Reflections on "Simple Abundance"
June ~ Days 8-14
JUNE 8
Your Kitchen. "We all long to feel that our presence is welcome in the world....but I've come to believe that what we want and need most of all is to experience a sense of welcome in our own homes."
Many people find that the kitchen is more than just an eating place, but a central area where many differnt things are done. A place like Hestia's round hearth, where we all sit around the table and accomplish so many things - eating, talking, playing games, working on some paper project. A place where are family traditions are passed on (what are we passing on? warmth and fond memories....or anxiety and stress?)
I would like to share this note I made, when I first returned to trying to get my house in order:
WED, APRIL 26, 2000 - I was listening to HGTV today as I worked - it is inspiring and makes me want to accomplish something. The guy that was talking made the most wonderful statement. He said that if your family and friends felt "invited, excited, and warmed" when they entered your home, you had a 'Gracious Home'. WOW, that really makes me feel like working toward that. Right now, I would say if they came in here they would feel, embarrassed, uncomfortable and shocked. I like this new goal of creating these feelings in my family when they enter our home.
I have a new daily goal, and that is that the kitchen table will always be clear of junk. It is usually clear of dirty dishes as I only have to put them in the dishwasher. BUT, it is a catchall for junk, and it must be very discouraging to my husband (who never says a word) to eat in his little open hole on the table. I know I can do this for him, I will keep junk off that table.
Have you all noticed what I have? All thru our homes, are special rooms, rooms that are there for our edification and nurturing. Have we been missing the comfort our own homes should be exuding and the specialness that each room could be offering to us? Could all this lack we have been living with as unawares, be one of the sources of stress and anxiety we feel, when it should be our kingdom? Let's reign over it!
JUNE 9~BRINGING A SENSE OF ORDER TO THE KITCHEN
A confused mind cannot direct deft hands and what is more confusing than a cluttered, disorderly place to work? What is more univiting, too?..." (Woman's Home Companiion-1924)
If someone were watching you prepare something to eat in your kitchen, as it looks on a regular day...would they be revolted? Would they think, "I'm not eating that!" If this could be true...do you think our brains don't know the truth? And because our brains _do_ know the truth, could it be contributing to our levels of anxiety? I remember reading in the paper where a woman was picking up another for work, and when she saw the woman's kitchen she had a talk with her boss, asking him to set a policy of no food in the workplace. Why? Because the lady's kitchen was so cluttred and stacked up (not just breakfast dishes) and this same woman always brought in lots of treats. The only way to avoid it would be to put the whole office on a 'no food' plan.
The first 3 things I latched onto when I began to recover my home, were three things that I felt had emotional uplifting vs. emotional turmoil written all over them. No one should have to eat their nourishment off a table that looks like they are surrounded by stacks of weird stuff, nor draw their water from a sink that feels polluted when they look at it. Neither should they have to dress and prepare for their day from a sink that makes them feel nasty. Living on the bad end of these 3 things will lower anyone's self esteem and outlook. If you present your meals on a cleared table, and keep the places that your family draws water from clean, you will have increased the positive feeling in your home immediately.
It is hard to accomplish anything in an area that is cluttered and hard to use. Sure, we can stop and clean it, but by then our 'umpphh' is gone. Do you spend too much time getting a place 'ready' so you can begin to work in it? Do a little each day, don't wait and try to do it all at once - you will be learning a better lifestyle, and creating a more peaceful life on a daily basis, leaving behind the days of terror, because someone just dropped in and it was the day before your weekly cleaning marathon!
JUNE 10 ~ A Nook of Your Own
"Perhaps we also suffer from a lack of clarity, a failure to realize how necessary it is to nurture our sacred creativity daily."
Many of us are suffering from the silence of our authentic voice. With so many things screaming in our faces for our attention, how can we take time to contemplate our own thoughts? Can you remember how often you've heard the expressions, "I can't hear myself think!"
And are we struggling continually with no clear idea of what we are trying accomplish as we turn and twist in the wind? If we don't take time to feel and think our own thoughts, we will be hollow inside. The place where our creativity should be dwelling will be a 'blackhole' and we will do everything with a dullness and lack of love, interest and desire.
Have a special place to contemplate your dreams and creativity, whether it is a chair in your bedroom, the bathtub, or sitting in front of the computer - latch onto those things that make you feel alive and talk to the authentic you that is inside. First realize that your creativity exist and is desiring to grow, then look for ways in your everyday life to let your creativity show in all you do. Don't limit yourself with "when I lose weight or when I have more money and get a big house". Express yourself today and bring out the beauty that lives inside you!
JUNE 11
Lions, tigers and PAPERS....oh my!
