lara simmons

 " Do less, enjoy it more. "  --The Universe It seems like everywhere I go in Seattle these days, I see one of these signs. SLOW. It has happened three times today and it isn't even noon. My first inclination was to be annoyed. WHY are "they" (some anonymous they, probably the government) doing all of this road maintenance during the holiday season when "we" (all the rest of us who are not the government) are all trying to get sh** done? But yesterday, while complaining silently to myself, another voice chimed in, Maybe it's not a hindrance, but a reminder... A reminder to slow down, to take it easy, to enjoy. A few years ago during "the holidays," I was feeling stressed out and overwhelmed. Instead of pushing myself, I decided to lie down and meditate for a few minutes. As I lay there breathing, The Universe sent me this little piece of wisdom, " Do less, enjoy it more. " Do less, enjoy it more. This became m...

"The great thing about JOY is not that it lasts, but that it always comes around again." --The Universe As I have mentioned, I struggled this time at the ten-day silent meditation retreat I went on last month. One of the things I struggled with, ironically, was the lack of JOY I felt in the discipline and austerity of the program this time. Normally I am very comfortable with this kind of environment. Discipline. Austerity. To-the-minute timekeeping. These are things at which most mid-western-raised adults excel. Not this time. This time I was hungry for joy, for freedom, even a little bit of excess. I knew this flew in the face of the idea of anicca , or impermanence. The whole point of this meditation is to learn not to crave positive feelings and sensations, as well as not to have aversion to negative feelings and sensations, because both have the inherent quality of impermanence, but I couldn't help it. I wanted to feel some JOY. So on my daily post-lunch ...

"The Four Agreements: 1. Be impeccable with your word; 2. Don’t take anything personally; 3. Don’t make assumptions; 4. Always do your best. ” -- Don Miguel Ruiz   There are certain quotes that come back to me again and again. This one - not so much a quote as a recipe for living - is one of those and it seems particularly appropriate to review it as Christmas week looms. #2 especially has been on my mind today: Don't Take Anything Personally. My guides have reminded me of this agreement at exactly the moment I needed it most over the past couple of weeks. When someone I am around is in a bad mood, my first instinct is to think they are mad at me or that I did something to cause their bad mood. How insane is this? Because of this agreement, instead of reacting to what I presume to be their anger at me, I have asked myself this question: What if their bad mood has nothing to do with me?  Just asking this question wakes me up and makes me realize that while ther...

"Our problem is not that we do too little, our problem is that we do too much." --The Universe on Day 4 or 5 of my silent meditation retreat Last year Christmas ended in a closet, with many tears. My older son, worn out by too many presents, too many sweets, too much Christmas, just couldn't take it anymore and he broke down, running to his grandmother's closet to cry. I spent a good part of the day crouched there with him, trying to give him comfort and talk him out. It didn't help. Eventually he came out on his own, bounced back and had a pretty good time, but after that, I was done. Fifteen years of trying to make the three Christmases in a row thing work just wasn't working anymore. My husband and I agreed that day to do it differently this year. We had hoped to be out of town, preferably somewhere warm and tropical. It was not to be. Although I searched and searched - Google, Expedia, Kayak, TripAdvisor, etc., etc. - I just could not find th...

"Every kindness I received, small or big, convinced me that there could never be enough of it in the world. Kindness can change the lives of people." --Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Daw Aung San Sun Kyi , a Burmese pro-Democracy leader who spent nearly 15 years under house arrest as a political prisoner ( with thanks to my friend Jonathan for the quote.... ) I wasn't planning to talk about kindness today, but my friend Fiona has a new edition of her book, "Small Kindnesses" coming out today (and a FREE download on Amazon.com today only!) and I want to support that. Plus, as we move into the holiday season with all of its hustle and bustle, it is easy to forget to be kind. Some of the greatest kindnesses that have been shown to me in my life have been the small ones. Last night my husband walked the dog for me when I was exhausted and couldn't imagine doing one more thing. It was such a gift that at that moment I would not have exchanged this small kin...