lara simmons

"START a  new life today, WRITE a new life today, WRITE YOUR LIFE!" Quick - and very exciting - announcement! I have been invited to lead a WRITE YOUR LIFE workshop at New Renaissance Bookstore in Portland, OR on Saturday, March 11 from 6:00pm - 8:00pm. If you live in the Portland area I would love to see you there! Click here to learn more. 

My sign for the Women's March  January 21, 2017 " When the silent women SPEAK, they will move MOUNTAINS.” --My paraphrase of a Chinese proverb We have a choice to make. The choice to sit down and stay silent, or to stand up and speak. The choice to despair, or to hope; to wallow, or to act. I am here today to speak and I hope that you will join me. At 10:30pm on Tuesday, November 8th 2016, when it became clear to me that he-who-shall-not-be-named was to be our next President, I turned off the TV, crawled into bed, threw the covers over my head and thought about staying there for the next four years. Alas, the next morning my alarm went off as usual and there were kids to feed and a dog to walk and life to be lived. So I got up and started living. Over the next couple of weeks a strange thing happened. As I talked to my friends about the election and why the result was particularly devastating to me, I began to feel....hopeful. This was not what I ...

Once upon a time there were two brothers who lived together in their father's house. Upon the death of their father they were to 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 included in the estate. The first ring was made of pure gold and encrusted with diamonds, which sparkled from a great distance. The second ring was made of silver. It was old and scratched and any shine it had once had was long gone. The older brother immediately took charge and said, "As the oldest male in the family the gold ring should be mine, I will give it to my oldest daughter when the time is right." The younger brother did not complain and so he received the silver ring. Many years passed. The older brother had made a great fortune out of what his father had left to him and yet he was dissatisfied with his life. The younger brother st...

"She truly loved herself and therefore had no reason to hate anyone else." --The Universe to me in an old blog post , reprinted below. December 17, 2010 "Emanate love to all in your sphere without distinction or prejudice."  --Sunyata Satchitananda from the website www.mythiclove.net I went to a Holiday concert this week that a friend of mine and her children were performing in. It was a lovely performance; the director was enthusiastic, the songs were uplifting and everyone seemed to be having a great time. There was one woman in the choir who particularly stood out for me. She was standing in the back, not doing anything special, but as she sang she just radiated love. I watched her closely throughout the whole concert, trying to figure out her secret. I studied her face to try and see what was different. Physically, there was nothing special about her face. It was more attractive then some, less attractive than others, but...

"Patience. Understanding. A hot cup of tea. A salt water bath. The wing (what we call it when I crawl in underneath my husband's arm and snuggle up next to him). Passionate kisses. An ache in my heart. Chocolate. Dark chocolate. Dark chocolate caramels from Trader Joe's. Kindness in the face of my anger. Receiving exactly what I need without having to ask. A heart-felt card. A good book. A sappy movie. Twelve hours of uninterrupted sleep. My son's smile. My son's hair. My son's energy. The way my son smells. The sun on my skin. Writing, when it's going well. Helping someone in need. Right now." --My answer to the question, "What is love?" Love is squirrelly, isn't it? I don't know about you, but I am having a much harder time with love than I did with forgiveness . Forgiveness seemed pretty straight-forward to me. Feel wronged (or that you have wronged someone), write a Forgiveness Letter , Let It Go, Repeat. Love has been t...

[An original story, based on a folktale called, "The King's Child"] After one year, there was still no child.  On her 21st birthday, the young bride left her house clutching a wad of cash tighly in her hand. Walking quickly, she headed to a nearby street. As she walked she glanced around furtively, hoping not to see anyone she knew.  A cascade of small bells went off as she pushed open the door. An old woman beckoned her through a bejeweled curtain and into the back room.  She sat down across a battered wooden table from the woman who looked deep into her eyes and said, "What would you like to know my child?" Looking down at her hands, and then up at the old woman, the girl asked the question that had been in her heart for many years, "When will I have a child?" The woman said, "You are but a child yourself, my dear. Go back to school and learn about the world; then you will be ready to mother a child." The girl l...

"Embrace who you are and teach your kids to do the same." --The Universe in meditation

"If you can't think something nice, don't think anything at all." --My take on Thumper's Law , " If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all." I am reading Anne Lamott again and her books always make we want to weep at the hopelessness of our situation and at the same time inspire me to be better in the face of all this hopelessness. It is a fine line she walks between utter despair and blissful transcendence and I always enjoy the ride. One thing I am noticing this time is that she always says at least three good things about the people she loves when she describes them in her books. Here are some examples from the book I am currently reading ( Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son's First Son ): "Jax was the loveliest baby boy I'd ever seen....gorgeous as God or a crescent moon, with huge black eyes..." "[Trudy] is down-to-earth, outgoing and constantly doing something useful." "...

"Extend yourself, expecting nothing." --The Universe to me in a meditation on 11/17/11

"In time and space...if you just look for what's right - in others, in relationships, in yourself and your journey - you'll always find it. Same when looking for what's wrong." --The Universe, from www.TUT.com Last week I sat and watched my son's soccer practice instead of just dropping him off with his coach. As I sat there, I was temped to read or check email or otherwise pass the time by doing something else, but I kept getting the message that I needed to watch. So each time the multi-tasking reflex struck, I gently reminded myself to focus my attention on the field. It soon became clear to me what I was doing there. I was there to watch a little positivity in action. My son's coach found something positive to say about everything that happened on the field that day. If a kid got his foot on the ball, even if it was ultimately taken away from him, the comment was, "Way to get in there." If a kid tried to pass and the ball went astr...