We all have alot to do....and if we could come up with a couple of extra hours here and there, man! that would be a miracle! hmmmm......how much time to you spend looking for things you can't find? Bills that need to be paid, the directions to someplace you should already be on the way to, your kids permission slip for the field trip TODAY. If you are handling your paperwork in a haphazard 'throw it around' fashion, you also are finding that you are wasting your precious time (and sanity) in looking for misplaced items. The very EXTRA hours we need, are the ones we are wasting on looking for things! This is one of my vices that I determined to put an end to when I failed to turn in 3 rebate forms, already in their envelopes, addressed and stamped. They just never made it out to the curb to my mailbox - a loss of $150!!!
I realized that my paperkeeping had gotten so bad that, not only was I losing hours of my time, but had actually began to lose money, hand over fist!
I have a few set up rules that are helping me:
put the bills all in one spot, ready to be paid - no more frantic searches
save a large white envelope and as I charge something, put the bills, one behind another, in the envelope. They are all in order and waiting to be checked off my charge - and YES, I have found horrible errors on my charges. Three times in the last year I was billed twice for MAJOR purchases!
File my bills in date order, one behind the other, after paying.
get a large folder with pocket pages, and keep the doctor visits, prescription info for each person in it's own pocket.
do NOT leave it laying around for other people to 'shift' as they move thru the house
JUNE 12 "And still she slept an azure-lidded sleep/In the blanched linen, smooth, and laverndere'd." (John Keats)
hmmmmm.....she sounds like she is lulled by the most exquisite luxury....but wait a minute....it doesn't really SAY she is sleeping on the most expensive linens that money can buy! What is going on here then? Would you describe your sleep as this, or would it be more like "stressed and anxiety ridden, she fell into her tumbled blankets bed, where she spent a restless night harried by the chaos that constantly swirled around her"?
(red face here) It's true, when I have my bed all straight and presentable thru the day, it does make me feel more wonderful when I climb into it at night vs. looking at a tumbled bed all day and just kind of collapsing into the mess that night. Remember how nice it felt to be on vacation and the beds were all made up, waiting for you? Didn't you feel good when you saw them? And when you slipped between the sheets didn't you feel a special calmness?
It doesn't cost anything to pull back the covers and air the bed for a few minutes on rising, usually while I eat breakfast. When I return to do my grooming, I smooth the sweet Downy smelling sheets effortlessly, leaving a toe pleat across the bottom of the bed in the top sheet. Pull up the comforter/quilt/bedspread, shake/fluff the pillows, and your night-time hidden luxury awaits you! Excuse me! gotta run make my bed, this reminded me of how nice it is. Can't wait till bedtime and I ease in to the cool smooth sheets! I want to be like a rose in its bed, not a bug in a rug!
As an afterthought....you know, how can you lay down and feel comfortable in your nice smooth bed, if you are wearing the same gown you had on today while you were sweating and cleaning in.....or maybe you didn't do anything? Just laid around in it? Well, if you are sick, that is what you should be doing, or even if you are giving yourself a 'special' day off from your normal schedule. But, I will encourage you to not stay in your gown for long after you get up on a daily basis. If you are alone and no one is there, ok, eat your breakfast and sip your coffee if you want while you read the paper in your gown....BUT...you need to make it your pattern to get outta that gown then. Why, if no one is going to see you anyway? Because the gown represents part of your night time pattern. It sets the stage for turning away from your business of the day. How can you let go of the things of the day, if you are still wearing the same thing you've worn most of the day? Changing from what you wear at night into daytime clothes, sends your mind the signal that it is open for business. And in the same way, taking those clothes off and putting on your gown, is part of telling your brain that you are 'off' now, and in your own sweet smelling bed, sleeping the sleep of the content. Your gown is not just another set of clothes, it is a special comfort item. It will lose that feeling if you slob around in it and soon you will only notice feeling like you can't get moving - and it will be because your gown is still telling your brain "relax, it's sleepy time". Don't mix your days and nights up mentally, by overlooking the signals you send your brain.
JUNE 13 - A Fancy Pantry
You know how you like to peruse all the "Home" magazines and see the beauty that has been crafted into some lovely home somewhere? Their quaint cozy kitchens with special looking jars and baskets? Anyone else here remember the pictures from the nostalgic "Ideas" magazines that were filled with beautiful 'home and hearth' type artwork? Sarah recommends a book called Fancy Pantry by Helen Witty, saying that she can't pick it up without wanting to dash into the kitchen and start making it beautiful. There is a wide range in how you keep your pantry, from functional all the way to specialty items. Notice that range doesn't begin with non-functional!
The one thing I will really encourage you with is to have ORDER in your pantry. It is disheartening to one's spirit to begin to start supper and dig all thru the pantry, not knowing where to expect to find those greenbeans. What if you look for an half an hour and never find them, because you really don't have any? That kind of thing can sure destroy your evening mood and make you feel like making supper is so hard, when truthfully, it could have been avoided.
