By Debra Basham, on February 28, 2014
Never born never died,
only visited this planet Earth
between 11 December 1931 and 19 January 1990.
~ On the tombstone of Osho, contemporary mystic
This morning I read a Huffington Post news story of an amazing 99 year-old man. Dobri Dobrev, a resident of Sofia, Bulgaria, is a saint in beggar’s clothing. Every day he takes to the streets to beg, but he gives all he collects—plus his monthly pension—to churches and orphanages. He once gave a single gift of $24,000! Dobrev says he once did a “bad thing” so he is trying to make up for it.
It has been a very intense inner week, and reading this story of Dobrev’s life of service just magnifies what is going on inside me. Some weeks are like that. Seeing the snow melt, learning of a loved-one’s death, tossing away some moldy bread. Everything in my world is reminding me of impermanence and the desire to make a difference in the world. So I ponder…
In the midst of my pondering, this email Thought for the Day from Aaron popped in:
To me, the most important thing that the Buddha taught was that we all have the capacity to awaken. This is our innate nature. We are all Buddhas ready to awaken. In awakening, we become free, liberated from this cycle of birth and death. In other words you are all of the nature to awaken, ready to open your eyes. Freedom is not something that will come to you somewhere in a thousand lifetimes. Freedom is right here and right now, in this lifetime, in this moment.
I wrote to Barbara Brodsky, who channels Aaron, asking her for additional insight. “This one made me wonder what it means to be released from the cycle of birth and death. As I anticipate my future, I have a sense of being eternal, but wonder if you can say more or point me toward something in the archives to satisfy my intellect’s desire to know more.”
Barbara’s simple reply was soothing on many levels: “What he means is that we are no longer pulled karmically into the cycle of rebirth. We can still choose to return, for service and with love.”
In 2011, as I was anticipating surgery to remove a “very aggressive growth” in my abdomen, fear of death was dancing in the back of my mind. Although I had not told many people about the experience I had participating in a workshop in 1999, I had seen my timeline end at 2012. The workshop facilitator wanted me to go in and extend my timeline, and was very upset when I chose not to do so, saying, “If it is my destiny, I will face it.”
So in those last few weeks of 2011, I was wondering if I was witnessing destiny. I did not feel ready to die, I did not want to leave this life, and I was very relieved on New Years Day to still be here!
For sure, we have all done something we might think of as having been “bad.” Maybe we will be blessed to live beyond 99 years like Dobrev, but since we do not know when we will leave this planet earth, in the meantime, I guess you and I have some service to be about….
By Debra Basham, on February 17, 2014
Dear God,
Thank you for the baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy.
–Children’s Letters to God
When I saw this quotation I knew a blog about gifts in unexpected places was asking to be shared!
On Sunday, John (my husband) and I were going to go off-island for a bike ride. Most days we are content to ride on on Pine Island, visiting Eagles’ nests, seeing Falcons, Vultures, Hawks, Osprey, Woodstorks, Egrets, Ibis, Pelicans, Herons, and various other of the nature available on any given day. But we needed groceries, so it was worth putting the bike rack on the van, loading the bikes, and driving the 14 miles. I had planned to ride Veterans Parkway, an urban trail we have previously enjoyed.
When we got the bikes unloaded and headed out, John wanted to go the other direction. I went along for the ride, so to speak, but as we stood by the side of a busy road waiting to cross, I felt the familiar twinges of annoyance. “Why do I agree to something I do not want to do?” I mused inside my head.
Once across the highway, I settled in a bit, grateful for a bike path and almost no traffic. The sun was shining, we had little wind, and the temperature was a very comfortable 75 degrees. My emotions are fickle, I admit that. A premenstrual teenaged girl has nothing on me in that department…
An easy rhythm developed into our making right turns. I love the metaphor of that! Down one side street, up the next, more and more right turns.
We spotted a garage sale and decided to stop. Not noticing a sign “EVERYTHING ON THIS TABLE $1, I picked up a couple of little things and asked the price. Thinking a dollar each was way too much money for the items I had picked up, I put them back but spontaneously heard myself say, “I will take this set of dishes.”
I could tell by looking it was not a complete set, having only five tea cups, but it was still a bargain at $5. While in Florida I could use more dishes that are microwave and dishwasher safe. Handing her the money, I said, “Just pack them up for me, and we will drive back and pick them up.”
