Reflections on
"Simple Abundance"
May ~ Days 1-7
MAY 1
"Today a new sun rises for me: everything lives, everything is animated, everything seems to speak to me of my passion, everything invites me to cherish it." (Anne de Lenclos)
This reading brings to light _for me_ how the past is over, and the future - who knows? The only thing we can be sure we really have is RIGHT NOW. Not to waste my days thinking of doing it better on some future day, because I don't want a life of wasted days that were all "put off days" - till I got around to doing things the way my heart saw them.
MAY 2
"It was the small things that helped, taken one by one and savored" - Rumer Godden
Well....life is sometimes messy and exasperating. I loved this reading, because it has always been my saving grace to be able to enjoy the simplest thing, where ever I may find it, whenever it shows up. And those little 'lights' of beauty that flickered here and there amongst the insanity going on around me, gave my soul a reason to keep hanging in there.
"The soulcraft of creating and sustaining safe havens..."
Yes, that's it! We are not just doing drudgery! We are creating a place for our souls and spirits to feel at home in! A refuge and comfort that smiles at us when the times get rough. Right now my refuge is hiding under so much stacked up stuff, but I know it's there, and I WILL unearth it....like an archealogical dig, it will be mine again! (for those who don't know, I was extremely ill for 6 years, and my refuge became a nitemare during that time)
MAY 3 ~ HOME AS A HAVEN IN A HECTIC WORLD
What has changed so much about our lives, that makes us so different from the women of past generations? I know, I know...many women work outside the home and therefore it makes it hard to concentrate on these home things.
On the other hand, the time women spent doing everyday chores in those days was enough to count for more than a full time job, because they had no electronical miracle machines working for them. So, if our grandma's lives were so hard and they endured so much from war and the great depression, and draining physical labor, _why_ do we look back on visiting their homes with so much warmth? Why don't we remember them being drained and ugly with us because they were so tired? What did they manage that we may not be managing? How much difference will it make in our lives if we cherish the same
values they did? To see ourselves as the reigning queens of our homes and the moral, spiritual and physical center of that home that gives sustenance to all that dwelt there?
What is the legacy we are leaving our own families? Will they look back and have those same warm fuzzy feelings about 'home'? -or will they not use the word 'home' and opt out for "at our house...."
Something to think about.
MAY 4 - The Personality of Your Home
"You will express yourself in your house, whether you want to or not"
This reading points out the very important reminder that our 'homes' do not have to go hungry while we wait for the money to make it all new. Our homes are part of our lives, the background in which we live our lives - we cannot afford to have our homes put in some 'mental lay-away'. We need to have our 'home' now.
"Look upon your home through the eyes of love"
Exactly, it may be new, it may be old, but if you found out you had just lost it, where would you be? Look at it and be thankful you have a place to protect you, and do the same favor back to it. Love it and protect it from being taken for granted. It is not just a flop house to return to after a busy day. Treat it with the respect it deserves - it is YOUR HOME and you are the reigning QUEEN!
MAY 5
This reading deals with recognizing that our lives are co-existing with other's lives in our homes, and that we must recognize what stage of life we are in. Don't put crystal on the low coffee table if you have a 1 year old, as it will only lead to anxiety, not beauty! If you create a haven for only _yourself_, you will be the only person who remembers it as home! You are the central figure in this place we call home, the one who looks around and sees what stage of life you're all in that needs to be
accomodated for, so all will feel nurtured there.
"Can we afford to procrastinate if we truly value our peace of mind?...An honest home that rings true to the lives of the people who occupy it will always be disarmingly refreshing to visitors."
-Don't feel that unless you can afford the nicest stuff in the catalogues that you can't expect to have a real home. Or that because your children are playing in it, it is ruining 'your look'. (notwithstandning, that doesn't mean they shouldn't be learning how to manage their toys and know the limits, ok?)
How you feel about your home will be obvious to everyone who visits, whether you have old or new surroundings and items. Look around your home, is it confirming that you are "home", or is it sending strange messages. (I've gotten quite a few of those strange messages myself!)
