Reflections on
"Simple Abundance"
July ~ Days 1-7
Month of July ~ Slow Down
"Lovely July...with the evocative murmur of honey bees on the wing and the smell of sun tan cream". (Cynthia Wickham)
"The pursuit of happiness becomes our personal priority this month, as the sweet strains of the fourth Simple Abundance principle ~ Harmoney ~ start to be heard in our hearts.
July 1 ~ Constant Craving
"I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." (St. Paul)
I know someone....when I told her my gratitudes, she told me her life was ugly and there was not one thing in her life to be thankful for. She challenged me to find one thing...I didn't do it. Because I knew if she was that blind, her eyes would never open just because I said so. Do you know what it feels like to have always been there for someone, always turning yourself inside out for someone, and have that someone say there is not one thing in their life to be thankful for as they look at YOU? Maybe it's a parent....maybe it's someone else ...another relative, a sibling, neighbor, someone you work with, a 'friend' ...someone you have tried to please with all your soul....and they looked right thru you and all you've given them of yourself.
Let me tell you something, there is not a person on the face of this earth who has not felt the sting of invalidation from someone, you are not the only one. The important thing to know is that that person's life was already like this BEFORE you came along. And yes! It is quite possible to live a life of joy and thankfulness, not dependent on what other people dish out to you, or the circumstances that have brought you to where you are today.
Sarah tells us "all I have is all I need". Life is not found in all you can gather together, neither is it found in the struggle to please everyone else, your self last or never. If you could please them, you would have done it a long time ago. It is knowing you have a clean heart, and knowing you have contentment from things money can't buy. I've been with money, and I've been without, and the joy in my heart never went hungry.
Contentment is truly seeing with unveiled eyes that you have so many things to be thankful for. We all have a million problems that agitate us and hurt us, but success is to see the good things, and let them take their rightful place, and in doing so, balancing out the uglies that would take over if we failed to acknowledge the good. Do not set out to think of all that is wrong in your life, or you will have another thing wrong - a poor disposition. Consider the words of Paul, and the empowerment that will come from positive living if you follow his advice:
....whatsoever things are true, whatesoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever, things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virture, and if there be any praise, think on THESE things.
July 2 ~ Redeeming the Day
Ever have those days when you wake up and feel like this is going to be the day you really get control? Your brain is clear, you make good choices, and you are feeling strong and able....but then....things start to go amiss. What's going on? Isn't the point supposed to be that if you plan your work and work your plan you WILL be successful?
Maybe we better stop and ask ourselves, "what is SUCCESSFUL?" Is 'successful' meeting all challenges and winning and having everything turn out just as you planned? Surprise....it is not.
If you will be successful, then you will know what it means to try and fail.....and not lose yourself, nor 'give up' when things don't go right, nor trap yourself in the pursuit of perfection.
'Success' is doing your best, and when that is done, ....LETTING IT GO. With peace in your heart, focus on the many wonderful things around you, which will redeem the day, you might think lost if your only goal was to be perfect. You didn't really think you were perfect....did you? So, quit worrying about it, and allow yourself to feel the thousands of little joys around you everyday.
Somedays are made up of little joys, others are redeemed by them!
July 3 -
Well, it's happened.....I can't relate to this reading. I am not sure why Sarah's concept of Adam and Eve was that they were sitting like a bunch of robots with no desire, fun nor activities. Apparently Eve WAS deciding what to make for dinner, or she wouldn't have been out gathering food and ended up plucking the apple. They were not zombies in the Garden of Eden, they were there to 'dress the garden'. Do you know what that means? They were the caretakers...hello? They tended the garden! Just because there was no cancer, pain nor death, does not mean they didn't have things they did and enjoyed and made decisions on.
I will only agree that we all have wonderful imaginations and a million good choices to pick from freely. We do not have to pick a bad choice in order to be free or creative. Use your skills and creativity and zest for living to add special wonderful touches that create the 'flavor' of your own life. Disobeying God is not the path to any kind of freedom, nor will I salute someone for doing it.
My apologies to those that this may not set well with, but there is a point when one cannot agree, when they would have to deny their own beliefs and lie to their own soul.
July 4 ~ The Pursuit of Happiness
Philosophist, William James, was a pragmatist, and believed that personal happiness depended on practicality: If the life you are living lives up to your expectations, you are happy. If it doesn't, you are depressed.
Some may interpret this as living a dejected life of accepting they won't ever get anywhere. Actually, it is the very opposite. Many of us know exactly when to look at our friends and say "stop, this is obsessive and you are going to have a nervous breakdown if you keep going like this". Unfortunately, we are usually wearing blinders when it comes to seeing ourselves very clearly. We have such lofty expectations of perfection, that we can do nothing but fail miserably when comparing our goal with the actual result - NO MATTER HOW GOOD WE ACTUALLY DID!
