Sarah Ban Breathnach's

Simple Abundance Between the LinesNovember 2022

Sarah Ban Breathnach’s
Simple Abundance Between the Lines:
November 2022

She stands
in tattered gold
tossing bits of amber
and jade,
jewels of the year grown old,
November.
 Zephyr Ware Tarver (1886-1974)
American poet

Dearest Babes,

November loves the pilgrim soul in you and longs to ease the fretting from your frazzled face and lift your world-weary heart.  She stands at the door of the month in tattered gold, tossing bits of amber and jade, and invites you to share the jewels of the year grown old. What an exquisite image, the little-known poet Zephyr Ware Tarver gifts us with, to ponder in our hearts.

With the holidays fast approaching and a steady diet of doom and gloom projected for every aspect of our lives, have you unconsciously worried or grumbled away this month’s gifts of Grace?  Family, feasting, and fussing might be en route, but November knows how to take care of you with a bounty of homegrown bliss. As the daylight hours decrease and the air turns crisp, discover unexpected serenity in the sacred ordinary of the overlooked and forgotten. Encourage your cup to runneth over with Gratitude’s gentle nudges toward savory and sensuous self-preservation and the blessings of well-spent moments.

To start, November brings an extra hour of sleep as we turn the clocks back, even if it’s dark at both ends of bedtime. I’m claiming my extra hour of sleep for the Gratitude Journal.  Why don’t you? Learning to comfort ourselves through Life’s dark moments is November’s abundant gift.

Over at The Art of Starting Over, we’re exploring the spiritual moxie of the Swell Dame glamour gals who packed a soignee wallop wearing finger waves and bias-cut satin dresses while challenging and changing the Hollywood  “studio” system.

Next, we’ll pay a visit to Swell Dame Willa Cather’s kitchen. Cather, who won literary fame writing about pioneer life from her Greenwich Village brownstone apartment, knew that we always carry our authentic passions wherever we go. So, gather your cookbooks to browse and abandoned craft projects to finish, simmer some apple cider and bake some pumpkin muffins. November has some of the most serene, sweet, and contented hours when we learn how to gather in and preserve a woman’s most precious natural resources—time, creative energy, and emotion.

Sending dearest love and blessings for your peace and plenty,

XO Sarah