MAY 6
"When friends enter a home, they sense its personality and character,....these elements make a house come alive with a sense of identity...."
- Sarah is encouraging us to wander thru our homes this week, to look thru it with new eyes. To see it as someone who has never been there before would see it. Do you see things there that you really did not 'plan' to have, or want to have, but it just kind of got dumped there? I sure do! I wish the things I saw were 2 old antigue lamps, but what I'm looking at ain't that pretty! I have loads of 'stacks of things' - that were meant to be sorted out, but somehow they just grew into more stacks of things.
Anyone who saw my home, would see the stacks, not the rest that is truly interesting and beautiful. I must reveal my home's true identity, and not let these ridiculous long over kept stacks steal center stage any longer!
MAY 7
Are you so busy that you feel there is no TIME to enjoy the beauty or poetry that life holds? Could you be so busy, that you dare not MISS the beauty and poetry that life holds?
If we maintain the unshakeable belief that what we are doing is truly important, than even while cleaning, we will feel the wonder of all the abundance that life has laid at our feet! If we do not give importance to our own work, no one can do that for us.
"And if homecaring is not sacred, then forgive me, for I truly have no conception of the Divine."
- I will treat my home with the love and respect it deserves, and I will not fail to notice the beauty the world willingly offers me everyday, but will take the moment to revel in it, absorb it's beauty, and let that same beauty pass thru my hands in all I do, and creating my home with it.
Read May days 8-14
*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
MAY 1
"Today a new sun rises for me: everything lives, everything is animated, everything seems to speak to me of my passion, everything invites me to cherish it." (Anne de Lenclos)
This reading brings to light _for me_ how the past is over, and the future - who knows? The only thing we can be sure we really have is RIGHT NOW. Not to waste my days thinking of doing it better on some future day, because I don't want a life of wasted days that were all "put off days" - till I got around to doing things the way my heart saw them.
MAY 2
"It was the small things that helped, taken one by one and savored" - Rumer Godden
Well....life is sometimes messy and exasperating. I loved this reading, because it has always been my saving grace to be able to enjoy the simplest thing, where ever I may find it, whenever it shows up. And those little 'lights' of beauty that flickered here and there amongst the insanity going on around me, gave my soul a reason to keep hanging in there.
"The soulcraft of creating and sustaining safe havens..."
Yes, that's it! We are not just doing drudgery! We are creating a place for our souls and spirits to feel at home in! A refuge and comfort that smiles at us when the times get rough. Right now my refuge is hiding under so much stacked up stuff, but I know it's there, and I WILL unearth it....like an archealogical dig, it will be mine again! (for those who don't know, I was extremely ill for 6 years, and my refuge became a nitemare during that time)
MAY 3 ~ HOME AS A HAVEN IN A HECTIC WORLD
What has changed so much about our lives, that makes us so different from the women of past generations? I know, I know...many women work outside the home and therefore it makes it hard to concentrate on these home things.
On the other hand, the time women spent doing everyday chores in those days was enough to count for more than a full time job, because they had no electronical miracle machines working for them. So, if our grandma's lives were so hard and they endured so much from war and the great depression, and draining physical labor, _why_ do we look back on visiting their homes with so much warmth? Why don't we remember them being drained and ugly with us because they were so tired? What did they manage that we may not be managing? How much difference will it make in our lives if we cherish the same
values they did? To see ourselves as the reigning queens of our homes and the moral, spiritual and physical center of that home that gives sustenance to all that dwelt there?
What is the legacy we are leaving our own families? Will they look back and have those same warm fuzzy feelings about 'home'? -or will they not use the word 'home' and opt out for "at our house...."
Something to think about.
MAY 4 - The Personality of Your Home
"You will express yourself in your house, whether you want to or not"
This reading points out the very important reminder that our 'homes' do not have to go hungry while we wait for the money to make it all new. Our homes are part of our lives, the background in which we live our lives - we cannot afford to have our homes put in some 'mental lay-away'. We need to have our 'home' now.