I will tell you about my pantry. I used rubbermaid shelf liner, it is brown and white checks - country looking. Then I put eyelet lace along the front edge of the shelf. It creates a wonderful feeling just to gaze in there, much like the feeling of seeing a china cabinet well cared for. It has lasted for about 25 years and only this year is saying "help!" - so my effort was well rewarded over many years. My soup is all together on the left, my vegetables are in the next line to the right. My proteins like tuna, salmon, peanut butter, beef stew, Ragu-because it is a main coarse item, in the next line, and my fruits, which are often used like deserts are all the way to the right. I do like to keep the same kinds together, so I will know when it is running low. I mean if I buy 4 cans of corn, I stack 2 together and the next 2 together right beside - no digging to see if there is corn in there amongst the spinach. That is only one of the shelves, but you get the picture.
I know you may be thinking "listen, I am lucky I have time to throw the food in there!" BUT, when you start missing the time you spend trying to dig it out and the frustration of maybe not finding it, you will begin to see that you are saving loads of time and sanity by spending those few minutes of setting 'like items' together. Many times living a less frustrating life in no more magic than providing yourself with the opportunity to not be stressed out.
I will share one of my favorite tricks with you. Anyone here enjoy those expensive flavored syrups by Smuckers (blackberry, blueberry, strawberry)? One day I wanted some and had run out, I looked at my Aunt Jemima's Butter Lite and suddenly remember I had frozen blueberries in my freezer...an idea was born. I poured some regular syrup in a glass jar, added a handful of frozen berries (don't rinse or you will lose flavor) and nuked it just a few minutes. The syrup took on the natural flavor and color of the blueberries and I found a less expensive way to have blueberry syrup WITH REAL BLUEBERRIES IN IT!
JUNE 14 - Decorating with the Seasons: Summer Houses
I may not be able to change my furnishing around, because my rooms are small and the furnisher only fits in one way! BUT, if you are sitting there scoffing at the ideas Sarah had to offer, remember that she is throwing out ideas and it doesn't mean that you must use every single one or you failed. You may read the list of things and think "can't do that....or that...hey! I could do that!" Now if you didn't scoff when you bought the poinsettas and you didn't scoff when you hung the wreath of evergreen on your door, and you didn't scoff when you set out the little decorations or figurines of birds in the snow, children, snowmen, red and green decorations (whatever) why scoff now? If you can celebrate the winter season, you can celebrate the summer.....or were you merely celebrating commercialism? Do you find that unless it is being commercially thrown in your face it may not be worth the bother to celebrate? Ladies! Celebrate life - you may not be here next summer!
My living room wall may hold a soft blue painting of a cabin in the snow by moonlight with little winter decorations on the shelf under it, but my summer one has a beach scene with seashells on the shelf! So perhaps your pictures are not 'seasonal' - nothing wrong with that, they don't have to be. My pillows are already more summer feeling, but in winter I use pieces of material in Xmas patterns and tuck it around them - no need to buy whole new pillows to store. It could be done for the summer also, should your normal pillows be dark and could use some lightening up.
I don't have to be a millionaire to go outside and pick some Queen Anne's Lace, purple clover and bachelor buttons growing wild in a flower bed that got-away, although most people would have just said, "weed-whack that area, it's all weeds!"
I may not throw open my windows to the outside aromas all day, due to the heat (I imagine it is much cooler in England!) but I know what it is like to open the windows early and air the house out, or to stand on my patio and feel nature in the air and be at one with it. To feel the dew on my feet, a thing I've loved since childhood.
Read June days 15 - 22
*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 June 8, 2001
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED-COPYRIGHT 2001
This page hosted by 
Get your own Free Home Page
JUNE 8
Your Kitchen. "We all long to feel that our presence is welcome in the world....but I've come to believe that what we want and need most of all is to experience a sense of welcome in our own homes."
Many people find that the kitchen is more than just an eating place, but a central area where many differnt things are done. A place like Hestia's round hearth, where we all sit around the table and accomplish so many things - eating, talking, playing games, working on some paper project. A place where are family traditions are passed on (what are we passing on? warmth and fond memories....or anxiety and stress?)
I would like to share this note I made, when I first returned to trying to get my house in order:
WED, APRIL 26, 2000 - I was listening to HGTV today as I worked - it is inspiring and makes me want to accomplish something. The guy that was talking made the most wonderful statement. He said that if your family and friends felt "invited, excited, and warmed" when they entered your home, you had a 'Gracious Home'. WOW, that really makes me feel like working toward that. Right now, I would say if they came in here they would feel, embarrassed, uncomfortable and shocked. I like this new goal of creating these feelings in my family when they enter our home.
I have a new daily goal, and that is that the kitchen table will always be clear of junk. It is usually clear of dirty dishes as I only have to put them in the dishwasher. BUT, it is a catchall for junk, and it must be very discouraging to my husband (who never says a word) to eat in his little open hole on the table. I know I can do this for him, I will keep junk off that table.
