Tag: Meditation

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

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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.

My Abundant Life 6-19-26

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June 19th, 2026

Onward and Upward in the Garden

“Gardening is an instrument of grace.”

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

“To my mind, there are two types of lady gardeners. There are those extraordinary women who not only know every flower, but know every flower by its Latin name. These women look as beautiful as the flora they nurture, gardening in wide-brimmed straw hats and pearls, trailing chiffon, and wearing Ferragamo shoes. They keep meticulous gardening journals, plt plant placements on graph paper, and never break into a sweat when wielding a trowel and a spade. Katherine White belonged to this gardening genius.”

“‘Grunge’ accurately describes the other group. We are always hot, smelly, and sweaty in the garden, boasting not so much a green thumb as dirty fingernails because we forgot where we put our gardening gloves. We speak of ‘that little yellow flower’ and point.”

“Gardening has become an unexpected instrument of grace, for I’ve discovered hours of inner peace on my knees, digging in the dirt. Here is the one place I don’t think about work or worry about whatever it is that I can’t control. The complete absorption, the sacrament of the present moment I experience when planting or weeding brings exquisite contentment. My mind is stilled and my heart expands. Now I know why the Great Creator intended for women to flourish in a garden. So much for second-guessing the wisdom of Spirit.”

“I miss having a garden. It is something that brings me peace and contentment.”

–Ban Breathnach, Sarah. “Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy”. Grand Central Publishing. (1976). Kindle Page 217 to 218 of 501.

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

My Abundant Life 6-18-26

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June 18th, 2026

Choosing to Blossom

“And the day came when the risk (it took) to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom..”

Anais Nin (French-American Diarist & Essayist; February 21st, 1903 to January 14th, 1977)

“How much time, creative energy, and emotion do we expend resisting change because we assume growth must always be painful?”

“When we commit to nurturing our authentic selves, people close to us are going to start noticing that changes are taking place.”

“For it can be difficult to express your authentic needs by saying ‘Sorry, I can’t’ when everybody else assumes you can. But it’s worse to thwart the ascent of your authenticity. The day comes—maybe it’s today—when ‘remaining tight in the bud’ is more painful then blossoming.”

“Each blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it and whispers. ‘Grow, grow.'”

The Talmud

“My growth and unfolding of my authentic self feels like a new Spring for myself.”

–Ban Breathnach, Sarah. “Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy”. Grand Central Publishing. (1976). Kindle Page 215 to 216 of 501.

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

My Abundant Life 6-17-26

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June 17th, 2026

Affordable Splendor

“There never has been a house so bad that it couldn’t be made over into something worthwhile.”

Elsie De Wolfe (American Actress; December 20th, 1885 to July 12th, 1950)

“Today I would love to convince you that there is no room in your home that cannot be transformed by using fabric, paints, a saw, a hammer, nails, needle and thread, a sewing machine, glue, the amazing staple gun and your own imagination, time and energy.”

“The most important thing about decoration, is the fun of it. The fun of discovering a broken-down nothing and turning it into something…Best is to just charge ahead with confidence, enjoyment and a sharp pair of scissors for cutting corners.”

Dianna Phipps (Interior Designer & Philanthropist; February 22nd, 1936 to July 2024))

“I love reinventing spaces in my home by creating more beauty or efficiency. Our home is modest and loved.”

–Ban Breathnach, Sarah. “Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy”. Grand Central Publishing. (1976). Kindle Page 213 to 215 of 501.

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

My Abundant Life 6-16-26

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June 16th, 2026

The Fragrant Home

“I wish that life should not be cheap, but sacred, I wish the days to be as centuries, loaded, fragrant.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Essayist; May 25th, 1803 to April 27th, 1882)

“There’s no place like home.”

Howard Payne

“Perhaps there’s no place like home because no place else on earth smells quite like home.”

“A fragrant home is a simple pleasure but one rich in the resonance of reassurance. Subtly layering scents throughout the rooms in your home imparts a feeling of luxury to your living spaces.”

“In today’s world I find it not just nice but necessary to surround myself and my family with things that are familiar, warm, and reassuring.”

Barbara Milo Ohrbach (Author)

“I need to air out the house and then fill it with fresh baked cookies or bread next week while I am on PTO.”

–Ban Breathnach, Sarah. “Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy”. Grand Central Publishing. (1976). Kindle Page 212 to 213 of 501.

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