Today, on the independence day of the USA, let's all celebrate, regardless of what country you may be from! Free yourself from the contrictions of expecting that whatever you do MUST bring an audible gasp from the world, or you failed. Express yourself with the purpose behind it being to create something you love, not whether the world will put your picture on TIME magazine for it! Being free from 'over-achiever' expectations will make your life a fun, inviting and relaxing place to be, and one you will feel success in, not constant reproval because you 'failed' being perfect AGAIN.
The pursuit of happiness is not the pursuit of the most perfect, biggest, prettiest. It is so simple we overlook it. Notice they didn't call it the "pursuit of perfection", pursuit of the biggest" nor "pursuit of the prettiest"? Plain and simple, open the windows of your soul and read the real word at the end of this phrase: The pursuit of _HAPPINESS_ !
July 5 ~ Cooking Companions
"No one who cooks cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks presnet, the wisdom of cookbook writers." (Laurie Colwin)
Some people hate to cook and consider it a drudgery....but, for others, it is a time of creating and memories. I can remember the year we decided to stay home and have our holiday meals. My son had just gotten a herbst appliance to correct his biting problem. He literally could not bring his teeth together! I had to use a food processor and grind up everything. No, it was not just like baby food, but it was just like real food pre-chewed! It was Thanksgiving, and I couldn't imagine taking him somewhere to watch everyone else eating big plates of regular food. So, we stayed home and I made a regular Thanksgiving meal, and ground it ALL up. We all 3 ate our ground up food and you know what? It was the best Thanksgiving I'd ever had. I decided then and there that when my son grew up and remembered the holidays, it was my meals I wanted him to remember, not some one else's. If you wanted to do both, you could still have holiday meals with other family members, and have your own a week sooner. That way you can do it all. It had always been something I had wanted OUT OF, because all my relatives did was fight around the table anyway. Once I saw what it could be like, I finally had the courage to tell them we were staying home, just us 3! I didn't want my son's memories of holidays all being about family fights.
How about searching your mind for the good memories now? I can remember, a syrup my mother used to make out of brown sugar and before it got hot, she would add a well scrambled egg and stir to keep clumps from forming. What would happen is that you didn't ever see the egg, but the syrup would take on a beadiness, like liquid lumps of brown sugar ....and served over hot buttered bisquits it was heaven. Other times, she would make up a dough and flatten it and add butter, brown and white sugar, cinnamon and dots of butter and fold it over twice, to make huge rolls for breakfast. Bisquits and gravy were a daily event in the summer when we were all there. Just about every Friday nite, my mother would cook up a big pot of either Hershey's Fudge or Penuche. I don't even think they put the fudge recipe on the can anymore! Take mine:
COCOA FUDGE
2/3 Cup Hershey's cocoa
3 Cups Sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 Cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
Thouroughly combine cocoa, sugar, and salt in a 4 quart saucepan, gradually add a little milk and stir in completely before adding more, till all is stirred in. Cook on medium heat and stir constantly until it comes to a "bubbly" boil.
Continue to boil WITHOUT stirring until 234 degrees or until a small amount forms a soft ball when dropped into cold water. (about the time it's done, you will notice the volume goes down in the pan to about 1/2 of what it was)
Remove pan from heat, add butter and vanilla and DO NOT STIR. Cool to 110 degrees. Beat by hand until fudge starts getting hard to stir and you see it is losing it's shininess. Quickly spread in pre-buttered 8-9 inch pan or dinner plate. Cool.
PENUCHE:
Combine below 5 ingredients in 2quart pan.
Cook and stir over medium heat until dissolved:
1 C sugar
1 C Brown Sugar
2/3 C milk
2 T corn syrup
1/4 tsp salt
Continue to cook until 234 degrees or it reaches the soft ball stage.
Remove from heat, do not stir yet and add:
2 T of butter or margarine
1 tsp of vanilla
and if you have it, add about 1 tsp of Black Walnut flavoring
Cool to about 120 degrees (pan is warm, not hot) without stirring. Then begin to beat and spread into buttered plate when it begins to lose it's shine.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I remember my dad frying up the fish he caught, mmmmm....fried fish coated in corn meal with lots of salt and a piece of white bread was all that was needed to eat around the tv...funny, it was never in a meal....always just kind of fried up and ate at the time!
I still have the recipes from 7th grade home ec class - peanut butter cookies and spice cookies, Russian teacakes.....mmmmmmm......
I love to make something I know is nourishing or a special treat for my family....and I love the opportunity to present it to them in a way that shows I took special care in it. It doesn't matter if it is steak or hotdogs, china or plastic dishes...it is the way I feel as I bring it together, part of me is in there!
If you have special things you make, why not make SURE, today, that they are written down, so they will not be lost from your heritage.
