lara simmons

"Tell me the weight of a snowflake," a coal-mouse asked a wild dove.  "Nothing more than nothing," was the answer.   "In that case I must tell you a marvelous story," the coal-mouse said. I sat on a branch of a fir, close to its trunk, when it began to snow, not heavily, not in a giant blizzard, no, just like in a dream, without any violence. Since I didn't have anything better to do, I counted the snowflakes settling on the twigs and needles of my branch. Their number was exactly 3,741,952. When the next snowflake dropped onto the branch--nothing more than nothing as you say--the branch broke off."  Having said that, the coal-mouse flew away. The dove, since Noah's time an authority on the matter, thought about the story for a while and finally said to herself: "Perhaps there is only one person's voice lacking for peace to come about in the world." --From New Fables Thus Spoke , "The Carabou," by Kurt Kauter, republish...

"If there is no peace in the mind...how can there be peace in the world?" -- S.N. Goenka Last year at about this time I went on my first 10-day silent meditation retreat at the NW Vipassana Center. When I came back, I knew I wanted to go again. And that time has come. I leave today for another ten days. Last year I was a bit nervous and unsure. This time, I am excited. I know what to expect and what will be expected of me. And I am ready. I can't wait to sit in meditation for most of my waking hours. To walk in silence for all of them. And to be free from the constant barrage of mind-thoughts that I am subject to each day. I look forward to oatmeal and stewed fruit for breakfast every day. To the delicious vegetarian lunch. And nothing but a cup of tea for dinner. I know that there will be new things too. New ideas. New discomforts. New fears. I look forward to these as well. While I am gone I will be posting one meditation quote every day to inspire your...

"Peace is the answer to every question right now." -- Lee Anne Peters , in the Weekly Guidance for April 29th through May 5th I love this advice (which, by the way, was also in The Weekly Guidance for last week). PEACE is the answer to every question right now. It's easy to say, but sometimes hard to get there. So how do you do it? Here are some of my favorite ways to find a little peace: 1) Sit down and MEDITATE - Even 10 minutes when you are feeling less-than-peaceful can help you find that place of peace again. So often it is our thoughts that are leading the charge against peace - what we need to do, what we haven't done. what so-and-so said to us, etc. Sit. Breathe. Watch your thoughts just drift on by. 2) Get outside and EXERCISE - Or inside. Again, even a short walk around the block will get those endorphins flowing, increase your sense of well-being and augment your ability to choose peace in every moment. And the fresh air on your skin and in ...

"Know the power that is peace." -- Black Elk , from the visitor's center at the site of Custer's Last Stand There are certain places on this earth that seem to carry the energy of the things that happened there: my grandparents' farm in Iowa , the former site of the Twin Towers , the city of Paris . The site of Custer's Last Stand, or The Battle of Little Bighorn is like that. Bleak, hot (on the day we were there), and preternaturally quiet, there is no doubt that this is a place where serious things happened. Where battles were fought and won, mistakes were made and men died. Where the hope of a people rose and then fell again.... In the midst of all this are these words from Black Elk, the famous Medicine Man of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux), who fought in the Battle of Little Bighorn when he was just twelve years old. Whose hopes no doubt rose on this day, but fell after the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. What does it mean to have peace under ext...

“On this earth we are connected one to another....to another....to another....to another...to another....to another....to another...such that whatever happens to one of happens to all of us.” -- Anna Grossnickle Hines from her book, "Peaceful Pieces" This is a poem called "Dominoes" that my younger son's class read last week on Friday for " Poetry Aloud ." They read it together as a class, one child starting and each child in turn saying "to another," "to another," "to another..." As I listened, the poem came alive for me. The idea of the poem came alive for me. I saw once again that we are all connected, we are all One and that whatever happens for one of us happens to all of us. Did you notice the Freudian slip there? I wrote, "whatever happens for one of us happens to all of us,"  when what I meant to write was, "whatever happens to one of us happens to all of us." But both are equally tr...