Simple Abundance Catch-up
Then before you know it, you are a few posts behind.
Here are the final two Simple Abundance messages for the month of January. The obsession compulsive side of me can not move on to February, until January is caught up.
Bare with me. I am not as weird as you think…..
Well, maybe I am. Anyway, getting this done will help me sleep better tonight.
The Golden Mirror Meditation:
‘For years I have used a special meditation I call the golden mirror meditation. I visualize in my mind an enormous mirror the size of a room, with an elaborately carved, 24 karat gold frame. This is my materializing mirror. Those dream I wish to materialize in my
life are first viewed here.Now let me share with you an amazing coincidence that a French proverb would suggest is “God’s way of remaining anonymous.” After I had been doing the golden mirror meditation for about a year, I was invited on an all-expense-paid business trip to Dublin, one of my
favorite cities. I was to stay at one of Dublin’s oldest, most beautiful, and expensive hotels, the Shelbourne, where I had never been before. When I arrived at the hotel and walked into the lounge, what should I see but the physical manifestation of my daily meditation: a beautiful mirror with a gold-leaf frame that was so large it took up an entire wall of the lounge. I laughed with delight when I saw my reflection in it, for here was the universe’s way of demonstrating to me that whatever we visualize in our minds can come to pass in the physical world.Today, find a few moments to get quiet and journey within. Close your eyes. Visualize a beautiful, large golden mirror surrounded by shimmering white lights. This light is Love that surrounds you, enfolds you, enwraps you, and protects you as you look into the mirror. See the reflection of an extraordinary woman. She is beautiful and radiant. She possesses a strong, healthy, vibrant aura. Her eyes are sparkling and she is smiling warmly at you. Do you know who this woman is? You feel as if you have known her all your life. And you have. She is your authentic self. Spend a few moments with her now. What is she doing? How is she doing it? Visit her as often as you like. She is waiting to help you find your way as you make the journey of self-discovery.
There are days when we all fear the harsh glare of the looking glass,but there is never a time when you should hesitate to encounter the woman in the golden mirror. She is the highest reflection of your soul, the embodiment of the perfect woman who resides within and she sends you Love to lighten your path.’- Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance A Daybook of Comfort and Joy
Embracing Joyful Simplicities:
As we become curators of our own contentment on the Simple Abundance path, one of the great payoffs is that we start to seek peace and comfort in the joyful simplicities. Little things begin to mean a lot to us. Joyful simplicities nourish our body and soul by engaging our senses. They teach us how to live in the present moment. Life comes together when we seek out the Sublime in the ordinary.
We all have days in our lives that are marked by great moments of rejoicing and celebration: the baby is born, the promotion comes through, the book contract is signed. But life is not an endless round cake and champagne. There’s a lot of drudgery to most of our days: sheets to be changes, dry cleaning to pickup, garbage to put out. To keep our daily round from being all drudgery, we’ve got to savor the art of the small: discovering diminutive delights that bring us peace and pleasure. In 1949, the British playright J.B. Priestly gathered together such moments in a book of essays entitles Delight. Among his favorites: waking in the morning to the smell of coffee, eggs and bacon; reading detective stories in bed; suddenly doing nothing in the middle of the day; buying books; and enjoying the company of (instead of just tolerating) small children.
It’s a winter’s day. Can you make a pot of homemade soup for supper tonight? I relish this joyful simplicity once a week during the winter. Chopping, paring, and scraping are very calming activities. Really look at the colors of the vegetables- the orange of the carrots, the bright green celery, the pearly white onion. You have a beautiful still life in front of you. Don’t rush through the process but enjoy the mindfulness, or the Zen, of cooking. Isn’t the fragrance of homemade soup wonderful? It makes you glad to be alive or at least at your own house for dinner.
Don’t you see how we have to seize the essence of life? We have to embrace every moment. “People need joy quite as much as clothing. Some of them need it far more,” Margaret Collier Graham wrote in 1906. Today, make discovering those joyful simplicities that bring you personal comfort and a sense of well-being one of your highest priorities.’ -Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance A Daybook of Comfort and Joy.
You know what I like about this book and what it really brings to the surface?
No matter the year, late 1800’s, early 1900’s, the 1980’s or current day, the basic struggles of women, or people even, is the same. We are all struggling to keep up, make progress and want to do it with the most simple stress-free approach as possible. Rather we use a wash board and clean our clothes by hand, or use an automatic washing machine, the struggles are still there. There are children to take care of, a home to tend to, meals to cook, a husband who needs our strength, and a woman who should not overlook herself.
It makes me feel less alone and loosen up on myself a bit. We have a tendency to just carry the weight of the world on our shoulders.
And it looks like women have been doing that for years, struggling some days, but always finding a way to persevere.
Gives meaning to the word cyclical.
‘Year by year the complexities of this spinning world grow more bewildering and so each year we need all the more to seek peace and comfort in the joyful simplicities.’ -Women’s Home Companion, December 1935