Join Sarah Ban Breathnach as she celebrates a woman’s spirituality of the senses. Sarah reveals that women are endowed not with five senses but with seven creative and spiritual conduits to her heart and soul. In addition to rediscovering sight, sound, scent, taste, and touch, readers will come to cherish their sense of ‘knowing’ and "wonder," her sense of rapture and reverence.

Drawing on myth, literature, film, music, and drama, Sarah encourages each woman to discover what moves her to tears, makes her heart skip a beat, and makes her soul sigh. 

In the February issue of Simple Abundance Online, Sarah’s reflections will include seasonal indulgences intended to restore weary feminine souls—rituals, decorating, fashion, and gardening hints. By encouraging her readers to delight in the often-overlooked gifts of everyday life—from the aroma of simmering homemade spaghetti sauce to the sensation of freshly laundered linen against bare skin—This February, Romancing the Ordinary is sure to help every woman fall in love with Life.

Our Online Zoom Introductory Webinar on Romancing the Ordinary is $49, which includes the recording. For full access to the Spring issue of Simple Abundance Online Swell Dames Circle, as well as our past issue and Zoom call on Joan Didion, Join Today.


Simple Abundance Online

Lose Your Heart to Life

 

February’s the worst month, you get so

tired of everything and everybody, you seem

to have done everything before!

 Mary Stewart Cutting

The Suburban Whirl (1907)

 

China tea, the scent of hyacinths, wood fires

and bowls of violets—that is my mental picture

of an agreeable February afternoon.

 Constance Spry (1886-1960)

Legendary British floral designer and author

 

Cold, gray, wet, snowy, icy, muddy mornings make the shortest month seem the longest.  So, let’s make the most of looking again at the same-old, same-new in our daily round.  Like matters of the heart, February is full of surprise, contradiction, and the spell of the sensuous.

 At Simple Abundance Online, this month is dedicated to resurrecting old dreams and cherishing unexpected romantic impulses. Let’s choose China tea and the scent of hyacinths. It’s our first annual Romancing the Ordinary issue in which we’ll exploreThe Great Romance between a woman and Life.

Romancing the Ordinary has a unique backstory and special meaning for me. Originally published in 2002, I was inspired to write it after a mid-1980s lunch with my daughter, when I discovered that Chicken Little knew what she was talking about; the sky could fall suddenly, and it landed on my head in the form of a large ceiling panel, knocking me onto the table. Thank God, I took the brunt of the panel, which only grazed her eye. No one else in the restaurant was hit. 

Although I never lost consciousness, I sustained a head injury that left me bedridden, confused, and disoriented for months and partially disabled for a year and a half. During the first few months of recuperation, my senses were skewed. My eyesight was very blurry, and I was extremely sensitive to light, so the shades in my bedroom had to be pulled down at all times. Even seeing the different patterns on my quilt on my bed jarred my equilibrium, so much so that it had to be turned over to the plain muslin backing.

 I couldn’t listen to music because it made me dizzy; I couldn’t carry on telephone conversations because, without visual clues such as reading lips, I couldn’t process the sounds coming through my ears and rearrange them into meaningful patterns in my brain.

 I couldn’t taste my food or smell the luscious fragrance of my baby daughter’s hair after it was washed. There were days when the slightest touch was painful; something as light as a sheet on my bare legs felt unbearably heavy. Pulling a sweater over my elbows caused the same kind of jolt you get from hearing fingernails scratching down a chalkboard.

 Other senses I had taken for granted my entire life became strangers, and I sorely missed them.  Like a cat whose whiskers have been trimmed, I lost my sense of balance and my perception of depth and distance.  Because of the accident, I lost the companionship of the written and spoken word—not to mention my livelihood and my sense of belonging as a journalist writing regularly for one of the most prestigious newspapers in the country.  Having to spend my days in bed, not in the company of my family, and unable to care for my daughter, I lost my sense of identity; if I wasn’t a wife, mother, writer, who was I?  In one freak moment, my sense of humor, sense of place, sense of purpose, sense of safety, and most importantly, my sense of peace were erased.

These unsettling side effects lasted for a few months and affected my life in ways I could scarcely have imagined. Because I was unable to speak articulately or read with comprehension, I was overcome with a sense of shame. When I was no longer confined to bed, I also felt so embarrassed that I didn’t venture farther than my own backyard. Naturally, this reluctance even to visit friends contributed to my growing sense of isolation.

Luckily, gratefully, and blessedly, I gradually recovered, and my story has a happy ending. I learned that there are times when the Good Shepherd literally makes us lie down for a close encounter. God uses every event in our lives to draw us closer to Him, especially when we want nothing to do with Heaven. I believe with every fiber of my being that when we are struck down by adversity, God weeps with us and then, because we are so loved, heals us in ways we could never expect or imagine, even as we cry and cry out. My downtime was the perfect opportunity for the Diviner of Mystery to get my complete attention. There were priceless spiritual lessons to be discerned. I was about to become an apprentice to the supreme Alchemist—and learn the secret of the ages: how to turn our hours of lead into days of gold. 

But most of all, I was led onto a passionate new spiritual path, a spirituality of the senses, which is what Romancing the Ordinary celebrates. It’s my belief that women are endowed with not just five but seven senses. Besides rediscovering sight, sound, scent, taste, and touch, I want to help you learn to cherish your sense of “knowing”—a woman’s intuitive sense—and your sense of “wonder”—a sense of reverence.

This month, succumb to cabin fever. Have a clandestine affair with contentment. Light your own fire. At the very least, stir up passion’s embers. Discover why romantic obsession is good for your soul and why a pink taffeta petticoat could change your life. Remember how to play with your food and hide under the covers. Indulge in armchair adventures—unusual lady sleuths, film noir. Try on a fantasy. Reconsider red—lips, nails, shoes, walls. Slip on bangles, bob your hair, find a new fragrance, and cinch your waist. Trade the treadmill for the tango and discover a sole-mate for your tootsies. Remember that chocolate becomes you, so show off your curves. Let the crazy, eccentric woman out of the attic and bless the inner Babe you know you are. Make peace with your past. Let old loves go and let your heart skip a beat at that new flirtation just around the corner. This month, won’t you join us and lose your heart to Life?

 

Sending blessings to you and yours and always

dearest love and grateful appreciation,

XO

Sarah Ban Breathnach

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