don’t talk about this as good or bad. We can talk about it as pleasant or unpleasant. But if you choose to make any kind of transition, there’s going to have to be something that blocks you a bit, creates challenges that allow you to move into a higher vibration and move forward, expand outward, and overcome those challenges.

I wrote in my journal this morning: What would you have me know? (my most frequent question!)

V: You can feel your heart open. You know you are holding the intention for our way to a world that is truly in service to all beings and lives from the intention to harm none. Aaron spoke of the least harm. It would not have been kind to have rioting. It would not be kind to deny benefits that this President has brought forth. It is time to transcend any sense that “the means justifies the end” and bring about successes that are undergirded by spiritual values.

What an image this lone dove sitting on the edge of the birdbath with all the fallen leaves made this morning shortly after the sun came up.

Doves are messengers of God and their message usually is: no matter what is happening, peace will always follow. When doves appear, it is a sign of your innocence and grace. Know and trust that your loved ones are watching you always. Dove totem animal brings peace, joy, and harmony. ~ Dove Totem Meaning

My heart holds the melancholy feeling I had seeing the lone dove; I am unwilling to project this onto my fine feathered friend.

Give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.— Luke 1:79

P.S. When I shared this all with John, because of the dove and the message of peace, he added that President Trump negotiated peace in the Middle East for the first time in decades….

Spiritual Victory

By Debra Basham, on November 6, 2020

The willingness to consider possibility
requires a tolerance of uncertainty.

~ Rachel Naomi Remen

Sitting in meditation recently I became the yin/yang symbol, flowing back and forth from a sense of form to knowing myself as nonform, experiencing a momentary flash of luminosity at the tipping point as the endless flow of black flowing into white, white flowing back into black. I had a brief thought this might be a another full-body dissolution (where ego dissolves into awareness). This is a practice in meditation. One does not cease to be, but one does cease to be identified as a body or a thought or an emotion or a sensation.

Imagine the yin (the dark swirl with the white dot) as being associated with femininity and our shadow side; the yang (the white swirl with the dark dot) representing brightness, passion and growth.

Each contains the “seed” of the other.

You know you are this fluid AWARENESS.

The thought for today from Aaron is also related our identity: “The self that aspires to be perfect while loving itself as imperfect moves from a place of love. The self that strives to be perfect because it hates itself as imperfect moves from a voice of fear.”

I have been considering the possibility of registering for an upcoming weekend retreat November 13-15. Today is the registration deadline. Wanting to always be generous with dana (offering) for the teachers, knowing our seasonal rent is coming due in a few weeks, and John’s $2,500 dental appointment this past Tuesday, the financial aspect of attending the retreat has been dominating my mind.

I decided to draw a card asking, “What is true about my attending this retreat?”

Osho Zen Tarot: The Transcendental Game of Zen

I love that card, and the truth that The Master is not a teacher for others, but he a teacher for himself, without personal purpose nor desire for anything, but always letting thing happens as it should be – knowing truly there is nothing to strive for.

One of things that has been pulling me to attend this retreat now is the generous offer for me to use a friend’s cottage.

I can feel a sense of uncertainty about leaving my space here that has been my womb since April 6. I can also feel the possibility. This would be the first retreat since October 2019 where I could truly be in noble silence the entire time. Noble silence is a central part of knowing the mind, and letting go the identification with all the suffering caused by the mind.

I picked up my phone to look at the date. Saturday, November 14, 2020 is Diwali.

Diwali is the Indian festival of lights, one of the most popular festivals of Hinduism, but with slightly different emphasis also celebrated in Sikhism, Jainism, and Buddhism.

Diwali symbolizes the spiritual “victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance.”

Now that is a true spiritual victory!

Common Sense: Common Good

By Debra Basham, on November 5, 2020

Just when all the chips are down,
the chins should be up.

~ Neale Donald Walsch

This morning I could feel a subtle pull to look at media, but everybody knows as soon as a winner of the Presidential election is resolved, that news will be widely known. So, why participate in any of the drama?

Yesterday morning, during the post-election 24-hour meditation event Deep Spring Meditation Center was hosting on Zoom, the fifty-fifty nature of the polarization of our country came up. I asked Barbara about the information SCS calls the Drama Triangle, Cognitive Triangle, and Transrational Pyramid.

Here is a section of Aaron’s response:

This is playing out on all the spheres and on all the levels including, of course, the human level. You are not pawns in some game of chess. You have enormous power. You have advisors on the spirit level, but you humans are the ones that can control whether, when, and how this transition will happen.

