Tag: Body Mind & Spirit

My Abundant Life 6-29-26

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June 29th, 2026

Pruning Back, Plowing Ahead

“My soul is a broken field, plowed by pain.”

Sara Teasdale (American Poet; August 8th, 1884 to January 29th, 1933)

“Suddenly, inexplicably, life accidents strike without warning.”

“If life accidents of this kind seem particularly cruel, it’s because they are–prima facie evidence of fate’s maliciousness. More often than any of us would like to admit, life has a way of hitting us where it hurts most.”

“‘To paraphrase John Lennon,’ says Sheehy, ‘life’s accidents are what happen to us while we are making ither plans.'”

“Unfortunately, Sheehy discovered in the course of writing her books, ‘Most people do not negotiate either predictable passages, especially the later ones, or life’s accidents successfully.’ However, those individuals who will themselves to benefit from adversity becomes what Sheehy calls ‘pathfinders’: real-life champions who, ‘by refusing to go under in the onslaught of a life accident,’ emerge victorious.”

“Life accidents prune us back. Our souls become broken fields, plowed by pain.”

“Plants know you are there, and when you approach them knife in hand, they utter tiny shrieks; on the other hand, if you talk to them kindly or pray over them, they reward you with better than average growth.”

Eleanor Perenyi (Gardener & Author; January 4th, 1918 to May 3rd, 2009)

“Pain prunes the unessential emotions, ambitions, and illusions, teaching us the lessons we either consciously or unconsciously refuse to be taught by joy. Pain prunes the insignificant details that distracts us from what is really important, sapping our days, energies, and spirits.”

“Male no mistake, I think pain is a wretched gardener. Her cuts stun and sting, But after pruning, preferably voluntary, we’re able to discern what’s real, what important, and what’s essential for our happiness.”

“Be of good cheer. Study your plants and study your lifestyle. When the right time arrives, go into the garden with sharp shears. Speak kindly. Pray softly. Prune back. Now plow ahead.”

“My pruning recently occurred with my atraumatic splenic event in early June. To take inventory and cut back anything that was not serving me in the new spring. We all have 100% of our lives left and as such to continue to bloom and grow a bit of pruning can give space to fill in with new foliage in ways I never expected. The act of discarding the old and inviting in the new possibilities is the growth of one’s flowering.”

–Ban Breathnach, Sarah. “Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy”. Grand Central Publishing. (1976). Kindle Page 229 to 232 of 501.

I challenge each of you on this blog series to post comments so we all can grow together.

My Abundant Life 6-28-26

On By Heather HoustonIn My Abundant LifeLeave a comment

June 28th, 2026

Repotting: Giving Roots and Yourself Room To Grow

“Little flower–but if I could understand

What you are, root and all, and all in all

I should know what God and [woman] is.”

Alfred Lord Tennyson (Poet & Former Member of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom; August 6th, 1809 to October 6th, 1892)

“I don’t know when I myself am too pot-bound, …Lacking courage to be replanted, to take the shock of the new soil, to feel into the unknown and take root in it.”

Gunilla Norris (Author; March 1939)

“We, too, need to consider repotting for growth. But when? When we wilt even before the day begins. When we can’t seem to visualize or dream. When we can’t remember the last time we laughed. When we have absolutely nothing in the next twenty-four hours to look forward to. When this happens, week in, week out, we need to realize that we’re pot-bound. We need to gently loosen the soil around our souls, find something that sparks our imagination, quickens our pulse, brings a smile or a giddy lilt to our conversations.”

“As I work with my plants, I see that the roots are just stunted. Gently, with my fingers, I untangle them. Leaf, Stem, Root. Mind. Body. Soul. Three in one. Spirit’s seamless thread of mystery. I have often thought that if I could just discover where one strand left off and another began, I could understand it all. As it is, I understand little, yet somehow I know.”

“Speak to Him thou for He hears. …Spirit with Spirit can meet–closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.”

Alfred Lord Tennyson (Poet & Former Member of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom; August 6th, 1809 to October 6th, 1892)

“Root and bud bear silent witness to the restoration.”

“My second half of my life has been a sort of repotting. My roots became blunted and needed new soil and a more expansive setting to allow me to thrive and grow. I am forever thankful for the garden my love, Neil has planted me in and nurtured me with the sun of his love.”

–Ban Breathnach, Sarah. “Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy”. Grand Central Publishing. (1976). Kindle Page 229 to 231 of 501.

I challenge each of you on this blog series to post comments so we all can grow together.

My Abundant Life 6-27-26

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June 27th, 2026

Rosemary for Remembrance: Sowing Herbal Hopes and Wishes

“Balm brings you sympathy and Marjoram joy

Sage is long life…Sweet Woodruff augurs well for health–

A blessing richer far than wealth.

While Lavender means deep devotion, Herb of sweet omen, Rosemary conveys

Affection and remembrance all your days.

May Heaven and Earth and Man combine

To keep these blessings ever thine.”

