An old friend revisited
Cindy on October 14th, 2008
Now I understand that all my hours aren’t billable; finding a quiet center in which to create and sustain an authentic life has become as essential as breathing.” — Sarah Ban Breathnach
Few things in life are more fun than rediscovering an old friend. Last weekend, while reorganizing my kitchen bookshelves, I found Simple Abundance sandwiched between two cookbooks. Written by Sarah Ban Breathnach, this popular daybook enjoyed only moderate success until Oprah endorsed it in the mid-1990s. Luckily, the book found its way into my hands when I needed it most — when my son was a child and I was trying to strike a healthy balance between my writing career and family life.
Compiled for women in desperate need of “sanctuary” from overbooked lives, Simple Abundance contains inspirational essays for every day of the year. In her introduction, Ban Breathnach explained that she wrote the essays while wrestling with her own discontent. She had many blessings to count, she said, yet she was never satisfied.
“Money was an enormous, emotionally charged issue that controlled my ability to be happy because I let it; money was the only way I could measure my success and self-worth,” Ban Breathnach wrote. “If I couldn’t write a check on my accomplishments, they didn’t exist.”
Glancing through Simple Abudance after years of neglect, I was struck by its call to practice simplicity, humanity, and gratitude. We’re all reeling from a massive economic crisis and the nastiest, ugliest presidential campaign in history. We’re wondering what’s in store. Who couldn’t use a little advice on how to find inner peace and happiness in the midst of chaos and uncertainty? – Cindy La Ferle
October 14th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
i just LOVE that book!
October 14th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
I think I have/had that book. I might have donated it to the library. I just got a new book along those lines: “Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women” by Karen Casey. I’m looking forward to a daily inspiration.
October 14th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Ban Breathnach’s other book, “Something More, Excavating Your Authentic Self” is one of my favorite books ever. I’ve picked up at least 5 copies at Goodwill to give to my friends. Every woman needs a copy of this book.
I have Simple Abundance also.
- Suzanne, the Farmer’s Wife
October 14th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Thanks for the tip- I can use it!
October 14th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
So glad I could share this book again — thanks for your comments, too, Suzanne, on “Something More,” as I liked that one too. I think inspirational writings are so helpful to all of us in times of stress and transition.
October 15th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
I haven’t heard of it but I liked the quote about money ruling. I went through a time like that while my late husband was ill. I felt a failure simply because I couldn’t manage the bills and the catastrophe and needed to ask for help.
October 15th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
I LOVE this book. I turn to it now and then for comfort or inspiration. It seems like a very good idea right now. I’m so glad you reminded us!
October 16th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Thank you so much for rediscovering that book – it had, at one point, been a lifesaver for me too. It’s so easy in these scary times to lose sight of the importance of gratitude. My friends and I have started a new game. Akin to the old game of attaching the words “in bed” onto fortune cookie sayings, we now attach the words “in Afghanistan” to our bad times. Example: “At least I’m not sitting in a roasting laundromat on the hottest day of the year – IN AFGHANISTAN.” Believe me, it works.
October 17th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Hi Cindy. I recently resurfaced my copy of Simple Abundance, too. Sarah Ban Breathnach did a lovely job writing essays full of introspection and contentment. I get lost in some of her descriptions.
The title of her book says it all. Especially now, we are well advised to (re)discover and appreciate what is inside each of us as well as all the gifts this world has to offer that we might unknowingly take for granted.
I used to display this book on the table near a reading chair in my bedroom – I’d leave it open to the first page of the current month to show the illustration and quote. I’m living in a different home now and am considering do the same again.
Thank you for reminding us all of this old friend.
~Arleen
October 23rd, 2008 at 2:46 pm
This is the time of year I pull out my copy of “Simple Abundance” and start reading again. I think that’s due in part to my favorite passage, which is for November 1. It particularly fits this year: This too, shall pass.