Sarah Ban Breathnach - Peace and plenty: finding your path to financial serenity

SARAH BAN BREATHNACHS MRS. SHARPS TRADITIONS:
Reviving Victorian Family Celebrations

THE VICTORIAN NURSERY COMPANION

SIMPLE ABUNDANCE:
A Daybook of Comfort and Joy

THE SIMPLE ABUNDANCE JOURNAL OF GRATITUDE

SOMETHING MORE:
Excavating Your Authentic Self

THE ILLUSTRATED DISCOVERY JOURNAL: Creating a Visual Autobiography of Your Authentic Self

THE SIMPLE ABUNDANCE COMPANION:
Following Your Authentic Path to Something More

A MANS JOURNEY TO SIMPLE ABUNDANCE

ROMANCING THE ORDINARY:
A Year of Simple Splendor

HOLD THAT THOUGHT:
A Years Worth of Simple Abundance

MOVING ON:
Creating Your House of Belonging with Simple Abundance

THE PEACE AND PLENTY JOURNAL OF WELL-SPENT MOMENTS

She was.

She is.

For my cherished Sister,

Maureen Rose Crean,

With dearest love and deepest gratitude.

When money is plenty this is a mans world. When money is scarce it is a womans world. When all else seems to have failed the womans instinct comes in. She gets the job. That is the reason why in spite of all that happens, we continue to have a world.

Once more the job of managing the households is up to the women. To many the job seems utterly impossible. They find themselves working against strange, unseen forces that relentlessly destroy.

The old rulesthe rules that were set to jazz by the stock sellers and the politicianssimply do not fitEveryone has lost something in terms of money, and a few have lost everything. It makes no difference if the income came from investments or from a job. For those who have lost everything, there is nothing but a fresh start needed.

Ladies Home Journal, October 1932

W elcome to Peace and Plenty: Finding Your Path to Financial Serenity. A fresh start for all of us: living well, spending less, and appreciating more. In between the lines of this book, youll find sublime moments of unexpected serenity, cozy contentment, a shared smile of recognition, and, if you need it, a friend to pass the vintage hankie. In 1995 I wrote Simple Abundance, a book based on the transformative practice of Gratitude, Simplicity, Order, Harmony, Beauty, and Joy to change your life. It worked for me and millions of others around the world. We found the sacred in the ordinary and felt better able to cope with the changes in our world. Were going to rediscover the Simple Abundance promise and payoff in Peace and Plenty: affirming the luxury of enough by counting our blessings as well as our cents and celebrating the feminine art form that I call the thrill of thrift.

Unless, of course, youd like to continue flailing in the relentless downward economic spiral weve all found ourselves trapped ingnashing our teeth, wringing our hands, and frantically tossing and turning all nightworrying ourselves sick over too little, too late, spilled milk, wide-open barn doors, and foxes smacking their chops in the henhouse. Whos afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? We all are, and boy, he can smell our fear. Why else do you think hes huffing and puffing, ready to blow our house down?

Weve worked ourselves into quite a frenzy. Its been hard to avoid, with economic doom and gloom around every corner. With every breaking news alert on television, were joining a bread line, pushing a shopping cart on the street, or packing our imaginations in a rickety old jalopy crammed full with threadbare blankets, grimy mattresses, battered tin pots, plates, and every ratty dish towel weve ever owned. Next, were pitching a tent on the outskirts of every town from Oklahoma to California, forever on the lam and blowing out the kerosene lantern when the sheriffs pack of dogs starts yapping.

But we dont solve this or any problems by running scared. No, were going to have to solve this as only women canwere going to sit down and have a frank feminine heart-to-heart. Nowtake a deep breathwere going to talk about money. Not yoursat least, not at first. Well start with mine or the lack thereof. In an ironic way, many people thought Simple Abundance was about money. But Simple Abundance was about finding out whats important to you, cherishing it, and giving thanks for it every day. It struck a chord in millions of women and earned me quite a lot of money quickly. I just wish Id known then what Ive learned the hard way now.

Yes, Ill come clean: All the moneys gone. But when its backand it will beIll know better, and so will you. Thats why youre going to love this book as much as I do.

Peace and Plenty is about women and money. Its an emotionally volatile relationship for most of us. Its also the most complicated relationship we haveand the one that most controls our lives, because we let it. Acknowledging that money is important to you, cherishing and respecting your ability to create and maintain a sustainable flow in your life, handling it wisely so that it can serve you and yours well, and giving thanks for this gift every day during these perilous economic times may seem impossible. I agree with John D. Rockefeller, however, who believed that the ability to make money is a gift from God. Even more important, the ability to