Along with those of you who are of a much higher consciousness, there are those who are of high intelligence, with a lot of power and understanding of power, but with intention to use that power in service to the self. This is really what this shift is about—power in service to self, or power in service to all beings.

The Roman games come to mind. Roman games, called ludi, were probably instituted as an annual event in 366 BC. Might common day sports be the current iteration? Or perhaps politics? Red, white, green and blue teams inspired great loyalty. Wondering if the red and blue of the political parties somehow also originated with the Roman games.

In 532 AD rioting sparked by the disputes of chariot fans destroyed half the city of Constantinople!

Augustus only banned fighting to the death due to a shortage of gladiators. It has been estimated that 500,000 people and more than 1 million animals died in the Coliseum, Rome’s great gladiatorial arena.

Human history is rife with dark times.

Dagnabbit, we have more common sense to use for the common good!

One source attributed ‘dagnabbit’ to Elmer Fudd. His twisted version of “dang rabbit” was sputtered while stomping his foot on his hat, after the rabbit that always outwitted him when he was hunting did it again.

In The Long Linguistic Journey to ‘Dagnabbit’ linguists say humans are afraid of speaking the True Names of enemies so we create taboo deformations. My grandmother would say flitter, in the exact same situations my dad would say $*@#….

All too often, people go through life being cautious in the name of being careful, when it is, in fact, a matter of fear. Moving ahead boldly is a better indicator of self-assurance and has a much better chance of ending in success. ~ David J. Bloyd; MS, CMP Emeritus

One of my dharma sisters shared a mantra composed by the Vietnamese monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, known as a philosopher, teacher of peace, and all things positive. The mantra loosens the grip fear can have on you.

While silently breathing in, say the first line of the two-line phrase; while silently breathing out, say the second line of the two-line phrase:

Breathing In, “I recognize fear as Energy,”
Breathing Out, “I express Gratitude for Energy;”

Breathing In, “Energy and Fear are Power,”
Breathing Out, “I can safely hold Power;”

Breathing In, “Power supports Wholesome Change,”
Breathing Out, “I Invite That, which is for The Highest Good!”

F.E.A.R. (false evidence appearing real) may be the true name of humanity’s only true enemy, but fear has myriad names: greed, anger, cruelty, vengeance, hatred, bigotry, sexism, racism, impatience, insecurity, shame, blame, ignorance, meanness. The list is long.

For sure, common good is common sense….

Breathing In, “Power supports Wholesome Change,”
Breathing Out, “I Invite That, which is for The Highest Good!”

Condolences and Congratulations

By Debra Basham, on November 4, 2020

Lift up your faces,
you have a piercing need
for this bright morning
dawning for you.

~ Maya Angelou

Yesterday’s Yellow Brick Road contained the foundation for today’s: Today 49% of the people will be disappointed. That assumes 51% will be relieved or glad.

While elections have winners and losers, we do not have to be one or the other.

Daily Word for November 04. 2020

Hope

I am hopeful and positive.

I begin this day with gratitude. Before I get out of bed, I give thanks. I fill my mind and heart with hope for the coming day and for my future.

Making a habit of practicing gratitude upon awakening helps me create positivity and hope. Even in the most dire circumstances, I resolve to be hopeful. I look beyond outer circumstances and trust indwelling Spirit to inspire me to find good in the midst of all situations.

I give myself plentiful reminders that I have reasons for hope. I can make lists of all that I have now as well as things I hope for in the future. Maybe I can enjoy walks outdoors or time spent with optimistic friends. There are always reasons to be hopeful when I stay focused on gratitude.

Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.—Psalm 33:22

I purposely have not tuned in to any returns yet. I chose to write the post for today before I have any news.

In the 1970’s John and I took Parent Effectiveness Training. P.E.T. was developed by Thomas Gordon. Problem solving was a key component of the program and I still remember clearly one of the teaching stories. A man and woman were arguing, each stating, “I need the car tomorrow.” Well, they only had one car!

The process was to tease out of the seeming impasse the actual need.

He needed to get to his office downtown.

She needed to get to the mall to buy a winter coat for their son while it was on sale, one day only.

Once the needs were stated without the distortion of “It has to be my way,” myriad solutions emerged. He could call a co-worker for a ride; he could take public transportation; she could drop him off. She could ask a friend for a ride; she could take public transportation; she could have someone pick the coat up for her.

One of my favorite NLP exposures is Core Transformation: Reaching the Wellspring Within, by Connirae Andreas and Tamara Andreas.