A car pulled up and another shopper began browsing. I overheard the other woman grumble, “Damn, people. I wish they would leave us alone.” Actually, the sale was over and they were trying to pack up.
The woman had just started carefully wrapping each of the dished and putting them into a big box when we arrived. I had an intuitive while we had been there earlier, and now as I began to help her wrap and pack, I asked her if the dishes were part of an estate sale. “Yes, they belonged to my sister, Joanne.”
“I am sorry for your loss. How old was your sister?” I could feel her sadness.
She thought for a moment, then told me, “She was 70, and she died last April.”
“I will say a prayer for Joanne every time I use her dishes. I will say one for you, too…”
“What about me? Say a prayer for me, too!” called the other woman, the one who had grumped about people still coming to buy.
“One for Joanne, and one for each of you….” I smiled gently at Joanne’s sister.
Joanne’s sister had a wistful look on her face as she said, “I am glad the dishes are going to someone who will appreciate them. They meant a lot to my sister and that means a lot to me.” I could feel the significance of my current reading of John Edward’s One Last Time: A psychic medium speaks to those we have loved and lost.
As I loaded Joanne’s dishes in the van, I could feel the truth of our lives being moved along by an unseen benevolent force. It was as though my day had been orchestrated by a woman I had never met so that I could bring a gift of peace to a woman I will most likely never meet again.
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| Joanne’s Johnson Brothers Indian Tree China. |
By Debra Basham, on February 5, 2014
Miles are covered one inch at a time.
I believe our birth story (you may have heard tales of your coming into this life) reveals significant threads of your soul purpose—your particular gifts, and your challenges. When I am interviewing a new client I often ask what he or she knows about his or her birth. Some stories are exciting, like “I was born in the back seat of a cab.” Some are frightening: “I was so black my dad thought they were showing him the wrong baby because he thought the baby he was looking at was not Caucasian.” Some birth stories are quite detailed and others are really a question mark, such as with an adoption.
I remember having heard my mom say she had gotten very stressed out by the other women in the labor ward (now there is a term most young mothers will not even recognize) and her labor “stopped.” I am musing about how that might relate to my patience, or lack there of.
I have been watching this snail on the wall of the carport. I wonder what he (she?) thinks about all day and whether or not it is frustrating to cover the same ground over and over again so slowly one can barely perceive any movement at all. In some ways, that reminds me of the nature of the soul.
It has been said that the nature of the soul is cyclical. It seems as though we are covering the same ground but we are actually coming around again from a different point. You can see that movement in the revolution of the sun, or the moon, or the seasons. Spring always follows winter…
I have been working for over three weeks to get our first audi onto CD Baby so it will be available through webstores like iTunes and Amazon.com. It took me three full days to fill out the application. It seems to be the littlest things that can cause a hang up. I did not remember the password to the new bank account number, so I got locked out of the account and had to wait until business hours the next day. I tried for two days to upload the album cover image. Sorry, I do not know about pixels and resolution. The list goes on and on.
Today, I will be more patient. I will focus on the bigger picture and be grateful for the ability to learn new things. I will appreciate that someone at Google does know how to get my gmail messages to come into my iPhone. Yes, it was working before it wasn’t.
I will not cry so easily thinking I am a failure because I am having tech-no-logical challenges. I will celebrate the wonderful young woman I met recently who sent a text saying, “You know what? I just noticed I have not pulled in days! And I’ve been in great moods that have literally been putting my other friends in good moods.”
Today I will celebrate that although my mom said her labor stopped, it obviously started again because I am here. Perhaps my gmail will simply start again, too…
By Debra Basham, on January 29, 2014
Although the act of nurturing another’s spiritual growth
has the effect of nurturing one’s own,
a major characteristic of genuine love is that
the distinction between oneself and the other
is always maintained and preserved.
–M. Scott Peck. M.D.
Peck’s words have me pondering the mysterious dichotomy of our being separate, unique, individual selves, who are simultaneously ONE. All of the mystics write and teach about our oneness. We have a distant sense of knowing of that.
Perhaps it is the way we have 10 fingers and 10 toes, a heart, two legs—all separate, unique, individual body parts, simultaneously ONE body.