Have you all noticed what I have? All thru our homes, are special rooms, rooms that are there for our edification and nurturing. Have we been missing the comfort our own homes should be exuding and the specialness that each room could be offering to us? Could all this lack we have been living with as unawares, be one of the sources of stress and anxiety we feel, when it should be our kingdom? Let's reign over it!
JUNE 9~BRINGING A SENSE OF ORDER TO THE KITCHEN
A confused mind cannot direct deft hands and what is more confusing than a cluttered, disorderly place to work? What is more univiting, too?..." (Woman's Home Companiion-1924)
If someone were watching you prepare something to eat in your kitchen, as it looks on a regular day...would they be revolted? Would they think, "I'm not eating that!" If this could be true...do you think our brains don't know the truth? And because our brains _do_ know the truth, could it be contributing to our levels of anxiety? I remember reading in the paper where a woman was picking up another for work, and when she saw the woman's kitchen she had a talk with her boss, asking him to set a policy of no food in the workplace. Why? Because the lady's kitchen was so cluttred and stacked up (not just breakfast dishes) and this same woman always brought in lots of treats. The only way to avoid it would be to put the whole office on a 'no food' plan.
The first 3 things I latched onto when I began to recover my home, were three things that I felt had emotional uplifting vs. emotional turmoil written all over them. No one should have to eat their nourishment off a table that looks like they are surrounded by stacks of weird stuff, nor draw their water from a sink that feels polluted when they look at it. Neither should they have to dress and prepare for their day from a sink that makes them feel nasty. Living on the bad end of these 3 things will lower anyone's self esteem and outlook. If you present your meals on a cleared table, and keep the places that your family draws water from clean, you will have increased the positive feeling in your home immediately.
It is hard to accomplish anything in an area that is cluttered and hard to use. Sure, we can stop and clean it, but by then our 'umpphh' is gone. Do you spend too much time getting a place 'ready' so you can begin to work in it? Do a little each day, don't wait and try to do it all at once - you will be learning a better lifestyle, and creating a more peaceful life on a daily basis, leaving behind the days of terror, because someone just dropped in and it was the day before your weekly cleaning marathon!
JUNE 10 ~ A Nook of Your Own
"Perhaps we also suffer from a lack of clarity, a failure to realize how necessary it is to nurture our sacred creativity daily."
Many of us are suffering from the silence of our authentic voice. With so many things screaming in our faces for our attention, how can we take time to contemplate our own thoughts? Can you remember how often you've heard the expressions, "I can't hear myself think!"
And are we struggling continually with no clear idea of what we are trying accomplish as we turn and twist in the wind? If we don't take time to feel and think our own thoughts, we will be hollow inside. The place where our creativity should be dwelling will be a 'blackhole' and we will do everything with a dullness and lack of love, interest and desire.
Have a special place to contemplate your dreams and creativity, whether it is a chair in your bedroom, the bathtub, or sitting in front of the computer - latch onto those things that make you feel alive and talk to the authentic you that is inside. First realize that your creativity exist and is desiring to grow, then look for ways in your everyday life to let your creativity show in all you do. Don't limit yourself with "when I lose weight or when I have more money and get a big house". Express yourself today and bring out the beauty that lives inside you!
JUNE 11
Lions, tigers and PAPERS....oh my!
We all have alot to do....and if we could come up with a couple of extra hours here and there, man! that would be a miracle! hmmmm......how much time to you spend looking for things you can't find? Bills that need to be paid, the directions to someplace you should already be on the way to, your kids permission slip for the field trip TODAY. If you are handling your paperwork in a haphazard 'throw it around' fashion, you also are finding that you are wasting your precious time (and sanity) in looking for misplaced items. The very EXTRA hours we need, are the ones we are wasting on looking for things! This is one of my vices that I determined to put an end to when I failed to turn in 3 rebate forms, already in their envelopes, addressed and stamped. They just never made it out to the curb to my mailbox - a loss of $150!!!
I realized that my paperkeeping had gotten so bad that, not only was I losing hours of my time, but had actually began to lose money, hand over fist!
I have a few set up rules that are helping me:
put the bills all in one spot, ready to be paid - no more frantic searches
save a large white envelope and as I charge something, put the bills, one behind another, in the envelope. They are all in order and waiting to be checked off my charge - and YES, I have found horrible errors on my charges. Three times in the last year I was billed twice for MAJOR purchases!
File my bills in date order, one behind the other, after paying.
get a large folder with pocket pages, and keep the doctor visits, prescription info for each person in it's own pocket.
do NOT leave it laying around for other people to 'shift' as they move thru the house
JUNE 12 "And still she slept an azure-lidded sleep/In the blanched linen, smooth, and laverndere'd." (John Keats)
hmmmmm.....she sounds like she is lulled by the most exquisite luxury....but wait a minute....it doesn't really SAY she is sleeping on the most expensive linens that money can buy! What is going on here then? Would you describe your sleep as this, or would it be more like "stressed and anxiety ridden, she fell into her tumbled blankets bed, where she spent a restless night harried by the chaos that constantly swirled around her"?
