Barbara Brodsky « Yellow Brick Road: Your Path to Heart & Health

Walking Each Other Home

By Debra Basham, on May 24, 2023

“…we might almost say silence is the tribute we pay to holiness; we slip off words when we enter a sacred space, just as we slip off shoes. A ‘moment of silence’ is the highest honor we can pay someone; it is the point at which the mind stops and something else takes over (words […]

Killdeer Babies: Know Where to Look

By Debra Basham, on March 31, 2023

When you cease to relate to the darkness as something separate or other than the light, this invites the darkness into its sacred expression. In its highest expression it comes as teacher — perhaps not pleasant, but as teacher. Pain, fear, grief — not separate from the light. ~ Aaron

On Tuesday evening at the […]

Birds at Oakwood

By Debra Basham, on November 5, 2022

The 8-day silent meditation retreat will take more than one Yellow Brick Road to share with readers. Day One included 22-month old, Jackson, our great grandson, being air-lifted from the hospital in Chattanooga to Vanderbilt after he had a seizure in the parking garage following discharge.

Day Eight is complete with nurse Linda diagnosing […]

Good Can Come From This

By Debra Basham, on October 27, 2022

This post was started on October 17, 2022. Today is now ten days later. I cannot explain fully what derailed my completing the entry, but, say only, a lot has changed during this interim. The post began with this:

On Sunday, October 16, this loving blessing came through Barbara Brodsky:

The Mother to Debra […]

Embrace Your Radiance and Power

By Debra Basham, on September 19, 2022

Sometimes it takes hindsight to see most clearly how to move forward.

This morning I came across a Beyond Mastery Newsletter post from ten years ago. The title of that post is “You’re Pushin’ Too Hard.” Here it is:

I may have been affected by a week of flu, but these words to the […]

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. […]

Coyote Pup and Purposeful Purse Project

By Debra Basham, on June 13, 2022

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist when you grow up.

~ Pablo Picasso

Yesterday was very busy. I did the grocery shopping and had everything put away before John got up. I worked right up to the Sunday morning meditation at 11:00 and was back online at 1:30 […]

Nothing to Attain

By Debra Basham, on June 9, 2022

We are so brief. A one-day dandelion. A seedpod skittering across the ice. We are a feather falling from the wing of a bird. I don’t know why it is given to us to be so mortal and to feel so much. It is a cruel trick, and glorious.

~ Louise Eldrich

We looked at […]

It’s Not a Wall

By Debra Basham, on May 30, 2022

Yesterday morning I received a text message from Joel, simply, “Not well.”

This was the first news from him since Thursday morning, May 19, when a staff member came in and swabbed his nose, testing him for Covid while we were on FaceTime. After that he did not answer text messages, or return calls. […]

Already a Butterfly

By Debra Basham, on May 4, 2022

In The Wisdom of No Escape: And the Path of Loving-kindness, Pema Chödrön qutoes Joseph Campbell, writing, “It has been said, quite accurately that the psychotic drowns in the same waters in which the mystic swims with delight.” One might wonder what it is that the mystic sees/hears/knows/experiences which leads to the more pleasant conclusion.

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Yellow Brick Road: Your Path to Heart & Health