"Look upon your home through the eyes of love"
Exactly, it may be new, it may be old, but if you found out you had just lost it, where would you be? Look at it and be thankful you have a place to protect you, and do the same favor back to it. Love it and protect it from being taken for granted. It is not just a flop house to return to after a busy day. Treat it with the respect it deserves - it is YOUR HOME and you are the reigning QUEEN!
MAY 5
This reading deals with recognizing that our lives are co-existing with other's lives in our homes, and that we must recognize what stage of life we are in. Don't put crystal on the low coffee table if you have a 1 year old, as it will only lead to anxiety, not beauty! If you create a haven for only _yourself_, you will be the only person who remembers it as home! You are the central figure in this place we call home, the one who looks around and sees what stage of life you're all in that needs to be
accomodated for, so all will feel nurtured there.
"Can we afford to procrastinate if we truly value our peace of mind?...An honest home that rings true to the lives of the people who occupy it will always be disarmingly refreshing to visitors."
-Don't feel that unless you can afford the nicest stuff in the catalogues that you can't expect to have a real home. Or that because your children are playing in it, it is ruining 'your look'. (notwithstandning, that doesn't mean they shouldn't be learning how to manage their toys and know the limits, ok?)
How you feel about your home will be obvious to everyone who visits, whether you have old or new surroundings and items. Look around your home, is it confirming that you are "home", or is it sending strange messages. (I've gotten quite a few of those strange messages myself!)
MAY 6
"When friends enter a home, they sense its personality and character,....these elements make a house come alive with a sense of identity...."
- Sarah is encouraging us to wander thru our homes this week, to look thru it with new eyes. To see it as someone who has never been there before would see it. Do you see things there that you really did not 'plan' to have, or want to have, but it just kind of got dumped there? I sure do! I wish the things I saw were 2 old antigue lamps, but what I'm looking at ain't that pretty! I have loads of 'stacks of things' - that were meant to be sorted out, but somehow they just grew into more stacks of things.
Anyone who saw my home, would see the stacks, not the rest that is truly interesting and beautiful. I must reveal my home's true identity, and not let these ridiculous long over kept stacks steal center stage any longer!
MAY 7
Are you so busy that you feel there is no TIME to enjoy the beauty or poetry that life holds? Could you be so busy, that you dare not MISS the beauty and poetry that life holds?
If we maintain the unshakeable belief that what we are doing is truly important, than even while cleaning, we will feel the wonder of all the abundance that life has laid at our feet! If we do not give importance to our own work, no one can do that for us.
"And if homecaring is not sacred, then forgive me, for I truly have no conception of the Divine."
- I will treat my home with the love and respect it deserves, and I will not fail to notice the beauty the world willingly offers me everyday, but will take the moment to revel in it, absorb it's beauty, and let that same beauty pass thru my hands in all I do, and creating my home with it.
Read May days 8-14
*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
MAY 1
"Today a new sun rises for me: everything lives, everything is animated, everything seems to speak to me of my passion, everything invites me to cherish it." (Anne de Lenclos)
This reading brings to light _for me_ how the past is over, and the future - who knows? The only thing we can be sure we really have is RIGHT NOW. Not to waste my days thinking of doing it better on some future day, because I don't want a life of wasted days that were all "put off days" - till I got around to doing things the way my heart saw them.
MAY 2 "It was the small things that helped, taken one by one and savored" - Rumer Godden
Well....life is sometimes messy and exasperating. I loved this reading, because it has always been my saving grace to be able to enjoy the simplest thing, where ever I may find it, whenever it shows up. And those little 'lights' of beauty that flickered here and there amongst the insanity going on around me, gave my soul a reason to keep hanging in there.
"The soulcraft of creating and sustaining safe havens..."