(red face here) It's true, when I have my bed all straight and presentable thru the day, it does make me feel more wonderful when I climb into it at night vs. looking at a tumbled bed all day and just kind of collapsing into the mess that night. Remember how nice it felt to be on vacation and the beds were all made up, waiting for you? Didn't you feel good when you saw them? And when you slipped between the sheets didn't you feel a special calmness?
It doesn't cost anything to pull back the covers and air the bed for a few minutes on rising, usually while I eat breakfast. When I return to do my grooming, I smooth the sweet Downy smelling sheets effortlessly, leaving a toe pleat across the bottom of the bed in the top sheet. Pull up the comforter/quilt/bedspread, shake/fluff the pillows, and your night-time hidden luxury awaits you! Excuse me! gotta run make my bed, this reminded me of how nice it is. Can't wait till bedtime and I ease in to the cool smooth sheets! I want to be like a rose in its bed, not a bug in a rug!
As an afterthought....you know, how can you lay down and feel comfortable in your nice smooth bed, if you are wearing the same gown you had on today while you were sweating and cleaning in.....or maybe you didn't do anything? Just laid around in it? Well, if you are sick, that is what you should be doing, or even if you are giving yourself a 'special' day off from your normal schedule. But, I will encourage you to not stay in your gown for long after you get up on a daily basis. If you are alone and no one is there, ok, eat your breakfast and sip your coffee if you want while you read the paper in your gown....BUT...you need to make it your pattern to get outta that gown then. Why, if no one is going to see you anyway? Because the gown represents part of your night time pattern. It sets the stage for turning away from your business of the day. How can you let go of the things of the day, if you are still wearing the same thing you've worn most of the day? Changing from what you wear at night into daytime clothes, sends your mind the signal that it is open for business. And in the same way, taking those clothes off and putting on your gown, is part of telling your brain that you are 'off' now, and in your own sweet smelling bed, sleeping the sleep of the content. Your gown is not just another set of clothes, it is a special comfort item. It will lose that feeling if you slob around in it and soon you will only notice feeling like you can't get moving - and it will be because your gown is still telling your brain "relax, it's sleepy time". Don't mix your days and nights up mentally, by overlooking the signals you send your brain.
JUNE 13 - A Fancy Pantry
You know how you like to peruse all the "Home" magazines and see the beauty that has been crafted into some lovely home somewhere? Their quaint cozy kitchens with special looking jars and baskets? Anyone else here remember the pictures from the nostalgic "Ideas" magazines that were filled with beautiful 'home and hearth' type artwork? Sarah recommends a book called Fancy Pantry by Helen Witty, saying that she can't pick it up without wanting to dash into the kitchen and start making it beautiful. There is a wide range in how you keep your pantry, from functional all the way to specialty items. Notice that range doesn't begin with non-functional!
The one thing I will really encourage you with is to have ORDER in your pantry. It is disheartening to one's spirit to begin to start supper and dig all thru the pantry, not knowing where to expect to find those greenbeans. What if you look for an half an hour and never find them, because you really don't have any? That kind of thing can sure destroy your evening mood and make you feel like making supper is so hard, when truthfully, it could have been avoided.
I will tell you about my pantry. I used rubbermaid shelf liner, it is brown and white checks - country looking. Then I put eyelet lace along the front edge of the shelf. It creates a wonderful feeling just to gaze in there, much like the feeling of seeing a china cabinet well cared for. It has lasted for about 25 years and only this year is saying "help!" - so my effort was well rewarded over many years. My soup is all together on the left, my vegetables are in the next line to the right. My proteins like tuna, salmon, peanut butter, beef stew, Ragu-because it is a main coarse item, in the next line, and my fruits, which are often used like deserts are all the way to the right. I do like to keep the same kinds together, so I will know when it is running low. I mean if I buy 4 cans of corn, I stack 2 together and the next 2 together right beside - no digging to see if there is corn in there amongst the spinach. That is only one of the shelves, but you get the picture.
I know you may be thinking "listen, I am lucky I have time to throw the food in there!" BUT, when you start missing the time you spend trying to dig it out and the frustration of maybe not finding it, you will begin to see that you are saving loads of time and sanity by spending those few minutes of setting 'like items' together. Many times living a less frustrating life in no more magic than providing yourself with the opportunity to not be stressed out.
I will share one of my favorite tricks with you. Anyone here enjoy those expensive flavored syrups by Smuckers (blackberry, blueberry, strawberry)? One day I wanted some and had run out, I looked at my Aunt Jemima's Butter Lite and suddenly remember I had frozen blueberries in my freezer...an idea was born. I poured some regular syrup in a glass jar, added a handful of frozen berries (don't rinse or you will lose flavor) and nuked it just a few minutes. The syrup took on the natural flavor and color of the blueberries and I found a less expensive way to have blueberry syrup WITH REAL BLUEBERRIES IN IT!
