lara simmons

"Do one thing everyday that scares you." --Eleanor Roosevelt Check.

"Be led by Joy,  It's the whole point." --The Universe on TUT.COM

The Four Immutable Laws of the Spirit: 1) Whoever is present are the right people 2) Whenever it begins is the right time 3) Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened 4) When it's over, it's over --H arrison Owen Learn 'em. Love 'em. Live 'em

"What soul was his, when, from the naked top Of some bold headland, he beheld the sun Rise up, and bathe the world in light!" -- William Wordsworth Walking the boys home from school on Wednesday, I found this lying on the sidewalk. Seemed a most appropriate poem to find on the first day of spring.  There were moments on that day - between bouts of blustery, cold, winter wind - that our world seemed to be bathed in light. How it does awake the soul! Grateful thanks to the soul who dropped it. 

"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?

"Whatever the circumstances, it is better to love, create and construct than to hate, undermine and destroy." --Helen & Scott Nearing, The Good Life This book was a Christmas present and I finished reading it back in January, but didn't make the time to "collect" the quotes from it until a few days ago. I almost didn't. Two months on I wondered if what struck me back in January was even relevant today, so quickly does time seem to move these days. But I was wrong. The wisdom in this book (some of it from books published in the 1800's) is as relevant today as it was when Helen and Scott Nearing were homesteading on farms in Vermont and Maine in the 70's and 80's. They have much to say about conservation, the economy, hard work and leisure time that we need to hear in 2013. It makes me want to run away to the country even though I know I wouldn't last a year. It does have me thinking though, about how to do things different...

"You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a care or grief. But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound." -- Kahlil Gibran , quoted in the Opening to Ecstasy newsletter