The Prosperity of Living

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‘These are challenging times in which to live. But we are not the only generation of women to have known difficult days. It is comforting to realize that others before us have persevered and prospered. During the dark days of the Depression an editorial in the October 1932 issue of Ladies’ Home Journal encouraged readers to remember that “The return of good times is not wholly a matter of money. There is a prosperity of living which is quite as important as prosperity of the pocketbook.” But the magazine stressed that “It is not enough to be willing to make the best of things as they are. Resignation will get us nowhere. We must build what amounts to a new country. We must revive the ideals of the founders. We must learn the new values of money. It is a time for pioneering- to create a new security for the home and the family…Where we were specialists in spending, we are becoming specialists in living.”

I remember the exact moment when I found that quote. I was mining my acre of diamonds: seated on the floor of an antique shop perusing women’s periodicals from the past for hints on how to live successfully today. I had been on the Simple Abundance path for a year and felt like a pioneer. In fact, I felt exactly like a woman who had packed up her family and all her world possessions in Boston to start across country in a covered wagon in search of the Promised Land. For two thousand miles I had kept the dream of a better life alive while enduring Indian attacks, epidemics, drought, blizzards, tornadoes, snakes, and salted beef. By this time I was in the Nebraska Territory with a thousand more miles to go, but I had come too far to turn back. Like that pioneer woman, I was discouraged. When I found that magazine I immediately embraced it as a telegraph message to my soul. “Keep going. Don’t stop. You’re on the right path and you are not alone.” From that moment , I have never looked back. I learned firsthand that the Simple Abundance path has the power to transform lives.

Are you ready to become a pioneer? Then it’s time to invest your soul with all the creative energy at your disposal. Think of me as your scout, your own personal pathfinder. These past few years I’ve gone ahead and cleared brush from the trail. This much I’ll tell you at the outset. The path spirals and takes time- it will take us a year- but it is comforting and nurturing. It can also be undertaken only one day at a time. Don’t be afraid. We are not alone. Like pioneers on the trail, we will learn to live by our own lights and the stars of the heaven, for that is all we need. There is no obstacle that true grit and Amazing Grace cannot overcome.’ Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance A Daybook of Comfort and Joy

Are you a pioneer woman? Are you even capable of being one?

Do we really know what the ideas are of the founders and do we know how to revive them?

Can you create security for your home and your family? What about learning a new value for money?

Do you have the patience and determination for this journey, this chapter, in your life?

‘Women must be the pioneer in this turning inward for strength. In a sense she has always been the pioneer.’ – Anne Morrow Lindbergh