JUNE 14 - Decorating with the Seasons: Summer Houses
I may not be able to change my furnishing around, because my rooms are small and the furnisher only fits in one way! BUT, if you are sitting there scoffing at the ideas Sarah had to offer, remember that she is throwing out ideas and it doesn't mean that you must use every single one or you failed. You may read the list of things and think "can't do that....or that...hey! I could do that!" Now if you didn't scoff when you bought the poinsettas and you didn't scoff when you hung the wreath of evergreen on your door, and you didn't scoff when you set out the little decorations or figurines of birds in the snow, children, snowmen, red and green decorations (whatever) why scoff now? If you can celebrate the winter season, you can celebrate the summer.....or were you merely celebrating commercialism? Do you find that unless it is being commercially thrown in your face it may not be worth the bother to celebrate? Ladies! Celebrate life - you may not be here next summer!
My living room wall may hold a soft blue painting of a cabin in the snow by moonlight with little winter decorations on the shelf under it, but my summer one has a beach scene with seashells on the shelf! So perhaps your pictures are not 'seasonal' - nothing wrong with that, they don't have to be. My pillows are already more summer feeling, but in winter I use pieces of material in Xmas patterns and tuck it around them - no need to buy whole new pillows to store. It could be done for the summer also, should your normal pillows be dark and could use some lightening up.
I don't have to be a millionaire to go outside and pick some Queen Anne's Lace, purple clover and bachelor buttons growing wild in a flower bed that got-away, although most people would have just said, "weed-whack that area, it's all weeds!"
I may not throw open my windows to the outside aromas all day, due to the heat (I imagine it is much cooler in England!) but I know what it is like to open the windows early and air the house out, or to stand on my patio and feel nature in the air and be at one with it. To feel the dew on my feet, a thing I've loved since childhood.
Read June days 15 - 22
*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 June 8, 2001
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED-COPYRIGHT 2001
This page hosted by
Get your own Free Home Page
JUNE 8
Your Kitchen. "We all long to feel that our presence is welcome in the world....but I've come to believe that what we want and need most of all is to experience a sense of welcome in our own homes."
Many people find that the kitchen is more than just an eating place, but a central area where many differnt things are done. A place like Hestia's round hearth, where we all sit around the table and accomplish so many things - eating, talking, playing games, working on some paper project. A place where are family traditions are passed on (what are we passing on? warmth and fond memories....or anxiety and stress?)
I would like to share this note I made, when I first returned to trying to get my house in order:
WED, APRIL 26, 2000 - I was listening to HGTV today as I worked - it is inspiring and makes me want to accomplish something. The guy that was talking made the most wonderful statement. He said that if your family and friends felt "invited, excited, and warmed" when they entered your home, you had a 'Gracious Home'. WOW, that really makes me feel like working toward that. Right now, I would say if they came in here they would feel, embarrassed, uncomfortable and shocked. I like this new goal of creating these feelings in my family when they enter our home.
I have a new daily goal, and that is that the kitchen table will always be clear of junk. It is usually clear of dirty dishes as I only have to put them in the dishwasher. BUT, it is a catchall for junk, and it must be very discouraging to my husband (who never says a word) to eat in his little open hole on the table. I know I can do this for him, I will keep junk off that table.
Have you all noticed what I have? All thru our homes, are special rooms, rooms that are there for our edification and nurturing. Have we been missing the comfort our own homes should be exuding and the specialness that each room could be offering to us? Could all this lack we have been living with as unawares, be one of the sources of stress and anxiety we feel, when it should be our kingdom? Let's reign over it!
JUNE 9~BRINGING A SENSE OF ORDER TO THE KITCHEN
A confused mind cannot direct deft hands and what is more confusing than a cluttered, disorderly place to work? What is more univiting, too?..." (Woman's Home Companiion-1924)
If someone were watching you prepare something to eat in your kitchen, as it looks on a regular day...would they be revolted? Would they think, "I'm not eating that!" If this could be true...do you think our brains don't know the truth? And because our brains _do_ know the truth, could it be contributing to our levels of anxiety? I remember reading in the paper where a woman was picking up another for work, and when she saw the woman's kitchen she had a talk with her boss, asking him to set a policy of no food in the workplace. Why? Because the lady's kitchen was so cluttred and stacked up (not just breakfast dishes) and this same woman always brought in lots of treats. The only way to avoid it would be to put the whole office on a 'no food' plan.
The first 3 things I latched onto when I began to recover my home, were three things that I felt had emotional uplifting vs. emotional turmoil written all over them. No one should have to eat their nourishment off a table that looks like they are surrounded by stacks of weird stuff, nor draw their water from a sink that feels polluted when they look at it. Neither should they have to dress and prepare for their day from a sink that makes them feel nasty. Living on the bad end of these 3 things will lower anyone's self esteem and outlook. If you present your meals on a cleared table, and keep the places that your family draws water from clean, you will have increased the positive feeling in your home immediately.
