"Simple Abundance" by Sarah Ban Breathnach

I've been wanting to review "Simple Abundance" for some time now, but wasn't sure that it was still in print. So, before I started this posting, I checked Amazon.com and it's still for sale there. Great news!!

"Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy" by Sarah Ban Breathnach. "A Daybook of Comfort and Joy". Truer words were never spoken. I got my book from a friend who felt that I just needed to have it, and need it I did. =) I didn't know it at the time, however.

"Simple Abundance" is one of those books that you will keep by your favorite chair, that place where you go in the afternoon to sit for a while, relax, have a cup of flavored coffee, or a cold drink on a hot summer's day. Sarah Ban Breathnach has a daily suggestion as to how you can take that day and pull out of it a bit of abundance for yourself no matter what your station in life, your situation, or your condition. She helps one to see that abundance is as much a frame of mind as anything. She helps us to see that in small things there can be great pleasures.

In each days offering, she starts it off with a quote from someone else that by itself, says volumes and would be enough. As an example of this, I quote, "Gardening is an instrument of grace" the author is May Sarton, an author and a poet. Don't you love that??

As a sample of what this amazing book brings to the reader, I will paraphrase one of her daily offerings. This is from "July 19". She goes through the calendar day by day.

July 19:

"Carving Out Time for Personal Pursuits That Bring Contentment".

Then she quotes "Rebecca West". "It is the soul's duty to be loyal to its own desires. It must abandon itself to its master passion".

Ms Breathnach goes on to write: "After putting down her pen, novelist Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings cooked up plots as she baked pies". And then she goes on, "Katharine Hepburn whiled away the long stretches on the movie sets by knitting." And, "Queen Victoria filled dozens of sketchbooks with charming watercolors of her children that reveal a glimpse of the real woman who delighted in holding a brush when not ruling an empire".

She goes on to say, " We are traditionally rather proud of ourselves for having slipped creative work in there between the domestic chores and obligations". Then she quotes another author, Toni Morrison, as saying, "I'm not so sure that we deserve such big A-pluses for that". I totally agree with that. Don't you?

I like this next piece. "But the house calls to us. The children call to us. The work calls to us". Then she asks, "When then, does the painting or the poem call to us?" (She's talking about ME there!! Is she talking about you too?) She says that we are too busy listening to everyone else to listen to our "authentic selves". She goes on to say that, "maybe it's because we have convinced ourselves that we don't have time for these pursuits that bring us contentment unless they only take 15 minutes or so", or even moreso, that we don't deserve that time. What is that all about???

Further down on this days writing she says, "Maybe the answer is that I haven't yet learned to put myself on the list of priorities", and "My authentic passions will have to wait until I'm ready to admit that pursuing them is essential for my happiness". These things that bring us such joy are ESSENTIAL to our HAPPINESS. Think about that!! They are essential!!

I don't know about you, but she sure makes me want to get up off of this computer chair, get out my easel, my paints, my clay for sculpting, and paint with one hand while I sculpt with the other, and all while my eyes are reading my favorite book. lol

I hope that this small taste of this book will make you consider going out and buying it for yourself or ordering it online.

You are going to love having it and will find it to be a constant source of keeping you centered and in touch with yourself. Helping you remember that what YOU need is also important. We need to do things that are just for ourselves, that make us feel fulfilled, and content. In doing this, we are filled up and therefore have that much more to bring to our families. After all, an empty vessel is just that, empty. And that, my friend, is a Maryism!!! =) You MAY quote me. =)

Until next time,

Mary