Your Personal Treasure Map

                       

Quotes from Simple Abundance: 365 Days to a Balanced and Joyful Life by Sarah Ban Breathnach

"February arrives cold, wet, and gray, her gifts disguised for only the most discerning spirits to see.  Gentle is our path.  Gratitude is the thread we weave into the fabric of our daily lives this month, giving thanks for our simply abundant lives and asking for the gift of one thing more:  grateful hearts."

Day 22:  Your Personal Treasure Map

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."  Matthew 6:21

"A personal treasure map is a collage of your ideal life that you create as a visual tool to focus your creative energy in the direction you wish to go.  First, you'll have to visualize your ideal life...."

Sarah gives us examples to get us started; i.e. where you want to live, the kind of house, job, children, garden, down to the slightest details like roses.  For me it was to have a family and live in a house with a front porch with a swing and a picket fence and some woods.  I'm still waiting for my mountain view--although I do get the view when the leaves are off the tree from my living room window.  She goes on....

"....see if you can find pictures in magazines to match your ideal images...[or] draw a picture.  When you're finished, find a photograph of yourself that you especially like..cut yourself out and place yourself in the center of your treasure map collage...When making your personal treasure map, think fun.  Think delight.  Think seven years old...This is a wish list to the Universe.  Our deepest wishes are whispers of our Authentic Selves...Keep your personal treasure map in the back of your Illustrated Discovery Journal and look at it often.  When you do, give thanks for the wonderful life you are leading.  Even realizing that you want to live another way is the most fabulous blessing...We must believe it before we can see it.  You must know what you're digging for, before X can mark the spot."

I can't remember if I did this when I read the first Simple Abundance.  If I did, it's probably in the attic.  On a warmer day I will have to go up there and rummage through my boxes of journals.  Have you started an Illustrated Discovery Journal after reading about it last week?  At this point in my life my goal is to be content with what I have....and take care of it.  Picket fences and gardens need tending.  I suppose, though, it wouldn't hurt to start an Illustrated Discovery Journal filled with mountain views!

This is the winter view I have now.....

Day 23:  Creative Excursions:  The Gift of Time

"Now that you've met your Authentic Self, wouldn't you like to get to know her better?  You can when you start going on creative excursions together."  

"In the beginning of any intimate relationship the best gift you can offer another person is the investment of quality time together.  So it is with your Authentic Self.  You have probably been ignoring her for decades; now it's time to make amends.

"What will you do?...When you embark on creative excursions, your Authentic Self will lovingly reveal to you the beautiful mystery that is you....Once we realize that nurturing our imaginations and developing a relationship with our Authentic Selves is an investment we can no longer afford to put off, we'll find ways to do it."

I love the idea of spending time with my Authentic Self, once I find out where she's hiding.  I did, however, go on an outing with the part of her she can't hide from me--my love of country decor.  It was a lovely drive in the countryside over the mountain on the other side of the valley my mountain overlooks.  I didn't find the lamp shade I was looking for, but I enjoyed all the eye candy of knick knacks and furnishings that appeal to me....things I have no room for in my house now anyway.  Window shopping is the best kind of shopping in my opinion.  I will often carry around items I love then put them back, having spent enough time with them in the shop to satisfy my need to "be" with the item.  Perhaps collecting pictures of things we love is another way to satisfy our longing for them while we wait for them to become reality.

Day 24:  There is No Scarcity

"When you are worried about your health or the health of a loved one, your concentration focuses like a laser...Every day is a gift...But worries about money mock you.  They steal the joy of living because they follow you around all day like a dark, menacing shadow.  At night they hover at the foot of your bed waiting to rob you of sleep...You cease to live and instead merely exist.  If you are worried about money today, take heart.  You have the power to change your lifestyle and move from feeling a lack and deprivation to a feeling of abundance and fulfillment.  Money ebbs and flows in our lives.  What should remain constant is our realization that abundance is our spiritual birthright...The simpler we make our lives, the more abundant they become.  There is no scarcity except in the soul."

"It is easy to be independent when you've got money.  But to be independent when you haven't got a thing--that's the Lord's test."  --Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972) American gospel singer

I experienced this the first three years we lived in this house.  From 1981 to 1984 we had to scrimp.  Anything I needed for the house I found at yard sales or I didn't get it.  One year our boys' Christmas presents were all yard sale finds.  Thankfully, they were young enough to not know they were getting used toys.  But I tell you, that experience has served me well.  We are very comfortable now because I learned how to live frugally.  I know what's really important and spend accordingly.

Day 25:  Acres of Diamonds

"Your diamonds are not in far distant mountains or in yonder seas; they are in your own backyard, if you but dig for them."  Russell H. Conwell (1843-1925) American minister, orator, and philanthropist

Sarah retells the speech Conwell gave about the farmer who sold his farm to go in search of his fortune.  The farmer who bought it discovered a diamond mine on the property.

"Conwell used this parable to illustrate an extraordinary and wonderful message:  Within each of us lies a wellspring of abundance and the seeds of opportunity.  For each of us there is a deeply personal dream waiting to be discovered and fulfilled when we cherish our dream and then invest love, creative energy, perseverance, and passion in ourselves we will achieve an authentic success...If you could do anything in the world, what would it be?...We all have a place from which to begin.  Let your imagination soar, for it is your soul's blue print for success."