It is hard to accomplish anything in an area that is cluttered and hard to use. Sure, we can stop and clean it, but by then our 'umpphh' is gone. Do you spend too much time getting a place 'ready' so you can begin to work in it? Do a little each day, don't wait and try to do it all at once - you will be learning a better lifestyle, and creating a more peaceful life on a daily basis, leaving behind the days of terror, because someone just dropped in and it was the day before your weekly cleaning marathon!
JUNE 10 ~ A Nook of Your Own
"Perhaps we also suffer from a lack of clarity, a failure to realize how necessary it is to nurture our sacred creativity daily."
Many of us are suffering from the silence of our authentic voice. With so many things screaming in our faces for our attention, how can we take time to contemplate our own thoughts? Can you remember how often you've heard the expressions, "I can't hear myself think!" And are we struggling continually with no clear idea of what we are trying accomplish as we turn and twist in the wind? If we don't take time to feel and think our own thoughts, we will be hollow inside. The place where our creativity should be dwelling will be a 'blackhole' and we will do everything with a dullness and lack of love, interest and desire.
Have a special place to contemplate your dreams and creativity, whether it is a chair in your bedroom, the bathtub, or sitting in front of the computer - latch onto those things that make you feel alive and talk to the authentic you that is inside. First realize that your creativity exist and is desiring to grow, then look for ways in your everyday life to let your creativity show in all you do. Don't limit yourself with "when I lose weight or when I have more money and get a big house". Express yourself today and bring out the beauty that lives inside you!
JUNE 11
Lions, tigers and PAPERS....oh my!
We all have alot to do....and if we could come up with a couple of extra hours here and there, man! that would be a miracle! hmmmm......how much time to you spend looking for things you can't find? Bills that need to be paid, the directions to someplace you should already be on the way to, your kids permission slip for the field trip TODAY. If you are handling your paperwork in a haphazard 'throw it around' fashion, you also are finding that you are wasting your precious time (and sanity) in looking for misplaced items. The very EXTRA hours we need, are the ones we are wasting on looking for things! This is one of my vices that I determined to put an end to when I failed to turn in 3 rebate forms, already in their envelopes, addressed and stamped. They just never made it out to the curb to my mailbox - a loss of $150!!!
I realized that my paperkeeping had gotten so bad that, not only was I losing hours of my time, but had actually began to lose money, hand over fist!
I have a few set up rules that are helping me:
JUNE 12 "And still she slept an azure-lidded sleep/In the blanched linen, smooth, and laverndere'd." (John Keats)
hmmmmm.....she sounds like she is lulled by the most exquisite luxury....but wait a minute....it doesn't really SAY she is sleeping on the most expensive linens that money can buy! What is going on here then? Would you describe your sleep as this, or would it be more like "stressed and anxiety ridden, she fell into her tumbled blankets bed, where she spent a restless night harried by the chaos that constantly swirled around her"?
(red face here) It's true, when I have my bed all straight and presentable thru the day, it does make me feel more wonderful when I climb into it at night vs. looking at a tumbled bed all day and just kind of collapsing into the mess that night. Remember how nice it felt to be on vacation and the beds were all made up, waiting for you? Didn't you feel good when you saw them? And when you slipped between the sheets didn't you feel a special calmness?
It doesn't cost anything to pull back the covers and air the bed for a few minutes on rising, usually while I eat breakfast. When I return to do my grooming, I smooth the sweet Downy smelling sheets effortlessly, leaving a toe pleat across the bottom of the bed in the top sheet. Pull up the comforter/quilt/bedspread, shake/fluff the pillows, and your night-time hidden luxury awaits you! Excuse me! gotta run make my bed, this reminded me of how nice it is. Can't wait till bedtime and I ease in to the cool smooth sheets! I want to be like a rose in its bed, not a bug in a rug!
As an afterthought....you know, how can you lay down and feel comfortable in your nice smooth bed, if you are wearing the same gown you had on today while you were sweating and cleaning in.....or maybe you didn't do anything? Just laid around in it? Well, if you are sick, that is what you should be doing, or even if you are giving yourself a 'special' day off from your normal schedule. But, I will encourage you to not stay in your gown for long after you get up on a daily basis. If you are alone and no one is there, ok, eat your breakfast and sip your coffee if you want while you read the paper in your gown....BUT...you need to make it your pattern to get outta that gown then. Why, if no one is going to see you anyway? Because the gown represents part of your night time pattern. It sets the stage for turning away from your business of the day. How can you let go of the things of the day, if you are still wearing the same thing you've worn most of the day? Changing from what you wear at night into daytime clothes, sends your mind the signal that it is open for business. And in the same way, taking those clothes off and putting on your gown, is part of telling your brain that you are 'off' now, and in your own sweet smelling bed, sleeping the sleep of the content. Your gown is not just another set of clothes, it is a special comfort item. It will lose that feeling if you slob around in it and soon you will only notice feeling like you can't get moving - and it will be because your gown is still telling your brain "relax, it's sleepy time". Don't mix your days and nights up mentally, by overlooking the signals you send your brain.
