Peace and Plenty

" The money.....it's all gone!"
Sarah Ban Breathnach from 'Peace and Plenty'

I'm still in shock.  Just picked up Sarah Ban Breathnach's new book Peace and Plenty and found out all her money is gone, she's starting over.  I still can't believe it.  Her book Simple Abundance published in 1995 was a favourite of almost every woman that I knew at that time.  Obviously we weren't the only ones, it was at the top of the New York Times best sellers list for over 5 months, she made millions from sales.  Not to mention that the whole topic of the book was abundance, enjoying what you have and how to encourage more of what you want into your life.   I loved it and read it when I was going through my divorce, it really helped me focus on what was important and less on what I had lost which was considerable at the time.  How does a person lose millions of dollar?  Apparently this happens all the time.  As Sarah says now herself, she knew how to create abundance, she just didn't know how to keep it.
It seems that it was a combination of allowing someone else to manage her money without knowing what was going on (her ex-husband) and spending like there's no tomorrow.  It's hard to imagine how an ordinary person who was used to just getting by could spend that much money.  Makes you think.
Managing money, keeping your money, staying grounded when you have a windfall or even just some success must be a hard thing to do.  I don't know, my life has been sort of ordinary in that way, working hard for what I have but no large amounts of money at once.  I'd like to think I could handle it but lots of people who have experienced this have said its not easy, particularly when it's public knowledge.  I guess relatives come out of the woodwork and lots of financial 'experts' turn up to help you take care of your wealth.  What would I do?
Go to my credit union I think and then a vacation to think about it.  Then get the advice of someone who knows about windfalls.  There must be someone who knows about this stuff.  Then I could write a book about it.  Ha.  Maybe just small windfall...and no one knew... yeah, that would be just right.   No harm in dreaming.  I haven't finished Sarah's book yet but it seems that she still hasn't lost her zest for life, I'm sure she'll be fine.  Wiser in fact.