July 6 ~ The Good Life
"The one fact that I would cry from every housetop is this: the 'Good Life' is waiting for us - here and now." (B. F. Skinner)
What does the phrase "Living the Good Life" mean to you? I think it's important that first off we all realize that it is not about how rich you are, although there is sure nothing wrong with being rich if you happen to be! But, rich or poor, or somewhere in between, we will all be searching for the same thing....a life that brings us peace and joy and satisfaction. A feeling that we are making a difference and contributing something unique from ourselves, that no other person could do because we are all unique creatures, bringing different virtues with us. Different levels of income, education, and even cultural heritage, has shaped us into unique beings. Everything that has happened to us in our entire lives, will form us and take a part in who we are....the largest factor being OUR REACTION to what has happened to us. If you will feel these things and live the good life, you will need to do what you do for the feeling in your own heart, validating yourself and your beliefs with your life and the way you live it. Don't wait for validation from someone else to feel your importance, the world is short on handing out validation, and if you are waiting for it from someone else, your soul may go hungry, when the truth is already inside you.
Whether the 'good life' means sitting by your inground swimming pool or rocking on your back porch watching fireflies ...it is vitally important that your search for 'it' is done from the aspect of having the abundance of PEACE in your life. With peace abiding inside you, the whole world is a new creation to you everyday and the 'good life' will be where ever you live it.
July 7 ~ Cooking for Comfort
It seems that our 'beautiful' society has cast out comfort foods as a 'no-no' and delegated all to be skinny, eat no fat, no carbs and ....uh.....feel miserable. While I do feel people should not stuff their face nonstop instead of looking for a better solution ...you know, there are just times, when I've seen some things on the news and thought to myself, "if she had sat down and ate a couple of donuts she would not have done that". But, I can just hear her mind repeating to her, "don't eat those donuts or you'll never lose weight" as slapped her kid's face and kicked the cat.
I just really think it is important to listen to your body at all times. If you have spoiled your ownself by always eating incorrectly, then first you will have to do some studying to find out what a person really should be eating. You know who you are! So, I want to make it real clear that I'm NOT talking about eating irresponsibly from day to day. But just as your body tells you it is thirsty, or craves sleep, there may be times when it has mentally had it, and it really needs you to give it something that will comfort it. If nature put the things in those carbs that soothes the brain and your brain is hurting - don't buck nature! Don't scream and be ugly, just eat the darn plate of cookies and go on! Don't eat cookies day to day, matter of factly BUT if your wiggin' out, for God's sake, give yourself a break and allow the comfort food to do what it's named for. There is nothing wrong with using nature's natural calming foods when needed.
I remember one time in a private treatment conference, the oral surgeon told me that he was going to have to pull several of my young son's teeth. I cried all the way home, not knowing how I was going to tell my son what was said in the conference. My husband stopped the car and went in the store and came out with a box of donuts. I ate 2 donuts and my disposition went from squalling my eyes out, to "don't worry son, this is something that is done all the time, and it will only take a few minutes and then you'll be all set for the next step!" If I had arrived home in the state I had left the doctor's office in, my son would have been traumatized and had no reason to believe he was going to live thru it.
Eat responsibly, feed and teach your family to eat responsibly, and when you need a little comfort food, don't let society tell you that a natural solution that is not overboard is wrong. If you don't worry about totally throwing all these products out of your diet, you will not binge when you finally eat one again. Accept them as part of life, be thankful for the comfort they were designed to make you feel, and don't abuse them.
Read July 8-15
*In order to understand the full context of these reflections, you will enjoy your own copy of the Sarah Ban Breathnach book:
"Simple Abundance ~ A Daybook of Comfort and joy"
Sarah's Website ~ ENJOY!: www.simpleabundance.com
Uploaded July 2001
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED-COPYRIGHT 2001
This page hosted by 
Get your own Free Home Page
Month of July ~ Slow Down
"Lovely July...with the evocative murmur of honey bees on the wing and the smell of sun tan cream". (Cynthia Wickham)
"The pursuit of happiness becomes our personal priority this month, as the sweet strains of the fourth Simple Abundance principle ~ Harmoney ~ start to be heard in our hearts.
July 1 ~ Constant Craving
"I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." (St. Paul)
I know someone....when I told her my gratitudes, she told me her life was ugly and there was not one thing in her life to be thankful for. She challenged me to find one thing...I didn't do it. Because I knew if she was that blind, her eyes would never open just because I said so. Do you know what it feels like to have always been there for someone, always turning yourself inside out for someone, and have that someone say there is not one thing in their life to be thankful for as they look at YOU? Maybe it's a parent....maybe it's someone else ...another relative, a sibling, neighbor, someone you work with, a 'friend' ...someone you have tried to please with all your soul....and they looked right thru you and all you've given them of yourself.
Let me tell you something, there is not a person on the face of this earth who has not felt the sting of invalidation from someone, you are not the only one. The important thing to know is that that person's life was already like this BEFORE you came along. And yes! It is quite possible to live a life of joy and thankfulness, not dependent on what other people dish out to you, or the circumstances that have brought you to where you are today.
Sarah tells us "all I have is all I need". Life is not found in all you can gather together, neither is it found in the struggle to please everyone else, your self last or never. If you could please them, you would have done it a long time ago. It is knowing you have a clean heart, and knowing you have contentment from things money can't buy. I've been with money, and I've been without, and the joy in my heart never went hungry.
