Post Category → Sara Ban Breathnach

Question & Thought for April 26th, 2016!!!

Question & Thought for April 26th, 2016!!!
Good Tuesday Morning! Continued!!! Gratitude = Simplicity = Order = Harmony = Beauty = JOY! (I’m going to deviate, imagine that, from the Simple Abundance book and go to my favorite author on the topic of JOY!)
1. Question – And now, what does it all matter?
2. Thought – It matters more than anything else in the world. The whole dance, or drama, or pattern of this three-Personal life is to be played out in each one of us: or (putting it the other way around) each one of us has got to enter that pattern, take his place in that dance. There is no other way to the happiness for which we were made. Good things as well as bad, you know, are caught by a kind of infection. If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you: if you are not, you will remain dry. Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever? Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?
But how is he to be united to God? How is it possible for us to be taken into this three-Personal life?
You remember what I said in Chapter I about begetting and making. We are not begotten by God, we are only made by Him: in our natural state we are not sons of God, only (so to speak) statues. We have not got Zoe or spiritual life: only Bios or biological life which is presently going to run down and die. Now the whole offer which Christianity makes is this: that we can, if we let God have His way, come to share in the life of Christ. If we do, we shall then be sharing a life which was begotten, not made, which always existed and always will exist. Christ is the Son of God. If we share in this kind of life we also shall be sons of God. We shall love the Father as He does and the Holy Ghost will arise in us. He came to this world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life He has – by what I call ‘good infection.’ Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else. (Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis)
“The whole man is to drink joy from the fountain of joy.” (C.S. Lewis) I’ve enjoyed this!
rem – I had no knowledge that I had no knowledge.
Question & Thought & ANDs.

Question & Thought for April 25th, 2016!

Question & Thought for April 25th, 2016!
Good Monday Morning! Gratitude = Simplicity = Order = Harmony = Beauty = Joy!
Beauty
1. Question – Do you pause long enough to see God’s intended harmony and see the beauty in people, nature and the heavens?
2. Thought – Today, explore ways to see your world differently. [I got a comment on ‘your’ world, but you know what I mean.] Let your eyes drink in the beauty that surrounds you. Walk to a gallery on your lunch hour and meditate upon the beautiful painting or into your backyard this afternoon to catch that “certain Slant of light” that so enthralled Emily Dickinson. Gaze into the faces you love, set the table with care, and relish the preparations you make for dinner, delighting in the presentation of your meal. Light the candles, pour wine or sparkling water in your prettiest goblets, and celebrate this new awareness. It is in the details of life that beauty is revealed, sustained, and nurtured.
While the Simple Abundance path is gentle, its lessons are powerful. First of all, we learn to be grateful no matter what our circumstances may be. In offering gratitude for our real lives, we discover how to change them for the better. As we embrace simplicity, we learn that less is truly more. This freedom encourages us to bring order to our affairs and cultivate harmony in our inner world. Going at our own pace, learning to recognize our limitations, appreciating our progress, we weave the lessons into the fabric of our daily moments until they become part of us. (Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach)
“Home is the definition of God.” (Emily Dickenson)
rem – I had no knowledge that I had no knowledge.
Question & Thought & ANDs.

Question & Thought for April 24th, 2016!

Question & Thought for April 24th, 2016!
Good Sunday Morning! Gratitude = Simplicity = Order = Harmony = Beauty = Joy!
Harmony
1. Question – Can you just pause enough to see the harmony which order brings?
2. Thought – Usually, when the distraction of daily life depletes our energy, the first thing we eliminate is the thing we need the most: quiet, reflective time. Time to dream, time to think, time to contemplate what’s working and what’s not, so that we can make changes for the better.
On the Simple Abundance path we begin to learn how to pause. As we bring the principles of gratitude, simplicity, and order into our lives, harmony emerges. We learn to balance demands with pleasure, moments of solitude with a need for companionship, work with play, activity with rest, the inner self with the outer package.
Today, just try slowing down. Approach the day as if it were an adagio – a melody played in an easy, graceful manner. Listen to music that soothes and uplifts your soul. And while you listen, pause to consider how all the individual notes come together harmoniously to give expression to the entire score.
So it shall be with your world. With harmony as your guide, trust that your everyday moments will soon begin to resonate to the rhapsody of fulfillment. (Simple Abundance by Sara Ban Breathnach) 
​”The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes – ah, that is where art resides.” (Arthur Schnabel)​
​Have a learning week! Tomorrow – Beauty followed by JOY. (On of Lewis’ favorites!)​
rem – I had no knowledge that I had no knowledge.
Question & Thought & ANDs.

Question & Thought for April 23rd, 2016!

Question & Thought for April 23rd, 2016!
Good Saturday Morning!!! Gratitude = Simplicity = Order = Harmony = Beauty = Joy!
ORDER
​1. Question – What did Dorothy Parker say about what kills us?
2. Thought – Whenever I am feeling overwhelmed by outside circumstances – worries about money, concern over a sick family member, or anxiety over prolonged business negotiations – instinctively I turn to homegrown rituals ​to restore my equilibrium. There is an immediate emotional and psychological payoff into getting our house in order. We might not be able to control what is happening externally in our lives but we can learn to look to our own inner resources for a sense of comfort that nurtures and sustains. I have even noticed that there is a direct correlation between the days I’m feeling depressed and that days when the house is in disarray. I suspect that I’m not alone. “It’s not the tragedies that kill us,” Dorothy Parker once observed, “It’s the messes.”
If you feel constantly adrift but don’t know why, be willing to explore the role that order – or the lack of it – plays in your life. Begin to think of order not of a straight-jacket of “should” (make the bed, wash the dishes, take out the garbage) but as a shape – the foundation – for the beautiful new life you are creating.
There is Divine Order – a Sublime Order – inherent in the Universe. We can tap into this powerful source of creative energy when we are willing to gradually cultivate a sense of order as to how we conduct our daily affairs. Invite Divine Order into your life today and a more serene tomorrow will unfold. (Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach)
“Order is the shape upon which beauty depends.” (Pearl Buck)
rem – I had no knowledge that I had no knowledge.
Question & Thought & ANDs.