I recall an experience years ago. I was snuggled into bed with John (my husband). My fingers were moving almost automatically down his forearm. For an instant, I was not touching his arm. I was touching the arm of our beloved grandson, Brad.
Whatever this “self” is, it is at once both separate and not.
“Debra the Demented” was written on Saturday 18 December 1999.
I stand quivering before the leap out of myself and into mySelf!
It is as though I am perched above life itself and I can see out over the horizon in all directions… feelings unfold before me to my left and to my right…. each has a life of it’s own, yet has no life at all….
The years stretch beyond years and yet fall into nothingness…. as all moments become one…
Laughter belches up within me and dares to give voice with no thought to the shame that might follow…. and silence sucks the breath out of me and leaves me for dead…. only to be once more drawn from the ashes…
If this is an awakening, then I must be mad… and if it is not, then surely I am. I long to write, to give words to this depth… to let the dance dance me… to let the song sing me… to let the death die upon my breast.
Can one lose oneself? Can one go to sleep and never wake up? Can the madness rule the house of one’s soul forever? Or can there be nothing but this endless mirage of life moving one in spite of one’s willingness or resistance?
I am a willing eagle. I am a willing frog. I am a willing birch and blade. I will allow the music to blow through my boughs and I shall throw my head back and laugh once more until the tears take over and then I shall begin again and again and again…
I lift my cup to my lips and say yes to life!
By Debra Basham, on January 27, 2014
“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage.
Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
These very meaningful words came to me today from a poet and novelist born 4 December 1875. Rainer Maria Rilke is what the world would call long dead, having died 29 December 1926. I agree with the words to the hymn: ask me how I know he lives, he lives within my heart. Today Rilke lives inside my heart.
I have been working on a writing project over the past several weeks. In practical terms, I have not yet hit my stride. The theme of the writing is my traumatic trip to Europe in October 2011. I have known the tale needs to be told, but the telling is not easy, and yesterday I got some harsh feedback about the writing I have done so far. I was told it reads like a travelogue: “I went here. I saw this. I did that.”
“Where is the emotion?” one of my fellow writers asked. “Are you hiding something too painful to look at?”
Most people who know me well, would agree I am no stranger to emotion. I have cried over a shrub carelessly tossed by the side of the road after having been ripped from its home along the side of the driveway, making room to park another car. I have cried myself to sleep over circumstances my ears will never hear of.
It has taken me twenty-seven months to be willing to look at my experience in Europe, put pen to paper, and begin to share it with you. I am thankful that today Letters to a Young Poet give me the courage to face that fire-breathing dragon within. I am grateful to know that this chapter of my history wants only my love….
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| Flowers growing along the path at the Montsegur Monument. |
By Debra Basham, on January 20, 2014
Recently we received a copy of Don’t Retire, Rewire! It is amazing that some people really do not enjoy retirement. Jeri Sedlar and Rick Miners write about the new trend of “working retirement” as an opportunity for finding fulfilling work, passion, and life after you leave your full-time career.
I have been meeting with a couple of writers’ groups. One writer gave me his card with this on the back: Retired: No business. No plans. No worries. No money. No future. Too healthy to beg. Too old to steal. Too lazy to work. Ain’t got much. Don’t want anything. Ain’t mad at nobody. Ain’t running for nothing. Waiting for the third of the month.
I have started writing about my experiences in Europe in 2011. As part of that writing process, I have been reading How to Write a Book that Sells You, by Robin Colucci. The author is a writing coach, and while some of the questions she poses really are only about writing a book, this set of questions seems quite thought provoking and appropriate for every person to reflect on.
How do you want to spend your time?
Do you want to work a lot or a little?
Do you want to work with individuals or groups? Large groups or small?
Do you want to travel or stay put?
Where do you want to live?
Do you want to go off for long periods of solitude and self-reflection, or are you a constant networker?
How many months out of the year do you want to work? Which ones?
I attended a workshop by Robert Allen Fahey, who calls himself a psychic medium. He says his work is similar to John Edward, host of TV’s Crossing Over. I have met other people who do this sort of work, but Robert said something that I had not previously heard anyone else say. He said that those on the other side think they are the ones who are living and that we are the ones who are dead.
Whatever you think about people who do this work—about Robert or about John—it is worth reflecting on what it is that gives life to your life.