Joseph Chilton Pearce, author of The Crack in the Cosmic Egg said this is “One of the most important works I have come across in any field, Core Transformation should be adopted as the principal therapy by every therapist in the country, understood and practiced by everyone in the helping and legal professions, as well as parents and teachers. I stand in awe at the simplicity, clarity and directness of a work of such magnitude, and will do all I can to promote it.”

The key was to recognize limitations are truly doorways. One state, often called
“Inner Peace,” “Joy,” “Love,” or “Oneness.”

“Oneness and Being,” the goal of most psycho-spiritual approaches, is no longer a mysterious ideal.

As the results of this election unfold, rather than offer condolences or congratulations to losers or winners, lets experience core transformation.

“Somebody was talking today about feeling weary of practice. Is there no end to it? There is an end to it. You will find full realization of your true being, full liberation from the cycle of birth and death. All beings will. But meanwhile, consider this. You’re in the situation of somebody with tall weeds growing in their back yard. If you don’t attend to the weeds with some regularity, they’ll take over not only your yard but your neighbor’s yard because the heads will go to seed and fly off in every direction. So here you are doing a wonderful practice of attending to the weeds. Eventually all of this prickly, thorny stuff will dissolve. Truly it will. ”

Vote!

By Debra Basham, on November 3, 2020

The vote is precious.
It is almost sacred.
It is the most powerful
non-violent tool
we have in a democracy.
~ John Lewis

Today is election day 2020. From my journal entry this morning:

Last evening while John was showering I picked up his phone to take photos for him of his PT care plan from his online chart. A text message popped up. John was urging another to vote, saying, “We might be able to turn this thing around for Trump if enough people turn out to vote.” His next message was saying that he plans to vote in person today.

When I told John I wished he would have voted by absentee ballot, his response was, “It’s as safe as shopping.”

We have had friends shopping for us since we got home from Florida on April 6, using Instacart until they could manage the risks of shopping themselves. They have done this for our safety as John is considered high risk with diabetes and having been on steroid therapy for polymyalgia this past year.

I put the question into the search engine: ‘How safe is in-person voting?’

I saw those exact same words John had used! “The risk of voting in person is comparable to the risk of going to the grocery store.” Of course… The article went on to say any amount of risk may be too great for those who fall into the high-risk category — or live with someone who does. “That includes older adults, individuals with diabetes, and those with cancer or compromised immune systems are are at greater risk of severe complications from COVID-19.”

I was understandably disappointed.

The subject line from The Tapping Solution this morning:
49% of People will be Disappointed Today.

I had the opportunity to get a head start!

Or not….

At 9:30 pm EST Deep Spring Meditation Center will open a ZOOM meditation hall. The hall will remain available until tomorrow night so our sangha can gather. We plan to read encouraging words from the Mala Recollection: When wholesome thoughts arise, cultivate the wholesome. When unwholesome thoughts arise, abandon the unwholesome…. Tend the contents of the mind with compassion as a mindful gardener tends his garden. We will chant. We will pray. We will meditate. We will sing.

A friend shared the link to the University of Michigan’s Virtual Choir. She was most moved by the finale which was 300 people singing Enya’s “How Can I Keep from Singing?” (lyrics slightly altered to match the choir).

Through all the tumult and the strife,
I hear its music ringing,
It sounds an echo in my soul.
How can I keep from singing?…

No storm can shake my inmost calm,
While to that rock I´m clinging.
Since Love is lord of heaven and earth
How can I keep from singing?

(If you’re interested this song starts at 53:25.)

Sound (singing, chanting, drumming, humming) has been scientifically proven to bring us back to our hearts.

Following the amazing Enya song, Melanie DeMore breaks into a wonderfully happy ‘Lead with Love.” Here are the lyrics:

(repeat all 4 lines)

Verses (call and response):

Don’t give up hope
You’re not alone
Don’t you give up
Keep movin’ on

Lift up your eyes
Don’t you despair
Look up ahead
The path is there

I know you’re scared
And I’m scared too
But here I am
Right next to you

Words & music (c) Melanie DeMore.

(usually sung a cappella)

Melanie DeMore gets my vote!

People knowing how to move themselves up the emotional scale gets my vote. People putting one foot in front of the other gets my vote. People leading with love gets my vote.

How can we keep from singing?

Imagine Healing

By Debra Basham, on November 2, 2020

Because humans process their subjective experience, in part, as pictures, when one says, “I just cannot see how I will get through all of this,” according to Dr. Emmett E. Miller, author of Deep Healing: The Essence of Mind/Body Medicine, we are not just hearing words, we may well be witnessing destiny.

~ From the SCS-Matters.com/Imagine-Healing/ home page.