Contentment is truly seeing with unveiled eyes that you have so many things to be thankful for. We all have a million problems that agitate us and hurt us, but success is to see the good things, and let them take their rightful place, and in doing so, balancing out the uglies that would take over if we failed to acknowledge the good. Do not set out to think of all that is wrong in your life, or you will have another thing wrong - a poor disposition. Consider the words of Paul, and the empowerment that will come from positive living if you follow his advice:
....whatsoever things are true, whatesoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever, things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virture, and if there be any praise, think on THESE things.
July 2 ~ Redeeming the Day
Ever have those days when you wake up and feel like this is going to be the day you really get control? Your brain is clear, you make good choices, and you are feeling strong and able....but then....things start to go amiss. What's going on? Isn't the point supposed to be that if you plan your work and work your plan you WILL be successful?
Maybe we better stop and ask ourselves, "what is SUCCESSFUL?" Is 'successful' meeting all challenges and winning and having everything turn out just as you planned? Surprise....it is not.
If you will be successful, then you will know what it means to try and fail.....and not lose yourself, nor 'give up' when things don't go right, nor trap yourself in the pursuit of perfection.
'Success' is doing your best, and when that is done, ....LETTING IT GO. With peace in your heart, focus on the many wonderful things around you, which will redeem the day, you might think lost if your only goal was to be perfect. You didn't really think you were perfect....did you? So, quit worrying about it, and allow yourself to feel the thousands of little joys around you everyday.
Somedays are made up of little joys, others are redeemed by them!
July 3 -
Well, it's happened.....I can't relate to this reading. I am not sure why Sarah's concept of Adam and Eve was that they were sitting like a bunch of robots with no desire, fun nor activities. Apparently Eve WAS deciding what to make for dinner, or she wouldn't have been out gathering food and ended up plucking the apple. They were not zombies in the Garden of Eden, they were there to 'dress the garden'. Do you know what that means? They were the caretakers...hello? They tended the garden! Just because there was no cancer, pain nor death, does not mean they didn't have things they did and enjoyed and made decisions on.
I will only agree that we all have wonderful imaginations and a million good choices to pick from freely. We do not have to pick a bad choice in order to be free or creative. Use your skills and creativity and zest for living to add special wonderful touches that create the 'flavor' of your own life. Disobeying God is not the path to any kind of freedom, nor will I salute someone for doing it.
My apologies to those that this may not set well with, but there is a point when one cannot agree, when they would have to deny their own beliefs and lie to their own soul.
July 4 ~ The Pursuit of Happiness
Philosophist, William James, was a pragmatist, and believed that personal happiness depended on practicality: If the life you are living lives up to your expectations, you are happy. If it doesn't, you are depressed.
Some may interpret this as living a dejected life of accepting they won't ever get anywhere. Actually, it is the very opposite. Many of us know exactly when to look at our friends and say "stop, this is obsessive and you are going to have a nervous breakdown if you keep going like this". Unfortunately, we are usually wearing blinders when it comes to seeing ourselves very clearly. We have such lofty expectations of perfection, that we can do nothing but fail miserably when comparing our goal with the actual result - NO MATTER HOW GOOD WE ACTUALLY DID!
Today, on the independence day of the USA, let's all celebrate, regardless of what country you may be from! Free yourself from the contrictions of expecting that whatever you do MUST bring an audible gasp from the world, or you failed. Express yourself with the purpose behind it being to create something you love, not whether the world will put your picture on TIME magazine for it! Being free from 'over-achiever' expectations will make your life a fun, inviting and relaxing place to be, and one you will feel success in, not constant reproval because you 'failed' being perfect AGAIN.
The pursuit of happiness is not the pursuit of the most perfect, biggest, prettiest. It is so simple we overlook it. Notice they didn't call it the "pursuit of perfection", pursuit of the biggest" nor "pursuit of the prettiest"? Plain and simple, open the windows of your soul and read the real word at the end of this phrase: The pursuit of _HAPPINESS_ !
July 5 ~ Cooking Companions
"No one who cooks cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks presnet, the wisdom of cookbook writers." (Laurie Colwin)
Some people hate to cook and consider it a drudgery....but, for others, it is a time of creating and memories. I can remember the year we decided to stay home and have our holiday meals. My son had just gotten a herbst appliance to correct his biting problem. He literally could not bring his teeth together! I had to use a food processor and grind up everything. No, it was not just like baby food, but it was just like real food pre-chewed! It was Thanksgiving, and I couldn't imagine taking him somewhere to watch everyone else eating big plates of regular food. So, we stayed home and I made a regular Thanksgiving meal, and ground it ALL up. We all 3 ate our ground up food and you know what? It was the best Thanksgiving I'd ever had. I decided then and there that when my son grew up and remembered the holidays, it was my meals I wanted him to remember, not some one else's. If you wanted to do both, you could still have holiday meals with other family members, and have your own a week sooner. That way you can do it all. It had always been something I had wanted OUT OF, because all my relatives did was fight around the table anyway. Once I saw what it could be like, I finally had the courage to tell them we were staying home, just us 3! I didn't want my son's memories of holidays all being about family fights.