Yes, that's it! We are not just doing drudgery! We are creating a place for our souls and spirits to feel at home in! A refuge and comfort that smiles at us when the times get rough. Right now my refuge is hiding under so much stacked up stuff, but I know it's there, and I WILL unearth it....like an archealogical dig, it will be mine again! (for those who don't know, I was extremely ill for 6 years, and my refuge became a nitemare during that time)
MAY 3 ~ HOME AS A HAVEN IN A HECTIC WORLD
What has changed so much about our lives, that makes us so different from the women of past generations? I know, I know...many women work outside the home and therefore it makes it hard to concentrate on these home things. On the other hand, the time women spent doing everyday chores in those days was enough to count for more than a full time job, because they had no electronical miracle machines working for them. So, if our grandma's lives were so hard and they endured so much from war and the great depression, and draining physical labor, _why_ do we look back on visiting their homes with so much warmth? Why don't we remember them being drained and ugly with us because they were so tired? What did they manage that we may not be managing? How much difference will it make in our lives if we cherish the same values they did? To see ourselves as the reigning queens of our homes and the moral, spiritual and physical center of that home that gives sustenance to all that dwelt there?
What is the legacy we are leaving our own families? Will they look back and have those same warm fuzzy feelings about 'home'? -or will they not use the word 'home' and opt out for "at our house...."
Something to think about.
MAY 4 - The Personality of Your Home
"You will express yourself in your house, whether you want to or not"
This reading points out the very important reminder that our 'homes' do not have to go hungry while we wait for the money to make it all new. Our homes are part of our lives, the background in which we live our lives - we cannot afford to have our homes put in some 'mental lay-away'. We need to have our 'home' now.
"Look upon your home through the eyes of love"
Exactly, it may be new, it may be old, but if you found out you had just lost it, where would you be? Look at it and be thankful you have a place to protect you, and do the same favor back to it. Love it and protect it from being taken for granted. It is not just a flop house to return to after a busy day. Treat it with the respect it deserves - it is YOUR HOME and you are the reigning QUEEN!
MAY 5
This reading deals with recognizing that our lives are co-existing with other's lives in our homes, and that we must recognize what stage of life we are in. Don't put crystal on the low coffee table if you have a 1 year old, as it will only lead to anxiety, not beauty! If you create a haven for only _yourself_, you will be the only person who remembers it as home! You are the central figure in this place we call home, the one who looks around and sees what stage of life you're all in that needs to be
accomodated for, so all will feel nurtured there.
"Can we afford to procrastinate if we truly value our peace of mind?...An honest home that rings true to the lives of the people who occupy it will always be disarmingly refreshing to visitors."
-Don't feel that unless you can afford the nicest stuff in the catalogues that you can't expect to have a real home. Or that because your children are playing in it, it is ruining 'your look'. (notwithstandning, that doesn't mean they shouldn't be learning how to manage their toys and know the limits, ok?)
How you feel about your home will be obvious to everyone who visits, whether you have old or new surroundings and items. Look around your home, is it confirming that you are "home", or is it sending strange messages. (I've gotten quite a few of those strange messages myself!)
MAY 6 "When friends enter a home, they sense its personality and character,....these elements make a house come alive with a sense of identity...." - Sarah is encouraging us to wander thru our homes this week, to look thru it with new eyes. To see it as someone who has never been there before would see it. Do you see things there that you really did not 'plan' to have, or want to have, but it just kind of got dumped there? I sure do! I wish the things I saw were 2 old antigue lamps, but what I'm looking at ain't that pretty! I have loads of 'stacks of things' - that were meant to be sorted out, but somehow they just grew into more stacks of things. Anyone who saw my home, would see the stacks, not the rest that is truly interesting and beautiful. I must reveal my home's true identity, and not let these ridiculous long over kept stacks steal center stage any longer!
MAY 7 Are you so busy that you feel there is no TIME to enjoy the beauty or poetry that life holds? Could you be so busy, that you dare not MISS the beauty and poetry that life holds? If we maintain the unshakeable belief that what we are doing is truly important, than even while cleaning, we will feel the wonder of all the abundance that life has laid at our feet! If we do not give importance to our own work, no one can do that for us.
"And if homecaring is not sacred, then forgive me, for I truly have no conception of the Divine."
- I will treat my home with the love and respect it deserves, and I will not fail to notice the beauty the world willingly offers me everyday, but will take the moment to revel in it, absorb it's beauty, and let that same beauty pass thru my hands in all I do, and creating my home with it.
Read May days 8-14
*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
This page hosted by
Get your own Free Home Page
