Category Archives: Laura Simms

Something Good

This is going to be a long list, lots of good stuff, so let’s get started…

1. Brene’ Brown wrote a new book. Releases on September 9th, but available for pre-order now. (Something good just for me: I’m going to a two day workshop with her in Boulder this weekend.)


2. Rachel Cole reminds us of “The Importance of Crying in Public.” Thank goodness, because I’ve been doing a bit of that today. This post is heartbreaking, honest, and empowering.

3. Broken Open to Greatness: Transforming Tragedy into Triumph, guest post by Jennifer Boykin on Jonathan Field’s blog.

4. 25 Blogging Tips from Jeff Goins.

5. Master Mind Your $100 Startup, a group of great people having an interesting conversation.

6. Laura Simms video about the $100 Startup.

7. Geneen Roth talking with Eckhart Tolle, about “Changing Your Relationship With Money: Make the connection between what you want and what you need.”

8. Patti Digh gave a commencement speech at Gilford College, The Geography of Verbs.

9. How to Live Well from Leo Babauta of ZenHabits. This is so important. You should really read it.

10. Five Reasons You Should Laugh More from Positively Present, a good reminder, if you needed reasons.

11. I want to make these.

12. I’m going to learn to do this.

13. 35 Greatest Animal Photobomers of All TimeYou’ve most likely already seen this one around the interwebs.


14. This a good question to ask yourself, “What are you holding on to that’s no longer serving you?” from Jenn at Roots of She.

15. These two posts from SF Girl by Bay make me happy: A Handmade Home and Tulpina, Unique Floral Design.

16. 10 Things I’ve Learned from Anne Lamott. I adore Anne Lamott. She said of this post, “This person really did an amazing job of distlling what I am hoping to convey in my work. I’d forgotten writing in Op Ins that we’d all thought that having a kid wd be more like having a cat. And mostly I think that if I have a message, it is that we can unlearn the stupid, perfectionistic, efficiency-and-achievement driven BS our parents instilled in us. we NEED to “waste” time and paper if we are going to become artists. We need to fail and flail more, and make more messes and mistakes, not less. Send money to the Sierra Club every few months and then feel free toOVER-print-out your drafts, so you can hold the paper in your hands, and scribble on it with pen or pencil, and hear the sound of it between your fingers. That is an ancient and sacred sound.”

17. Thinks Like Me from ZeFrank. It’s hard to not have a crush on this boy.

18. Things I’m Afraid to Tell You. This is a great collection of posts, and a brave writing prompt idea.

19. Ronna Detrick and Fabeku Fatunmise talking about “Bigness.” The way he describes it, bigness sounds an awful lot like basic goodness.

20. This quote from Jennifer Loudenwhich describes exactly my reason for writing (besides the fact that I love it), my reason for practicing, my reason for living:

…because I am here to practice being beloved. And to teach this practice. To help myself, and hopefully you, know, through every cell of our being, that we are beloved. To know that truth as the glue that holds us together. Then, by knowing ourselves beloved, we hold every creature beloved, too. And act accordingly.

21. Exploded flowers.

Something Good

the lilacs are still blooming

1. 10 ways to view your fears with kindness on kind over matter.

2. Zencast.org, an archive of once a week dharma talks that dates back to 2005. And if that’s not enough for you, check out Audio Dharma, which has an archive that goes back to 1999.

3. The Crash & Burn Antidote (and why I don’t do gratitude lists) from Laura Simms of Create as Folk, who gives a great alternative to gratitude lists in this video, (and besides, she’s just so cute).

 

4. Acute How-To: DIY Fabric tape on Scoutie Girl. This one gets filed under “how I know I’m a nerd” because I can’t wait to try this.

5. This quote: To study the dharma is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things. ~Dogen Holy Wow, and Whoa…

6. What is Mindfulness? 9 Points to Ponder on HealYourLife.com, a really great post that describes this important experience. For example, the first point is:

Mindfulness means observing things just as they are—our thoughts, emotions, body sensations, and what’s happening in the world around us. It shows us the world just as a mirror reflects images: clearly, openly, and without bias. It’s what happens when the mind watches and engages consciously with life, rather than being blindly caught up in what’s going on.

I want to go to there…

7. Book Title Poems. I’d really like to do some of these, but I think right now it would instigate a whole mess of dusting, organizing, and simplifying that I’m not ready for. One example is Nina Katchacourian’s Sorted Books project, (make sure to click on each image to see the full series). Another is from one of my favorites, Judy Clement Wall of Zebra sounds. And one more by Annie Neugebauer.

8. Radical Self-Love TedxCMU Talk by Gala Darling. This is a message that I just can’t hear enough times.

 

9. A Brief Manifesto On MAGNETIC CLARITY — & 3 Questions To Get You There from Alexandra Franzen on Unicorns for Socialism.

10. And my favorite something good for this week: yowayowa camera woman diary, levitation photos. I first read about this online at the New York Times Lens. There’s something so sweet, haunting, and magical about these images.

My cat Guru died this afternoon 14:27.
He had been suffering from congenital kidney disorder.
Thank you Guru. I was very happy to have met you.
黒猫のグールが今日の午後14:27に亡くなりました。
先天性の腎不全を患っていました。
ありがとうグール。あなたに会えて私はほんとうに幸せでした。