How about searching your mind for the good memories now? I can remember, a syrup my mother used to make out of brown sugar and before it got hot, she would add a well scrambled egg and stir to keep clumps from forming. What would happen is that you didn't ever see the egg, but the syrup would take on a beadiness, like liquid lumps of brown sugar ....and served over hot buttered bisquits it was heaven. Other times, she would make up a dough and flatten it and add butter, brown and white sugar, cinnamon and dots of butter and fold it over twice, to make huge rolls for breakfast. Bisquits and gravy were a daily event in the summer when we were all there. Just about every Friday nite, my mother would cook up a big pot of either Hershey's Fudge or Penuche. I don't even think they put the fudge recipe on the can anymore! Take mine:
COCOA FUDGE
2/3 Cup Hershey's cocoa
3 Cups Sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 Cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
Thouroughly combine cocoa, sugar, and salt in a 4 quart saucepan, gradually add a little milk and stir in completely before adding more, till all is stirred in. Cook on medium heat and stir constantly until it comes to a "bubbly" boil.
Continue to boil WITHOUT stirring until 234 degrees or until a small amount forms a soft ball when dropped into cold water. (about the time it's done, you will notice the volume goes down in the pan to about 1/2 of what it was)
Remove pan from heat, add butter and vanilla and DO NOT STIR. Cool to 110 degrees. Beat by hand until fudge starts getting hard to stir and you see it is losing it's shininess. Quickly spread in pre-buttered 8-9 inch pan or dinner plate. Cool.
PENUCHE:
Combine below 5 ingredients in 2quart pan.
Cook and stir over medium heat until dissolved:
1 C sugar
1 C Brown Sugar
2/3 C milk
2 T corn syrup
1/4 tsp salt
Continue to cook until 234 degrees or it reaches the soft ball stage.
Remove from heat, do not stir yet and add:
2 T of butter or margarine
1 tsp of vanilla
and if you have it, add about 1 tsp of Black Walnut flavoring
Cool to about 120 degrees (pan is warm, not hot) without stirring. Then begin to beat and spread into buttered plate when it begins to lose it's shine.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I remember my dad frying up the fish he caught, mmmmm....fried fish coated in corn meal with lots of salt and a piece of white bread was all that was needed to eat around the tv...funny, it was never in a meal....always just kind of fried up and ate at the time!
I still have the recipes from 7th grade home ec class - peanut butter cookies and spice cookies, Russian teacakes.....mmmmmmm......
I love to make something I know is nourishing or a special treat for my family....and I love the opportunity to present it to them in a way that shows I took special care in it. It doesn't matter if it is steak or hotdogs, china or plastic dishes...it is the way I feel as I bring it together, part of me is in there!
If you have special things you make, why not make SURE, today, that they are written down, so they will not be lost from your heritage.
July 6 ~ The Good Life
"The one fact that I would cry from every housetop is this: the 'Good Life' is waiting for us - here and now." (B. F. Skinner)
What does the phrase "Living the Good Life" mean to you? I think it's important that first off we all realize that it is not about how rich you are, although there is sure nothing wrong with being rich if you happen to be! But, rich or poor, or somewhere in between, we will all be searching for the same thing....a life that brings us peace and joy and satisfaction. A feeling that we are making a difference and contributing something unique from ourselves, that no other person could do because we are all unique creatures, bringing different virtues with us. Different levels of income, education, and even cultural heritage, has shaped us into unique beings. Everything that has happened to us in our entire lives, will form us and take a part in who we are....the largest factor being OUR REACTION to what has happened to us. If you will feel these things and live the good life, you will need to do what you do for the feeling in your own heart, validating yourself and your beliefs with your life and the way you live it. Don't wait for validation from someone else to feel your importance, the world is short on handing out validation, and if you are waiting for it from someone else, your soul may go hungry, when the truth is already inside you.
Whether the 'good life' means sitting by your inground swimming pool or rocking on your back porch watching fireflies ...it is vitally important that your search for 'it' is done from the aspect of having the abundance of PEACE in your life. With peace abiding inside you, the whole world is a new creation to you everyday and the 'good life' will be where ever you live it.
July 7 ~ Cooking for Comfort
It seems that our 'beautiful' society has cast out comfort foods as a 'no-no' and delegated all to be skinny, eat no fat, no carbs and ....uh.....feel miserable. While I do feel people should not stuff their face nonstop instead of looking for a better solution ...you know, there are just times, when I've seen some things on the news and thought to myself, "if she had sat down and ate a couple of donuts she would not have done that". But, I can just hear her mind repeating to her, "don't eat those donuts or you'll never lose weight" as slapped her kid's face and kicked the cat.
