lara simmons

"When in doubt MEDITATE . " --Monk who taught a meditation class I attended at Whistler many years ago Good Morning One and All! Today I would like to let you know about two new meditation Meetup groups I am starting this fall. If you are interested in meeting with others to meditate as we approach the dark days of winter, please join us!  The first is a Violet Flame Meditation Group . I have talked about the Violet Flame Meditation before on this blog (see post here ), but briefly, the Violet Flame Meditation was gifted to the world by Ascended Master Saint Germain for the purpose of transmuting negative energies. We will be meeting bi-weekly on Wednesday evenings (7:00 PM Pacific Time) to practice this meditation and to support each other in releasing any negativity we are experiencing in our lives. For more information or to join our Meetup Group, please click here . The second group is the Being & Becoming Women's Meditation Circle and will also meet on Wednesda

" Do your best and leave the rest. " --Lord Krishna from the Bhagavad Gita   I have been thinking about this quote A LOT this week as I move through (another) time of confusion and uncertainty. It is from the Geeta Girl podcast , whose mission is to help their listeners use the wisdom in the Bhagavad Gita to improve their lives.    One of the things they point out specifically is that "the Geeta" is not only a holy book or a fabulous story, but is actually a practical handbook that we can use to increase our life skills and improve our actions, thereby improving our lives.    So often it can feel as though we are victims of circumstance or that the events in our lives are outside of our control, and often this is true (Hello Global Pandemic!), however, if we can learn to act more skillfully (notice they don't say "rightly" or "correctly"), we can improve our lives and the situations and lives of those around us, and have some control over h

  " The only way to enhance one's power in the world is by increasing one's integrity, understanding, and capacity for compassion. "    --David R. Hawkins, MD, PhD   I have been thinking a lot about INTEGRITY today because we are trying to buy a home in a super-hot real estate market and we seem to be running into a LOT of greed and not a lot of integrity. It's disheartening.    The temptation is to play "the game" along with everyone else; make promises you know you won't keep, make offers you have no intention of honoring, throw a little BS of your own onto the pile. But it just doesn't FEEL RIGHT. So we aren't. We are staying in our integrity, being honest about who we are and what we are willing to do and hoping...that our integrity attracts the right and perfect home for us.   Either way, I am finding that there is a certain power in doing the right thing, even if it doesn't yield the result you want. It's an internal power that

One year. It has been such a positive experience for me to focus on becoming more anti-racist this year. In many ways it was the perfect year. Teaching online gave me time to reflect on how to be culturally responsive every day with all my students; being quarantined at home gave me more time for reading and listening and paying attention to the racist and anti-racist events happening around the world; being alone much of the time gave me a chance to reflect on my own thoughts and experiences and failures in the areas of racism and anti-racism. Thanks to those who have come along with me on this journey, and especially to those who have joined me on it, given me an idea, shared a podcast or article, drank coffee with me at a BIPOC-owned business, etc. The idea of sharing this journey on Facebook came from Dana Spindler Cavin . Thanks Dana! I hope it has landed as intended, as a way to hold myself accountable and share resources for becoming more anti-racist. It was not me

"It is a cliché to say that we are all kin, but it is true. Even if we hail from different clans, travel makes you certain that kinship is true not only in sentiment but in fact." --James O'Reilly Hopefully this pandemic is doing the same thing. It has the potential to anyway. I see people everyday supporting neighbors, friends and strangers in this time of crisis. Travel is something many of us may be missing, so today I want to know where you would go if you had the ability to safely teleport to another location for an afternoon?

          Once upon a time there were two siblings who lived together in their father's house. Upon the death of their father it was his wish that they split all of his assets fifty-fifty. When the time came, they divided his houses, his livestock and his money equally.           After this was done, however, they discovered two rings which had not been mentioned in the will. The first ring was made of pure gold, encrusted with diamonds and it sparkled from a great distance. The second ring was made of plain silver. It was old with many scratches and any shine it may have had at one time was long gone.           The older sibling immediately took charge and said,  "As the oldest one in the family the gold ring should be mine, I will give it to my oldest child when the time is right."   The younger sibling did not complain and so they received the silver ring.           Many years passed. The older sibling had sold the diamond ring and made a great fortune o