lara simmons

"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

When our sons were young and they were whining we always used to joke that they had a lot of "complaints for the management." I have tried to keep my posts during this time positive and upbeat and that is all good, but sometimes what you need is a really good MOAN. I am feeling like that today, so the theme today is complaints. What are your complaints for the management? I probably can't do anything about them, but I am here to listen.

I just haven't been feeling it the past couple of days. "It" being this new way of living that introverts like myself are supposed to love. One thing that helps me is focusing on gratitude. Not sweeping general gratitude like home, family, health, but gratitude for small, specific moments of beauty. (Thanks to Melisa Beckerman for this phrase.) Today the smell of the Daphne shrub by our back gate is one of mine. Its sweet smell greets me when I take off for a run or when I come back from the grocery store and it lifts my spirits. Thank you Daphne! (And thanks to Mary Gerstenberger for putting her there!) What small, specific moments of beauty are you grateful for today?

What books are keeping you company during this time? Are you reading something new and exciting or something comforting that you have read before? This week I am reading "I Capture the Castle" by Dodie Smith - a book I grabbed out of our Little Free Library on a whim - but it is proving the perfect book for these uncertain times. ( https://www.powells.com/…/i-capture-the-castle-9780312201654 )

Have you set yourself a challenge for this time indoors? A thing to keep you focused on something other than that which is occupying so much of our bandwidth? Yesterday I started this 30-day yoga challenge from Adriene Mischler ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--jhKVdZOJM ) presciently named HOME. I am also doing the Social Distance Run to help me stay sane and in shape. What about you? What challenge are you accepting other than the obvious? (It's okay if the answer is NONE. This is enough.)