Tag: Gunilla Norris

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 5-11-26

On By Heather HoustonIn My Abundant LifeLeave a comment

May 11th, 2026

The Tao of Homecaring

“Time to dust again. Time to caress my house, to stroke all its surfaces. I want to think of it as a kind of lovemaking…the chance to appreciate by touch what I live with and cherish.”

Gunilla Norris (Author; 1939)

“One of its main themes is unity, based on yielding rather than resisting. (‘Tao is eternal without doing, and yet nothing remains undone.’) When a seeker commits to the Way she sheds her expectations, becoming an empty vessel to be filled to the brim with both the yin and yang, the opposite male and female energies of life…”

“By reflecting on the way in which our life proceeds day in, day out. What works, what doesn’t. As we pause to reflect before doing, come to an awareness of how the nature of all things—even the minutiae of the domestic sphere—contributes to the harmony of the Whole.”

“Naming is the origin of all particular things…mystery and manifestation arise from the same source.”

Lao-Tzu (Chinese Philosopher; 571 B.C.)

“Drudgery can be transformed, through a willing and open heart, into labors of love.”

“…begin to call it ‘homecaring’. Redefining our work casts a subtle but powerful spell over the subconscious mind.”

“…regard the samll as important…to make much of the little.”

Lao-Tzu (Chinese Philosopher; 571 B.C.)

“Homecaring for me is a loving act I have done all my life. It is my love language, just ask my aunties how many times I have reorganized their kitchen spice cabinets.”

–Ban Breathnach, Sarah. “Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy”. Grand Central Publishing. (1976). Kindle Page 155 to 157 of 501.

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

My Abundant Life 5-9-26

On By Heather HoustonIn My Abundant LifeLeave a comment

May 9th, 2026

Getting Your House in Order

“My life will always have dirty dishes. If this sink can become a place of contemplation, let e learn constancy here.”

Gunilla Norris (Author; 1939)

“The clean becomes soiled, the soiled is made clean, over and over, day after day.”

Simone de Beauvoir (French Philosopher & Writer; January 9th, 1908 to April 14th, 1986)

“…serene lives of the Amish, the Quakers, and especially the Shakers, I became struck by their seamless stitching together of life, work, and art through the thread of divine order.”

“The Shakers believed that their daily work, including housekeeping was a personal expression of worship.”

“Prayer and housekeeping—they go together. They have always gone together. We simply know that our daily round is how we live. When we clean and order our homes, we are somehow also cleaning and ordering ourselves.”

Gunilla Norris (Author; 1939)

“How we care for our home is a subtle but significant expression of self-esteem.”

“I care for my self and my home and both my body and home reflect my self-esteem…BRILLIANTLY!”

–Ban Breathnach, Sarah. “Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy”. Grand Central Publishing. (1976). Kindle Page 152 to 153 of 501.

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