I just really think it is important to listen to your body at all times. If you have spoiled your ownself by always eating incorrectly, then first you will have to do some studying to find out what a person really should be eating. You know who you are! So, I want to make it real clear that I'm NOT talking about eating irresponsibly from day to day. But just as your body tells you it is thirsty, or craves sleep, there may be times when it has mentally had it, and it really needs you to give it something that will comfort it. If nature put the things in those carbs that soothes the brain and your brain is hurting - don't buck nature! Don't scream and be ugly, just eat the darn plate of cookies and go on! Don't eat cookies day to day, matter of factly BUT if your wiggin' out, for God's sake, give yourself a break and allow the comfort food to do what it's named for. There is nothing wrong with using nature's natural calming foods when needed.
I remember one time in a private treatment conference, the oral surgeon told me that he was going to have to pull several of my young son's teeth. I cried all the way home, not knowing how I was going to tell my son what was said in the conference. My husband stopped the car and went in the store and came out with a box of donuts. I ate 2 donuts and my disposition went from squalling my eyes out, to "don't worry son, this is something that is done all the time, and it will only take a few minutes and then you'll be all set for the next step!" If I had arrived home in the state I had left the doctor's office in, my son would have been traumatized and had no reason to believe he was going to live thru it.
Eat responsibly, feed and teach your family to eat responsibly, and when you need a little comfort food, don't let society tell you that a natural solution that is not overboard is wrong. If you don't worry about totally throwing all these products out of your diet, you will not binge when you finally eat one again. Accept them as part of life, be thankful for the comfort they were designed to make you feel, and don't abuse them.
Read July 8-15
*In order to understand the full context of these reflections, you will enjoy your own copy of the Sarah Ban Breathnach book:
"Simple Abundance ~ A Daybook of Comfort and joy"
Sarah's Website ~ ENJOY!: www.simpleabundance.com
Uploaded July 2001
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED-COPYRIGHT 2001
This page hosted by
Get your own Free Home Page
"Lovely July...with the evocative murmur of honey bees on the wing and the smell of sun tan cream". (Cynthia Wickham)
"The pursuit of happiness becomes our personal priority this month, as the sweet strains of the fourth Simple Abundance principle ~ Harmoney ~ start to be heard in our hearts.
July 1 ~ Constant Craving
"I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." (St. Paul)
I know someone....when I told her my gratitudes, she told me her life was ugly and there was not one thing in her life to be thankful for. She challenged me to find one thing...I didn't do it. Because I knew if she was that blind, her eyes would never open just because I said so. Do you know what it feels like to have always been there for someone, always turning yourself inside out for someone, and have that someone say there is not one thing in their life to be thankful for as they look at YOU? Maybe it's a parent....maybe it's someone else ...another relative, a sibling, neighbor, someone you work with, a 'friend' ...someone you have tried to please with all your soul....and they looked right thru you and all you've given them of yourself.
Let me tell you something, there is not a person on the face of this earth who has not felt the sting of invalidation from someone, you are not the only one. The important thing to know is that that person's life was already like this BEFORE you came along. And yes! It is quite possible to live a life of joy and thankfulness, not dependent on what other people dish out to you, or the circumstances that have brought you to where you are today.
Sarah tells us "all I have is all I need". Life is not found in all you can gather together, neither is it found in the struggle to please everyone else, your self last or never. If you could please them, you would have done it a long time ago. It is knowing you have a clean heart, and knowing you have contentment from things money can't buy. I've been with money, and I've been without, and the joy in my heart never went hungry.
Contentment is truly seeing with unveiled eyes that you have so many things to be thankful for. We all have a million problems that agitate us and hurt us, but success is to see the good things, and let them take their rightful place, and in doing so, balancing out the uglies that would take over if we failed to acknowledge the good. Do not set out to think of all that is wrong in your life, or you will have another thing wrong - a poor disposition. Consider the words of Paul, and the empowerment that will come from positive living if you follow his advice:
....whatsoever things are true, whatesoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever, things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virture, and if there be any praise, think on THESE things.
July 2 ~ Redeeming the Day
Ever have those days when you wake up and feel like this is going to be the day you really get control? Your brain is clear, you make good choices, and you are feeling strong and able....but then....things start to go amiss. What's going on? Isn't the point supposed to be that if you plan your work and work your plan you WILL be successful?
Maybe we better stop and ask ourselves, "what is SUCCESSFUL?" Is 'successful' meeting all challenges and winning and having everything turn out just as you planned? Surprise....it is not.
If you will be successful, then you will know what it means to try and fail.....and not lose yourself, nor 'give up' when things don't go right, nor trap yourself in the pursuit of perfection.
'Success' is doing your best, and when that is done, ....LETTING IT GO. With peace in your heart, focus on the many wonderful things around you, which will redeem the day, you might think lost if your only goal was to be perfect. You didn't really think you were perfect....did you? So, quit worrying about it, and allow yourself to feel the thousands of little joys around you everyday.
Somedays are made up of little joys, others are redeemed by them!
