lara simmons

The theme this week follows  last week's almost magically. Listening is an important part of any good relationship and it is not an easy skill. It is hard to listen without judgement, to listen without interrupting, to listen without jumping in to share or solve. To just listen. I encourage you to try it this week and hope the quotations I have chosen will inspire you to listen well: "To listen well, we must attend both to the words and the silence between the words."  --William Issacs in "A Matter of Spirit," the  Intercommunity Peace and Justice Center  quarterly newsletter "The first duty of love is to listen." -- Paul Tillich "Listen to those who open a path to you; listen and don't say a word." -- RUMI "O Great Spirit help me always to speak the truth quietly, to listen with an open mind when others speak and to remember the peace that may be found in silence." -- Cherokee prayer "...[Y]our l...

"How long will you suffer at the hands of non-existent things? Return to the root of the root of your own self." --Rumi You can always count on Rumi to tell it like it is. We suffer so much at the hands of the non-existent things in our lives: the maybes, the what-ifs, the "I don't knows." I don't know about you, but I am sick to death of it. I want to get off this roller-coaster ride of thoughts and emotions and live in the beating of my heart, in the whisper of my breath, in the brief bliss of this very moment. I have almost no idea how to do this, but I feel like my all of these quotations, these little bits of wisdom from those who have gone before, have been a series of breadcrumbs, showing me the way. And I just have to follow them. Back home. To the root of the root of my own self.

  "This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they're a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond." -- RUMI Grateful for these things today: 1) A sub at yoga who taught an amazing class. 2) A six-kid play date so fun that not one of them asked for screen time, not even once. 3) Octopus bolongase at the new restaurant in the site of our wedding reception. The mingling of old and new happy memories.

"The only rule is to suffer the pain." --Rumi I have been immersing myself in Pema Chodron lately. Taking the Leap is on my nightstand. The Three Commitments on my iPod. Pema's voice in my head when I sit down to meditate. (I have even been experimenting with an "eyes open" meditation technique, completely anathema to me in the past.) One of the things I have learned - and am practicing - is what she calls "the 90-second thing." This technique comes via Jill Bolte Taylor (whose brilliant TED talk " My Stroke of Insight " is in the top twenty of most-watched TED talks ever) a brain researcher who studied herself as she had a stroke. One of the things Dr. Jill observed was that her emotions, when not fueled by thoughts, lasted only about 90 seconds and then dissipated. In The Three Commitments, Pema shares this discovery as a technique to use in your spiritual practice. As a way to train in being present, in resisting what she cal...

"People want you to be happy. Don't keep serving them your pain." --Rumi