Another thing I "discovered" in our money woes, was how much I enjoyed finding creative ways to save money when I bought the things we needed.  I still look for bargains and am not afraid to hold out until something goes on sale.  I even discovered that many stores will give you the sale price if what you bought goes on sale within two weeks of when you bought it.  Just take your receipt in and they will refund the difference.

Another diamond mine discovery I made 20 years ago was my ability to write a story and to draw and paint.  I don't profess to be a great artist, but I never dreamed I could do as well as I have.  The ability lay dormant because I was too afraid to fail.  I took an expensive art class once only to leave after two lessons because it was too frustrating.  I'd freeze when I lay my pencil to the paper.  It was only after I decided I wanted to illustrate one of my stories that I pushed through that fear and finally got something down on paper.

One of my better paintings....

Day 26:  Letting Go of Limiting Illusions

"For some of us the thought of trusting a power outside ourselves to help make our dreams come true is a threatening concept, especially if we're used to being in control--or, rather, used to the illusion of being in control.  Many more of us go through life trapped by another illusion:  that an uncaring, capricious fate determines our destiny."

"Can you let go of limiting illusions that have held you back from knowing that just to be alive is a grand thing?...Today, be willing to believe that a companion Spirit is leading you in every step of the way and knows the next."

Sarah uses words like "Universe" and "Higher Power" and even "Spirit" to account for the "Creative Force" she's talking about.  When she does, because of my beliefs, I hear "God" or "Holy Spirit."  I think it's important that in order to go on this journey with Sarah we acknowledge there is a Higher Power--Someone greater than ourselves who created us and enables us to be creative. Within each of us is an ability to create something--whether its something beautiful we might label "art" or something more subjective like a beautiful life.  Letting go of limiting illusions (the "I can't" voice in your head) is the first step you must make.  For years those "I can't" words bounced around in my head whenever I thought about drawing.  I'm so glad I finally let go of that illusion.

Day27:  The Prosperity of Living

"During the dark days of the Great Depression an editorial in the October 1932 issue of Ladies' Home Journal encouraged readers to remember that 'The return of good times is not wholly a matter of money.  There is a prosperity of living which is quite as important as prosperity of the pocket book.'  But the magazine stressed that 'It is not enough to be willing to make the best of things as they are.  Resignation will get us nowhere.  We must build what amounts to a new country.  We must revive the ideals of the founders.  We must learn the new values of money.  It is a  time for pioneering--to create a new security for the home and the family--where we were specialists in spending, we are becoming specialists in living."

"Are you ready to become a pioneer?  Then it's time to invest your soul with all the creative energy at your disposal.  Think of me as your scout, your own personal pathfinder...The path spirals and takes time--it will take us a year--but it is comforting and nurturing.  It can also be undertaken only one day at a time.  Don't be afraid.  We are not alone  Like pioneers on the trail.  We will learn to live by our own lights and the stars of heaven, for that is all we need.  There is no obstacles that true grit and Amazing Grace cannot overcome."

I love the quote from Ladies' Home Journal!  "There is a prosperity of living" and "resignation will get us nowhere....We must build...we must revive ...we must learn."  There is a difference between acceptance (which Sarah writes about in next week's posting) and resignation.  Resignation is a giving up.  Acceptance is about reality and moving on in a way that improves upon rather than wallows in.

I don't think I would have been one of those pioneering women, though.  This is why I need a great deal of encouragement to leave my comfort zone.  This is why I need to be in the middle of the wagon train if I'm to go at all, surrounded by fellow travelers.

Day 28:  The Golden Mirror Meditation

"Almost always it is the fear of being ourselves that brings us to the mirror."  Antonia Porchia (1885-1968) Argentinian poet

I love this quote because it is so true.  Why else do we look at ourselves in the mirror?  To check to see if the self we want to present to the public is in place.  The person in the mirror, however, may not be our Authentic Self.

Sarah tells about her Golden Mirror meditation in which she visualizes an enormous mirror the size of a room with an elaborately carved, 24-karat frame.  She said it is where she visualizes the dreams she wishes to materialize.  After about a year she was invited on an all-expenses paid business trip to Dublin, one of her favorite cities.  And wouldn't you know it, when she walked into the Shelbourne Hotel where she was to stay she saw a huge golden-framed mirror covering an entire wall.

"Visualize a beautiful, large golden mirror surrounded by shimmering white light.  This light is Love and it surrounds you, unfolds you, enwraps you, and protects you.  Look into the mirror....She is your authentic self...she is the highest reflection of your soul, the embodiment of the perfect woman who resides within and she sends you Love to light your path."

I love stories like this where something in your imagination because real.  My own story is about buying a porch swing at K-Mart on sale for half-price before I had a porch roof to hang it from.  Our house came with a concrete porch but no roof.  It was several years later when my husband, who was a commission salesman, made an unexpected sale that enabled us to do some remodeling on our house which included adding a roof over the porch.  When I bought that swing I had no doubt in my heart that I would eventually be able to hang it on my front porch.

The front porch before and after....

Do you have a story to tell about something you visualized and eventually materialized?