Rachel Page Elliott (Author; February 27th, 1913 to March 20th, 2009)

“King Charlemagne of France, the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, believed that herbs were ‘the friend of the physician and the pride of cooks’ and ordered the planting of a royal herb garden in the ninth century. Herbs were considered essential for a long, happy, and healthy life.”

“Jeri performs a Native American ritual as she collects herbs. She wears a sacred pouch that carries wheat seeds. As she gathers from the earth, she personally returns an offering by scattering seeds. And even if the seeds don’t sprout, at least she is feeding the earth’s creatures. ‘The Native Americans have a chant that they invoke when they gather.’ Jeri says. ‘The Earth is my Mother, I take care of Her.”

“Today, sow some symbolic seeds, even if you don’t have a garden, as a gesture to ritualize the new life you are creating within. Ask for blessing of Spirit and the nurturing of the Great Mother and know that in due time there will be an abundant harvest for yourself and those you love.”

“In search of my mother’s garden I found my own.”

Alice Walker (American Novelist & Short Story Writer; February 9th, 1944)

“The idea that even in the 9th century, man knew the value of plants to a healthy life. I love the idea of sowing seeds as a gift to Mother Earth. To return to this gifting might yield a a beautiful canvas or sorts. This gives me hope to be an artist after all.”

–Ban Breathnach, Sarah. “Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy”. Grand Central Publishing. (1976). Kindle Page 228 to 229 of 501.

I challenge each of you on this blog series to post comments so we all can grow together.

My Abundant Life 6-26-26

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June 26th, 2026

Everywoman’s Essence of Paradise

“All the year round she kept racks full of plants in pots standing o green painted wooden steps. There were rare geraniums, dwarf rosebushes, spiraeas with misty white and pink plumes…”

Colette (French Author, Woman of Letters, Mime, Actress & Journalist; January 28th, 1873 to August 3rd, 1954)

“Gardening really has no beginning and no end. In particular, pleasures of the sense of smell really know no seasons. …Bottled under glass, blooming at your elbow, the indoor garden has an immediacy that gardens outside cannot match, The aromas impart an intensity that will not be ignored. …Deliciously distilled, delectably varied–that is the essence of paradise.”

Tovah Martin (Author; October 1969)

–Ban Breathnach, Sarah. “Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy”. Grand Central Publishing. (1976). Kindle Page 227 to 228 of 501.

I challenge each of you on this blog series to post comments so we all can grow together.

My Abundant Life 6-25-26

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June 25th, 2026

Getting Started

“Plant it with the green side up.”

Mary Ann & Frederick McGourty (Gardeners; June 15th, 1959 to May 12th, 2003 & October 26th, 1936 to April 27th, 2006)

“Good gardening is very simple, really. You just have to learn to think like a plant…”

Barbara Damrosch (Writer & Horticulturist; 1942)

“E.B. White, who after his wife Katharine’s death edited her New Yorker gardening columns into a book, ends his remembrance of her gardening years with a glimpse of her last autumn bulb planting and ‘her studied absorption in the implausible notion that there would be yet another spring, oblivious to the ending of her own days, which she knew perfectly well was at hand, sitting there with her detailed chart under those dark skies in the dying October, calmly plotting the resurrection.'”

“…I asked a gardener his secret for abundant blooming. He told me to plant at least six bulbs in each hole (Create a circle of bulbs in the hole with one bulb in the center) and space your holes close together. The result was stunning.”

“Let no one be discouraged by the thought of how much there is to learn. …Each new step becomes a little surer, and each new grasp a little firmer.”

Gertrude Jeykill (British Horticulturist & Garden Designer; November 29th, 1843 to December 8th, 1932)

“I adore the idea of planting 6 bulbs per hole to yield a stunning full blooming.”

–Ban Breathnach, Sarah. “Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy”. Grand Central Publishing. (1976). Kindle Page 225 to 227 of 501.

I challenge each of you on this blog series to post comments so we all can grow together.

My Abundant Life 6-24-26

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June 24th, 2026

Splendor in the Vase: Living with Flowers

“I’d rather have roses on my table, than diamonds on my neck.”

Emma Goldman (Writer; June 27th, 1869 to May 14th, 1940)

“One has the illusion of being an artist painting—Putting a dash of color here, taking out another dash of color there, until the whole composition is to one’s liking.”

Vita Sackville-West (Author & Garden Designer; March 9th, 1892 to June 2nd, 1962)

“Gardening is very creative and artistic….much like painting or cooking.”

–Ban Breathnach, Sarah. “Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy”. Grand Central Publishing. (1976). Kindle Page 224 to 225 of 501.

I challenge each of you on this blog series to post comments so we all can grow together.

My Abundant Life 6-23-26

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June 23rd, 2026

Midsummer Night’s Dreams

“Now is the high-tide of year,

And whatever of life hath ebbed away

Comes flooding back with ripply cheer

Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it,

We are happy now, because God wills it.”