Imagine Healing has been my central work over the past two decades. Five simple steps to Imagine Healing can make all the difference if you or someone you know is anticipating surgery, going through medical treatment, or experiencing the need for healing in any area of life. These steps include:

I am encouraging readers of Yellow Brick Road to use this process NOW, to imagine healing beyond the physical body. Imagine healing for our country, for our world, and for all sentient beings. You are invited to post this on Facebook, share it with groups, and use it to support yourself during these chaotic times.

Identify a person, a pet, a place, or an experience which you find easy to love. Let yourself immerse yourself in that feeling. (One client used a stuffed animal!)

Step 1: Relax to feel peaceful. Go for the basics on this one and take the few minutes to follow the links to some of my favorite (vital) reminders:

PNS is BIG. You must activate your parasympathetic nervous system. Legs up the wall!

Ten minutes wearing an icy gel mask is A Chilling Way to Calm Down.

Another simple technique is to quiet yourself and imagine that you are sucking on a juicy lemon drop, bathing your tongue in saliva. If that does not work for you, fill your mouth with warm water and hold it, as you allow yourself to begin to relax.

Let me know if you want access to the A to Z of relaxation (aromatherapy to Zen) handout. Knit, paint, walk, soak… use your W.I.T. (whatever it takes).

Step 2: Discover what you need to know. Learn to “see” the tilting of truth within politics. Public record shows if there has been the erosion of environmental protection; don’t let your emotions confuse ideas with facts. The definition of politics is the activities associated with the governance of a country or other area, especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power. Tilting of truth is happening…. Notice.

Step 3: Create positive expectations. Gratefulness.org had a beautiful message today by Br. David Steindl-Rast: “Imagine a country whose citizens—maybe even its leaders—are brave, calm, and open towards each other; a country whose people realize that all human beings belong together as one family and must act accordingly; a country guided by Common Sense.”

Step 4: Organize a support group. Deep Spring Sangha is planning to open a ZOOM meditation hall at 9:15 pm Tuesday night. Volunteers will read and share sacred writings. People will meditate. Some will chant. Many online groups are offering support. Especially now, it is soothing to join with others who help you come home to your heart.

In the use of Imagine Healing to prepare an individual for surgery, we ask, “Who do you know wants you to have a good outcome? Who will be thinking about you, praying for you, caring about you? What supports you?” People often list family members and friends. Pets or totem animals. Looking beyond these, loved ones in spirit? Saints? Spiritual Masters? Make a mental list of these supports. Hold a rosary or another tangible item, look at a photo, listen to an audio. So much support!

These five steps were designed so you can recover more quickly and completely when you practice positive mental and emotional health.

Ask to be shown the best possible outcomes: short-term, mid-term, and long-term.

Throughout the process, call forth your capacity to be carried across the chasm: “Even though things won’t go exactly as you imagine, imagine a scene that proves to you — beyond a doubt — that things have gone so well, even better than you imagined….”

Philippians 4:6-7

Do not be anxious about anything,
but in every situation,
by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God.

And the peace of God,
which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts
and your minds
in Christ Jesus.

Awaken the New Species

By Debra Basham, on November 1, 2020

We must not wish
for the disappearance
of our troubles
but for the grace
to transform them.

~ Simone Weil

Yesterday John did not mention my blog post, so I did not share it with him. I watched the choice points for stories to arise: he doesn’t really care; he still does not value what I write and share; I won’t bring it up unless he mentions it…. on and on and on the ego drives us away from peace, if we allow it.

Last night I turned on my heated mattress pad and was heading to the shower looking forward to crawling into bed early before I realized just how early it was. If I set the manual clocks to the end of daylight savings at that moment, I would have been going to bed at 6:45 pm!

Ugh…

So, I came into the office and surfed for something enlightening, settling on a talk by Barbara Marx Hubbard, an American futurist, author and public speaker. In Awakening the New Species in You, Barbara opened shared how she recognized her life purpose as — “I am helping the noosphere to get its collective eyes.”

Barbara’s vocation was/is to be a communicator and teacher about the history of this planet, the current events, and our opportunity for conscious evolution.

(According to the World Wide Fund for Nature’s 2020 Living Planet Report, wildlife populations have declined by 68% since 1970 as a result of overconsumption, population growth and intensive farming, which is further evidence that humans have unleashed a sixth mass extinction event.
~ NationalGeographic.com )

Barbara’s message prepared me for a good night’s rest and for today’s post:

“We are at a vital shift point where our own actions could lead to greater extinction, or our own actions could lead to greater evolution, or conscious evolution.”

We are at choice to help the nervous system of humanity devolve or evolve! What we do with our energies each moment makes a contribution.

