lara simmons

 " ...[B]e not afraid ." --Luke 1:30, Mace New Testament As someone who is "spiritual, but not religious," I don't usually quote the Bible, but this is what the guides want me to tell you today: Be. Not. Afraid. There seems to be so much fear in our world today, but is it really more than we have lived with every day of our lives? Illness, disease and death have always been a part of our world. Death is all around us, especially at this time of the year. The trees have shed their leaves and only the evergreens remain alive to decorate our world. The many colors of life - red, yellow, pink, purple! - have been replaced by only a few: blue, green, white, gray. That sameness can feel like death, like the flatness that sometimes accompanies grief. And yet we know that underneath it all, the colors of life still exist. They wait for the day when yellow fills the sky and shines down on all below, lightening and brightening our world once again.  Some of us may feel fl...

"For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land."  --Song of Solomon 2:11-12

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. --Philippians 4:8 [This photograph was taken in a campground bathroom on our road trip last summer. I thought it was simply lovely and truly appreciated that someone had taken the time to make this relatively banal place a bit more homey.] My gratefuls for today are: 1) The courage to have a hard conversation 2) Homemade energy bars with dates, walnuts and chocolate chips 3) A cup of sweet strawberry sorbet after a big loss

"For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." --Song of Solomon, chapter two (from Operating Instructions by Anne Lamott) Here's a great quote for the first day of spring. I am starting to feel this way. That winter is past and the rain is gone (or at least going....) and the time of singing birds is come. It's time to come out of hiding, slough off our winter weight and dance in the new grass. Won't you dance with me?

"Ask and you SHALL receive." --From Voice of Choices Jan 2006 (paraphrasing Matthew 7:7 from The Bible) For months I have been saying to myself, "I should submit a proposal to teach WRITE YOUR LIFE at East West Books (a local New Age bookstore)." And for months I have done NOTHING about it. Last week I was having my weekly check-in with my sister and I asked for her intuitive hit on this. Was it not happening because it just wasn't meant to be, or was I sabotaging myself because I was scared of it? She said that she was getting the latter and that perhaps I should ask my ego to step aside and let me do this thing I said I wanted to do. The next day I decided this was it, I was going to submit the proposal and go for it. Luckily they make it super-duper easy to do online and within 30 minutes I had sent the proposal off and given it to The Universe to decide what happened next. Twenty-four hours later I got an offer to teach an abbreviated versio...