lara simmons

"Tomorrow's another day. Sometimes that's your only consolation when today's not so good. Things can look different after a good night's sleep, or just 24 hours' passage of time. It'd be great if you could turn things around right this second, but that's just not always possible; when it's not, the best thing to do is just remember that everything changes. Stop railing against the lameness of the moment, and simply concentrate on getting through it. Bide your time. Notice the small little things that are still sweet, instead of the one big sour thing…and wait." --Caeriel Crestin from Sign Language According to my mom my paternal grandmother always used to say, "Things will look better in the morning." Apparently the Universe agrees. Things are not going to plan around our house right now and the Divine gift or purpose of it all is alluding me. There is a part of me that is pushing against "the way things are" hoping to ...

"Paradoxical as it may seem, the purposeful life has no content, no point. It hurries on and misses everything. Not hurrying, the purposeless life misses nothing, for it is only when there is no goal and no rush that the human senses are fully open to receive the world. " -- Alan Watts in The Sun magazine I am living a purposeful life this week. So purposeful in fact, that it is Friday and I am just now posting my "Quote of the Week." (For those of you who have been checking in this week, I do apologize....) Today is the last day of school for my kids and this week has been full of rushing and hurrying and doing and not a lot of purposelessness. The whole week has been full of purpose. And I am sure that I have missed a lot. I miss sitting and drinking tea. I miss doing yoga. I miss meditating. I miss reading. I miss just doing a whole lot of nothing. And that is what I am planning for next week. Nothing. A whole lot of it. That is not to say that I will...

Are you feeling STUCK, unsure about what comes next? Do you want to WRITE, but never seem to find the time? Are you ready to RE-CREATE your life, but don't know how? Please join me at East West Bookshop in Seattle on August 15th and 22nd and WRITE YOUR LIFE ! Over the course of two evenings we will take a look at where we are in our lives, where we want to go, and how to use writing as a way to get there. Whether writing is what you truly want to do, or "just" the means to your ultimate goal, this class can help you learn how to manifest that which you truly desire. Hope to see you there!

"I don't know you, but I love you." --Lydia at Unity of Burbank I was in LA last week for the first time. I had never been before and never really had the desire to go. I still didn't really, but a class I had been wanting to take was being given there and then my sister decided to come out and meet me so it was all coming together. Then, the class was cancelled. Ugh. It was really hard for me to get over this. I had a plan gosh darn it. I was going to take this class, then the next one and then become a certified Akashic Records teacher. The Universe was messing with my plan. You have to laugh, of course, at my boldness, my arrogance, my naïveté. The Universe was messing with MY plan? I decided to go anyway, to spend some time with my sister and see what LA was all about. I couldn't have been more surprised! The people we met were lovely. Warm, friendly and eager to help. We met many Los Angeles angels along the way. Three angels on a bus helped ...

"No blame, be kind, love everything." -- Terrance Keenan My favorite quotes are always those that seem, to me, to be the answer to life, The Universe and everything.  There are just a few quotes that seem to be all I really need to know . And this is one of them. No blame. Don't blame anyone for anything, including yourself. The only purpose of blame is to cause guilt and never solves the problem at hand. It makes you a victim and not the powerful being that you are. Just don't do it. Be kind. In everything you do, be kind. Be kind when saying "No." Be kind when giving constructive criticism. Be kind when arguing. Be kind when angry. All of these things are possible, even if we think they aren't, and make life a lot more pleasant. I have started using this on my kids - when they ask for more screen time, when they refuse to eat their veggies, when they are pitching a huge fit about something - even as I tell them "No," explain the co...

"It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game." --Old sports adage attributed to sportswriter Grantland Rice I have always believed this old adage. Or wanted to believe that I believed it at least... I am one of those people who tries not to appear competitive, but secretly really likes to win. I put this down to being a first born - we can nearly always beat our younger siblings at almost everything we play for a number of years so we get used to it - but I'm guessing it's also part of being a Capricorn, part of being designated "gifted" in elementary school, part of my familial conditioning, etc., etc. In other words, it's a part of who I am. Competition gets very interesting once you have kids. I noticed right away that at a certain age (around 5 or 6) my older son got really upset whenever he would lose a game, but he was especially upset when he would lose to me. I struggled with this - should I let him win to give hi...

“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...