“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.” — John Lennon
Whether you are near retirement, just entering the workforce, already retired, or anywhere along the path of life, how would you answer these questions? Move beyond the forces of fear. Notice what allows you to be motivated only by love. Make 2014 a year of open-hearted vision.
By Debra Basham, on January 10, 2014
The gift of our serving others also blesses us. A teacher/friend of mine said our service also serves us. We are not talking about tit-for-tat. What we receive does not always come from the source to which we had given. I remember an experience I had about all of this a number of years ago, over a Labor Day weekend.
I had a wedding and a private consultation scheduled. On Thursday of that week I got a call that the wedding had been cancelled. On Friday, I also got a call cancelling the session. I hated to lose the income, but you do your best to be intentional about soulful living and so I noticed the thought, “I wonder what my time is being opened up for.”
Early Tuesday morning I was sitting in my living room—still in my nightgown—enjoying a cup of tea and some time for reflection. Our windows were open, and a gentle breeze of late summer air was filtering in with the quiet. Everything I was experiencing was busy easing my senses when I thought I heard someone calling my name.
Leaning into the sound, again I heard, “Debra…” almost a moan.
It seemed to be coming from the kitchen, so I got up to go look out into our backyard. I saw a friend of ours who stored her jet-ski trailer on our property. She was hunched over on the ground calling out my name!
Still in my nightclothes, I flew out the door and over to her. As I approached, I could see her left hand lying lifelessly in the palm of her right. No small amount of blood was oozing out of one finger, and when I looked more closely you could not avoid seeing the bone. The weight of the trailer had gotten away from her, and her hand had been crushed between the ball on the hitch and the door of our utility barn.
I quickly shut off her car, grabbed her purse, and helped her into my van. I hurriedly pulled on some sweats when I ran into the house to get my keys and rushed her to the hospital. She had no family in our town, so I stayed with her in the emergency room. When they took her into surgery, I was allowed to gown up and be with her throughout the procedure. As they worked to repair her mangled finger, I was calmly doing Healing Touch™. The surgeon said to me, “If I ever needed to have surgery, I would love to have you there with me.”
When my friend was out of post-op and settled into her hospital room, I did more energy work with her, and she slipped into a restful sleep. I was thinking about the privilege of having been there for her as I drove home.
Checking phone messages, I discovered while at the hospital working with my friend, I received a call from an area church asking me to speak. The speaker’s fee was exactly the same dollar amount as the wedding and the consultation would have been!
Having spent my day of service in a way I could not have even imagined, I mused about the way “As you give, so shall you receive.”
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| (From Osho Transformational Tarot) |
By Debra Basham, on January 5, 2014
It is truly amazing how the awareness you most need is being demonstrated to you over and over and over. This must be what is meant by the truth that we live in a failsafe universe.
I was driving my grandson Brad to the airport to pick up a rental car. We had Gabby II (the Garmin) programmed in with the address we got off the internet. As we approached, I was cautiously watching for the place to turn in, when he said to me, “It will save you a lot of stress if you delay being concerned about things. I learned that from pizza delivery work. You can always turn around.”
I felt a catch in my throat as a few tears formed in my eyes. How many times have I wasted my peace of mind living as though every thought, word, or deed was life or death?
Suddenly, my mind flashed back to another time I was driving to an airport with Brad in the car. I was in Tennessee, he was five, his mom was going into labor for his brother, and I was going to pick up his Grandpa. That was in the days before we had a GPS, so I had hand-written directions. My vehicle was off the side of the road, overhead light turned on, reading about where I needed to go.
“Gammie….You are doing it all wrong. You are wasting time. Use your eyes. It is right there.”
He was motioning out the windshield, showing me the airplanes landing and taking off. At a mere five years of age, he knew where the airport was because he was paying attention!
I shared that story with him as we proceeded to our current destination. We mused about how he knows he had that sense and now that he has graduated college with his Master’s Degree, he wants to walk across the country and/or move to a place he has never been. He says he wants to make his way without depending on his previous reputation. I am sure he is aware that where ever he goes, there he will be….
We found the street, followed the Enterprise signs, drove over those nasty tire-puncturing contraptions to make sure you only drive one way, and soon found ourselves in a parking garage along with dozens of returned rental cars. My van was alongside vehicles about three across and ten deep—all of them with no drivers, having been dropped off by those hurrying to catch a flight.
