lara simmons

"Good for her! Not for me." - Amy Poehler While shopping with friends in Portland recently - at the famous Powell's Bookstore - I came across this quote from Amy Poehler that I think could very well save millions of female friendships the world over: " Good for her! Not for me."   Amy uses this phrase often in her book, when talking about her friend Maya Rudolph who had a home birth, or other women she knows who don't work outside the home, and it works brilliantly to both celebrate the other woman's choices and accomplishments and to stave off any competition or jealousy that may arise. I wish I had had this phrase at my disposal when I was a young mother.  "She sleep trained her child and now he sleeps through the night every night ?" "Good for her! Not for me." "She is still nursing her three year old as well as her new baby?" "Good for her! Not for me." "She uses only cloth diapers,...

 The Invitation It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing. It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive. It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it. I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human. It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want t...