July 3 - Well, it's happened.....I can't relate to this reading. I am not sure why Sarah's concept of Adam and Eve was that they were sitting like a bunch of robots with no desire, fun nor activities. Apparently Eve WAS deciding what to make for dinner, or she wouldn't have been out gathering food and ended up plucking the apple. They were not zombies in the Garden of Eden, they were there to 'dress the garden'. Do you know what that means? They were the caretakers...hello? They tended the garden! Just because there was no cancer, pain nor death, does not mean they didn't have things they did and enjoyed and made decisions on.
I will only agree that we all have wonderful imaginations and a million good choices to pick from freely. We do not have to pick a bad choice in order to be free or creative. Use your skills and creativity and zest for living to add special wonderful touches that create the 'flavor' of your own life. Disobeying God is not the path to any kind of freedom, nor will I salute someone for doing it.
My apologies to those that this may not set well with, but there is a point when one cannot agree, when they would have to deny their own beliefs and lie to their own soul.
July 4 ~ The Pursuit of Happiness
Philosophist, William James, was a pragmatist, and believed that personal happiness depended on practicality: If the life you are living lives up to your expectations, you are happy. If it doesn't, you are depressed.
Some may interpret this as living a dejected life of accepting they won't ever get anywhere. Actually, it is the very opposite. Many of us know exactly when to look at our friends and say "stop, this is obsessive and you are going to have a nervous breakdown if you keep going like this". Unfortunately, we are usually wearing blinders when it comes to seeing ourselves very clearly. We have such lofty expectations of perfection, that we can do nothing but fail miserably when comparing our goal with the actual result - NO MATTER HOW GOOD WE ACTUALLY DID!
Today, on the independence day of the USA, let's all celebrate, regardless of what country you may be from! Free yourself from the contrictions of expecting that whatever you do MUST bring an audible gasp from the world, or you failed. Express yourself with the purpose behind it being to create something you love, not whether the world will put your picture on TIME magazine for it! Being free from 'over-achiever' expectations will make your life a fun, inviting and relaxing place to be, and one you will feel success in, not constant reproval because you 'failed' being perfect AGAIN.
The pursuit of happiness is not the pursuit of the most perfect, biggest, prettiest. It is so simple we overlook it. Notice they didn't call it the "pursuit of perfection", pursuit of the biggest" nor "pursuit of the prettiest"? Plain and simple, open the windows of your soul and read the real word at the end of this phrase: The pursuit of _HAPPINESS_ !
July 5 ~ Cooking Companions
"No one who cooks cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks presnet, the wisdom of cookbook writers." (Laurie Colwin)
Some people hate to cook and consider it a drudgery....but, for others, it is a time of creating and memories. I can remember the year we decided to stay home and have our holiday meals. My son had just gotten a herbst appliance to correct his biting problem. He literally could not bring his teeth together! I had to use a food processor and grind up everything. No, it was not just like baby food, but it was just like real food pre-chewed! It was Thanksgiving, and I couldn't imagine taking him somewhere to watch everyone else eating big plates of regular food. So, we stayed home and I made a regular Thanksgiving meal, and ground it ALL up. We all 3 ate our ground up food and you know what? It was the best Thanksgiving I'd ever had. I decided then and there that when my son grew up and remembered the holidays, it was my meals I wanted him to remember, not some one else's. If you wanted to do both, you could still have holiday meals with other family members, and have your own a week sooner. That way you can do it all. It had always been something I had wanted OUT OF, because all my relatives did was fight around the table anyway. Once I saw what it could be like, I finally had the courage to tell them we were staying home, just us 3! I didn't want my son's memories of holidays all being about family fights.
How about searching your mind for the good memories now? I can remember, a syrup my mother used to make out of brown sugar and before it got hot, she would add a well scrambled egg and stir to keep clumps from forming. What would happen is that you didn't ever see the egg, but the syrup would take on a beadiness, like liquid lumps of brown sugar ....and served over hot buttered bisquits it was heaven. Other times, she would make up a dough and flatten it and add butter, brown and white sugar, cinnamon and dots of butter and fold it over twice, to make huge rolls for breakfast. Bisquits and gravy were a daily event in the summer when we were all there. Just about every Friday nite, my mother would cook up a big pot of either Hershey's Fudge or Penuche. I don't even think they put the fudge recipe on the can anymore! Take mine:
COCOA FUDGE
Continue to boil WITHOUT stirring until 234 degrees or until a small amount forms a soft ball when dropped into cold water. (about the time it's done, you will notice the volume goes down in the pan to about 1/2 of what it was)
Remove pan from heat, add butter and vanilla and DO NOT STIR. Cool to 110 degrees. Beat by hand until fudge starts getting hard to stir and you see it is losing it's shininess. Quickly spread in pre-buttered 8-9 inch pan or dinner plate. Cool.
PENUCHE:
2/3 Cup Hershey's cocoa
3 Cups Sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 Cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
Thouroughly combine cocoa, sugar, and salt in a 4 quart saucepan, gradually add a little milk and stir in completely before adding more, till all is stirred in. Cook on medium heat and stir constantly until it comes to a "bubbly" boil.