James Russell Lowell (Poet & Former United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom; February 22nd, 1819 to August 12th, 1891)

“Life is to be enjoyed, not saddled with…”

Tasha Tudor (American Illustrator & Writer; August 28th, 1915 to June 18th, 2008)

“‘Take joy’ from each day. This is a catechism we should all embrace to experience Heaven on earth.”

1st Commandment of the Stillwater religion

“I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything splendid or wonderful or exciting happens, but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string.”

Lucy Maud Montgomery (Canadian Author; November 30th, 1874 to April 24th, 1942)

“Learning to BE present has afforded me the capacity to be enlivened by the smallest of pleasures to the same magnitude as something splendid. To BE alive is the magic.”

–Ban Breathnach, Sarah. “Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy”. Grand Central Publishing. (1976). Kindle Page 222 to 224 of 501.

I challenge each of you on this blog series to post comments so we all can grow together.

My Abundant Life 6-22-26

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June 22nd, 2026

The Gourmet Victory Garden

“It’s difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a home-grown tomato.”

Lewis Grizzard (American Writer; October 20th, 1946 to March 20th, 1994)

“In the 1940s, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered ‘victory gardens’ as part of the war effort. Domestic propaganda exhorted women to remember that ‘waste during war is sabotage,’ and American women answered the patriotic call by growing more than a million tons of vegetables a year—half of what the home front annually consumed—backyard plots.”

“And this emotion of wonder filled me for each vegetable as it was gathered every year. There is nothing that is comparable to it, as satisfactory or as thrilling, as gathering the vegetables one has grown.”

Alice B. Toklas (American Writer; April 30th, 1877 to March 7th, 1967)

“I am so thankful my parents taught me to garden. We grew up poor and our garden is where we felt richest with delicious and nutritious food.”

–Ban Breathnach, Sarah. “Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy”. Grand Central Publishing. (1976). Kindle Page 221 to 222 of 501.

I challenge each of you on this blog series to post comments so we all can grow together.

My Abundant Life 6-21-26

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June 21st, 2026

Bloom Where You’re Planted

“Bloom where you’re planted.”

Mary Engelbreit (Artist; June 5th, 1952)

“Gardening is one of the rewards of middle age, when one is ready for an impersonal passion, a passion that demands patience, acute awareness of a world outside oneself, and the power to keep on growing through the cold snows, towards those moments of pure joy when all failures are forgotten and the plum tree flowers.”

May Sarton (Belgian-American Novelist & Poet; May 3rd, 1912 to July 16th, 1995)

“Being a late bloomer means that you have the time and the opportunity to revise and revamp if you experiment with life and fall short of your dreams. We late bloomers can risk more because at this point nobody really expects anything spectacular from us anymore. We can reinvent ourselves or give birth to our authentic selves we rediscover and reclaim our essence.”

“As I have tried and failed and tried again, I have discovered that if we are to flourish as creative beings, if we are o grow into Wholeness, we must bloom wherever we are planted. Right now, you might not have the perfect career, home, or relationship. Few of us do. But if you have the gift of today, you’ve got another chance to re-create your circumstances and make them as perfect as it’s possible to do with the resources you have. Today, you get another chance to get it as right as you can make it. What more could you desire?”

“The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want. …And if they can’t find them, make them.”

George Bernard Shaw (Irish Playwright & Critic; July 26th, 1856 to November 2nd, 1950)

“I am so thankful for my experience in professional athletics. I learned these lessons early in my life and was able to reignite them again when I needed as my marriage was predictably failing. I chose to make my circumstances versus waiting for life to happen to me.”

–Ban Breathnach, Sarah. “Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy”. Grand Central Publishing. (1976). Kindle Page 220 to 221 of 501.

I challenge each of you on this blog series to post comments so we all can grow together.

My Abundant Life 6-20-26

On By Heather HoustonIn My Abundant LifeLeave a comment

June 20th, 2026

Onward and Upward in the Garden

“Within your heart, keep one still, secret spot where dreams may go.”

Louise Driscoll (Poet; 1875 to July 16th, 1957)

“Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we shall tend. The invisible underbrush holding us back is our own thoughts. When we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but on the abundance that’s present—love, health, family, friends, work, and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure—the wasteland falls away and we experience joy in the real lives we live each day.”

“…don’t forget to tend your interior secret garden, because the seeds that will blossom in outward expression are always first scattered within. Weed out disappointments, frustrations, diminished ambitions, unfulfilled expectations, and anger about what has gone before or what has not yet come. These emotional weeds only choke your creativity. Let an unfettered imagination sow the seeds of possibility in the rich soil of your soul. Then let passion tend the garden with patience and perseverance.”

“When you have a Garden, you have a Future and when you have a Future, you are Alive,”

Frances Hodgson (British-American Novelist & Playwright; November 24th, 1849 to October 29th, 1924)

“The secret garden within each of us needs constant tending and nurturing. It has taken me the first half of my life to understand and implement this…without guilt and as a known truth for my health and happiness.”

–Ban Breathnach, Sarah. “Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy”. Grand Central Publishing. (1976). Kindle Page 218 to 220 of 501.

I challenge each of you on this blog series to post comments so we all can grow together.