Brad got out and headed into the building to find the counter to pick up his car. More cars came in, now dozens behind me as well as in front of me. Remembering the conversation we had just shared, I fought the urge to panic.
Wearing an official-looking vest, a guy I presumed to be an Enterprise employee jumped into and drove away a car two lanes over, creating a narrow opening for me to squeeze out. Going the wrong-way along the arrows, I knew I was heading toward the tire torture contraption!
Just as I emerged back out into the sunlight, I saw what may or may not have also been an Enterprise employee. I waved and called out to him saying that I had gotten in there by mistake while dropping someone off to pick up a car, and I needed to get out. He said, “Hurry! Go this wrong way quickly, and get over there, and then follow the exit signs!”
Twisting and turning, I eventually came to an attendant who opened a gate and I was soon out on the road. I asked Siri to “call Brad mobile” and told him I was out and heading back to the house. We had planned to drive him to the airport, but at the last minute chose to rent a car so he could drive himself. As an aside, he was so excited to get a cute little red Fiat 500!
Even when you can’t literally turn around and go back exactly the same way you came, you can relax and enjoy a bit of patience and persistence and watch how things do have a way of working out….
By Debra Basham, on December 25, 2013
Neale Donald Walsch wrote on Christmas Day,
I believe God wants you to knowthat
the reason so much of humanity commemorates
this day is that so much of
humanity seeks to give and receive love.
During this holy time, know that all times are holy,
That every religion holds truth,
that each tradition is sacred,
and that it is in the simple sharing of love that
we make our beliefs come alive, and our dreams come true.
Years ago, I was so into Christmas that I had four trees in our house. We had the main tree in the family room, a smaller table-top tree in the living room, a four-foot Victorian style tree in our master bedroom, and a 3 foot tree in our daughter’s bedroom. In the main bath the shower curtain was swapped out for a Christmas motif, the toilet seat cover had Santa on it, and even the tissue box was in the style of a gingerbread house.
Shopping and wrapping and baking occupied every free waking moment for weeks and weeks….
What a welcome contrast to now hold the awareness of this season as one about giving and receiving love.
Do you notice how much more considerate drivers can be as the hustle and bustle reaches a fever pitch?
What about those who buy for a Christmas family, have a tree planted in a national forest, or provide chicks or sheep through Heifer International?
Over the past many years, as I have found myself on a much more inner journey, I can see it all with appreciation. I appreciate those who are true to what has heart and meaning for them. While out doing the last-minute shopping for stocking stuffers with my daughter, it was tender to remember all with love.
I remember the Christmas plays at school, the candlelight services at church, the family dinners at with my mom and dad and sisters and our kids. I remember the Christmas when I was five. My dad’s boss provided our Christmas of previously-loved toys.
All these memories are precious gifts. Nothing bought or wrapped or delivered compares. Faith, hope, and love—the greatest of these is love.
As Neale Donald Walsch finishes his message for the day:
Let this Christmas Day remind us that Christ came to
invite us to offer love to all humankind, and to
open the door of God’s kingdom to every soul.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
By Debra Basham, on December 18, 2013
No matter how long the room has been dark,
an hour or a million years,
the moment the lamp of awareness is lit the entire room becomes luminous.
You are that luminosity.
You are that clear light.
-Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Time passes, and we view each new moment through the moments we have lived. Painful moments, joyful moments, busy moments, leisured moments. As a passenger on a train ride, we are watching the landscape out the window. We see the fields and the towns. We hear the call of the owl and watch the autumn leaves fall. Through it all, we are more than what we see or say or feel or know.
Today the sun was shining, then it wasn’t.
Today it was snowing and blowing and the roads were coated with ice.
Then they weren’t.
Tonight the moon was big and bright, and now it isn’t.
While everything outer waxes and wanes, you are that unchanging luminosity.
You are that clear light.
Tonight I am thankful.
Tomorrow I will recall today.
From Awakened by Stirrings:
Will we come to our senses and honor the will of the creator? “The greatest of these is love.” There is no way to know where we are going. We must move into the darkness of the preconceived ideas and from the very center of the soul weave together the threads of bodies, minds, and spirit.
Never again shall we walk this way. We must not look back, for fear will surely grab us and yank us into denial. We must let our heart guide us where our minds would not dare to let us go… Thereby we will find a way to invite others to join… Where all will remember that we were made to be free!
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