“Our crisis is a birth. We are one living system and we have come to the limit of one phase of natural growth on a finite planet We must learn ethical evolution quickly As we seek to facilitate a gentle birth, a graceful and nonviolent transition to the next stage of our evolution, we will discover a natural pattern, a design of our birth transition, and develop a plan to cooperate with this design.”

This morning, I read the transcript of Dharma Path class from Tuesday, October 27, 2020. From Barbara Brodsky and Aaron:

Let’s start at the end, what you hope to bring forth this year: To learn how to co-create with love. To co-create in your own body, mind, spirit. To co-create in the world. To do this work can only happen from less of the ego self and more of the awakened heart/mind, as I like to call it. You cannot co-create for the highest good of all beings and still be centered in the ego. It doesn’t mean there will be no ego, but there will be ways of bypassing that ego, not getting caught up in the ego’s stories.

This brings to mind The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz:

Agreement 1: Be Impeccable With Your Word.
Agreement 2: Don’t Take Anything Personally.
Agreement 3: Don’t Make Assumptions.
Agreement 4: Always Do Your Best.

These agreements are a pathway we can all walk making room for the ego, without getting caught up in the stories.

… the ego self is the outer clothing. We don’t say, “Barbara is a blue vest.” It’s just something she’s wearing today. The ego, the thoughts, the body, all of these attributes of the self are precious, but they are not your essence.

The last section I highlighted from Tuesday’s Dharma Path class:

My dear friends, as humans you are not meant to 100% glitter. You would burn each other’s eyes out! You need to have a bit of dimness, it’s okay. You teach each other patience, compassion, generosity of spirit.

Barbara Marx Hubbard speaks well the opportunity: “If we continue to grow separately and in competition with each other we could self destruct.”

Or we could awaken the new species!

The Things that Frighten Us

By Debra Basham, on October 31, 2020

Denial and lies are
almost an intrinsic
part of an epidemic.
~ Nicholas A. Christakis

On the heels of the previously expressed idea that John and Debra (and you and yours!) truly are the macrocosm and microcosm, soon after my blog was posted yesterday morning I saw a post John made Tuesday on Facebook: The Dems and the media are so corrupt. Vote Red and encourage your friends to vote Red.

I grabbed my journal and wrote: “I feel the tension in my body.”

As I sat with that tension, I could see my listening to the Rabbi’s talk and choosing to include it in my blog. I had not acknowledged the Rabbi’s admonition but I knew he had one, and I included the link to his talk.

When John and I walked later in the morning, I told him I could see where my choice — my action — was spinning the karmic wheel. I asked him if he had realized how he could have agreed with the sentiment of the post he was commenting on, but without adding to the poisonous political climate plaguing our nation by singling out the “Dems” and liberal media as liars, and going even further by telling others how to vote. He said he had not been able to see that at the time.

As we walked on together, we articulated more skillful ways of commenting. For example, “I saw the interview. I’m praying for all the lying to end.” As we explored further we also saw opportunity to speak a more wise world into being, “We all need to work together and support ourselves. The fighting is such a waste of energy and resources.”

All of you, as you come through this series of human lifetimes, are going to find yourselves as teachers of compassion in the universe. So don’t minimize what you are doing. It’s not about you. It’s not even about your country or your world. It’s about love and the transformation of everything through love. And you are at the heart of this. There are so many beings that appreciate the efforts that you make and support those efforts. ~ Aaron

John and I grew up in a world of double standards nobody questioned and few even recognized. In 1966 when he and I conceived Stacey and got married, he was allowed to finish high school. I was banned. It took both of us to get pregnant, but only one of us was held accountable….

Often the most subtle of distortions have the most toxic ripple effects.

This post’s opening quote is by Nicholas A. Christakis. He says, “Everywhere you see the spread of germs, for the last few thousand years, you see right behind it the spread of lies.” You can listen to a 47-Minute NPR interview with Christakis about his book Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live. Warning: It is not easy to hear the possible impact.

Christakis says the coronavirus has come at a time when we are very vulnerable because of the polarization. He encourages us to let the science do it’s job. Either masks help or they don’t. He says, “Let’s get the science straight first.”

The things that frighten us just want to be held.
~ Mark Nepo

Mark Nepo, author of The Book of Awakening.
In 1987 he discovered a lump on the back of his head that was eventually diagnosed as a rare form of lymphoma.
He is now a two-time cancer survivor.

The interview closes on an encouraging word:

We are a remarkable species…

We have so many wonderful qualities, we humans.

These include the capacity for love, the capacity for friendship; that we cooperate with each other; that we make sacrifices even to benefit strangers.