Combine below 5 ingredients in 2quart pan.
Cook and stir over medium heat until dissolved:
1 C sugar
1 C Brown Sugar
2/3 C milk
2 T corn syrup
1/4 tsp salt
Continue to cook until 234 degrees or it reaches the soft ball stage.
Remove from heat, do not stir yet and add:
2 T of butter or margarine
1 tsp of vanilla
and if you have it, add about 1 tsp of Black Walnut flavoring
Cool to about 120 degrees (pan is warm, not hot) without stirring. Then begin to beat and spread into buttered plate when it begins to lose it's shine.
I remember my dad frying up the fish he caught, mmmmm....fried fish coated in corn meal with lots of salt and a piece of white bread was all that was needed to eat around the tv...funny, it was never in a meal....always just kind of fried up and ate at the time!
I still have the recipes from 7th grade home ec class - peanut butter cookies and spice cookies, Russian teacakes.....mmmmmmm......
I love to make something I know is nourishing or a special treat for my family....and I love the opportunity to present it to them in a way that shows I took special care in it. It doesn't matter if it is steak or hotdogs, china or plastic dishes...it is the way I feel as I bring it together, part of me is in there!
If you have special things you make, why not make SURE, today, that they are written down, so they will not be lost from your heritage.
July 6 ~ The Good Life
"The one fact that I would cry from every housetop is this: the 'Good Life' is waiting for us - here and now." (B. F. Skinner)
What does the phrase "Living the Good Life" mean to you? I think it's important that first off we all realize that it is not about how rich you are, although there is sure nothing wrong with being rich if you happen to be! But, rich or poor, or somewhere in between, we will all be searching for the same thing....a life that brings us peace and joy and satisfaction. A feeling that we are making a difference and contributing something unique from ourselves, that no other person could do because we are all unique creatures, bringing different virtues with us. Different levels of income, education, and even cultural heritage, has shaped us into unique beings. Everything that has happened to us in our entire lives, will form us and take a part in who we are....the largest factor being OUR REACTION to what has happened to us. If you will feel these things and live the good life, you will need to do what you do for the feeling in your own heart, validating yourself and your beliefs with your life and the way you live it. Don't wait for validation from someone else to feel your importance, the world is short on handing out validation, and if you are waiting for it from someone else, your soul may go hungry, when the truth is already inside you.
Whether the 'good life' means sitting by your inground swimming pool or rocking on your back porch watching fireflies ...it is vitally important that your search for 'it' is done from the aspect of having the abundance of PEACE in your life. With peace abiding inside you, the whole world is a new creation to you everyday and the 'good life' will be where ever you live it.
July 7 ~ Cooking for Comfort
It seems that our 'beautiful' society has cast out comfort foods as a 'no-no' and delegated all to be skinny, eat no fat, no carbs and ....uh.....feel miserable. While I do feel people should not stuff their face nonstop instead of looking for a better solution ...you know, there are just times, when I've seen some things on the news and thought to myself, "if she had sat down and ate a couple of donuts she would not have done that". But, I can just hear her mind repeating to her, "don't eat those donuts or you'll never lose weight" as slapped her kid's face and kicked the cat.
I just really think it is important to listen to your body at all times. If you have spoiled your ownself by always eating incorrectly, then first you will have to do some studying to find out what a person really should be eating. You know who you are! So, I want to make it real clear that I'm NOT talking about eating irresponsibly from day to day. But just as your body tells you it is thirsty, or craves sleep, there may be times when it has mentally had it, and it really needs you to give it something that will comfort it. If nature put the things in those carbs that soothes the brain and your brain is hurting - don't buck nature! Don't scream and be ugly, just eat the darn plate of cookies and go on! Don't eat cookies day to day, matter of factly BUT if your wiggin' out, for God's sake, give yourself a break and allow the comfort food to do what it's named for. There is nothing wrong with using nature's natural calming foods when needed.
I remember one time in a private treatment conference, the oral surgeon told me that he was going to have to pull several of my young son's teeth. I cried all the way home, not knowing how I was going to tell my son what was said in the conference. My husband stopped the car and went in the store and came out with a box of donuts. I ate 2 donuts and my disposition went from squalling my eyes out, to "don't worry son, this is something that is done all the time, and it will only take a few minutes and then you'll be all set for the next step!" If I had arrived home in the state I had left the doctor's office in, my son would have been traumatized and had no reason to believe he was going to live thru it.
Eat responsibly, feed and teach your family to eat responsibly, and when you need a little comfort food, don't let society tell you that a natural solution that is not overboard is wrong. If you don't worry about totally throwing all these products out of your diet, you will not binge when you finally eat one again. Accept them as part of life, be thankful for the comfort they were designed to make you feel, and don't abuse them.
Read July 8-15
*In order to understand the full context of these reflections, you will enjoy your own copy of the Sarah Ban Breathnach book:
"Simple Abundance ~ A Daybook of Comfort and joy"
Sarah's Website ~ ENJOY!: www.simpleabundance.com
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