JUNE 13 - A Fancy Pantry
You know how you like to peruse all the "Home" magazines and see the beauty that has been crafted into some lovely home somewhere? Their quaint cozy kitchens with special looking jars and baskets? Anyone else here remember the pictures from the nostalgic "Ideas" magazines that were filled with beautiful 'home and hearth' type artwork? Sarah recommends a book called Fancy Pantry by Helen Witty, saying that she can't pick it up without wanting to dash into the kitchen and start making it beautiful. There is a wide range in how you keep your pantry, from functional all the way to specialty items. Notice that range doesn't begin with non-functional!
The one thing I will really encourage you with is to have ORDER in your pantry. It is disheartening to one's spirit to begin to start supper and dig all thru the pantry, not knowing where to expect to find those greenbeans. What if you look for an half an hour and never find them, because you really don't have any? That kind of thing can sure destroy your evening mood and make you feel like making supper is so hard, when truthfully, it could have been avoided.
I will tell you about my pantry. I used rubbermaid shelf liner, it is brown and white checks - country looking. Then I put eyelet lace along the front edge of the shelf. It creates a wonderful feeling just to gaze in there, much like the feeling of seeing a china cabinet well cared for. It has lasted for about 25 years and only this year is saying "help!" - so my effort was well rewarded over many years. My soup is all together on the left, my vegetables are in the next line to the right. My proteins like tuna, salmon, peanut butter, beef stew, Ragu-because it is a main coarse item, in the next line, and my fruits, which are often used like deserts are all the way to the right. I do like to keep the same kinds together, so I will know when it is running low. I mean if I buy 4 cans of corn, I stack 2 together and the next 2 together right beside - no digging to see if there is corn in there amongst the spinach. That is only one of the shelves, but you get the picture.
I know you may be thinking "listen, I am lucky I have time to throw the food in there!" BUT, when you start missing the time you spend trying to dig it out and the frustration of maybe not finding it, you will begin to see that you are saving loads of time and sanity by spending those few minutes of setting 'like items' together. Many times living a less frustrating life in no more magic than providing yourself with the opportunity to not be stressed out.
I will share one of my favorite tricks with you. Anyone here enjoy those expensive flavored syrups by Smuckers (blackberry, blueberry, strawberry)? One day I wanted some and had run out, I looked at my Aunt Jemima's Butter Lite and suddenly remember I had frozen blueberries in my freezer...an idea was born. I poured some regular syrup in a glass jar, added a handful of frozen berries (don't rinse or you will lose flavor) and nuked it just a few minutes. The syrup took on the natural flavor and color of the blueberries and I found a less expensive way to have blueberry syrup WITH REAL BLUEBERRIES IN IT!
JUNE 14 - Decorating with the Seasons: Summer Houses
I may not be able to change my furnishing around, because my rooms are small and the furnisher only fits in one way! BUT, if you are sitting there scoffing at the ideas Sarah had to offer, remember that she is throwing out ideas and it doesn't mean that you must use every single one or you failed. You may read the list of things and think "can't do that....or that...hey! I could do that!" Now if you didn't scoff when you bought the poinsettas and you didn't scoff when you hung the wreath of evergreen on your door, and you didn't scoff when you set out the little decorations or figurines of birds in the snow, children, snowmen, red and green decorations (whatever) why scoff now? If you can celebrate the winter season, you can celebrate the summer.....or were you merely celebrating commercialism? Do you find that unless it is being commercially thrown in your face it may not be worth the bother to celebrate? Ladies! Celebrate life - you may not be here next summer!
My living room wall may hold a soft blue painting of a cabin in the snow by moonlight with little winter decorations on the shelf under it, but my summer one has a beach scene with seashells on the shelf! So perhaps your pictures are not 'seasonal' - nothing wrong with that, they don't have to be. My pillows are already more summer feeling, but in winter I use pieces of material in Xmas patterns and tuck it around them - no need to buy whole new pillows to store. It could be done for the summer also, should your normal pillows be dark and could use some lightening up.
I don't have to be a millionaire to go outside and pick some Queen Anne's Lace, purple clover and bachelor buttons growing wild in a flower bed that got-away, although most people would have just said, "weed-whack that area, it's all weeds!"
I may not throw open my windows to the outside aromas all day, due to the heat (I imagine it is much cooler in England!) but I know what it is like to open the windows early and air the house out, or to stand on my patio and feel nature in the air and be at one with it. To feel the dew on my feet, a thing I've loved since childhood.
Read June days 15 - 22
*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
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED-COPYRIGHT 2001
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