A Team of One: letting go of perfection
As seen in Pangyrus I have always been more than one person. When I was married with young children, I was at least four people....
Archives
I write to shine a light on a dim or otherwise pitch black corner…to provide relief for myself and others. It’s the light that I am looking for. And the wonder it illuminates. May my words land in your heart. yours, Laura
Exiling the Voice by Exiling Yourself: giving you concrete writing exercises to finally shed its destructive nature…
This is a three part, three week, series about how to become aware of the negative self-talk we all have on some level, and how...
Happy Merry Christmas: touched by a true Christmas angel
I’m bringing back this essay that I wrote six years ago when I was in the throes of impending empty nest. Every time I read...
What to say when someone dies
Featured in Huffington Post and Thrive Global No one really knows what to say to someone when their loved one dies. You can say, “You’re in...
No Black Friday
Give yourself or someone you love a Haven Writing Retreat for the holidays! My next one is March 20-24, 2024 and it’s filling fast. Click...
Thanksgiving Gravy Haven
Well, Thanksgiving is almost here and many of us fear the gravy. Fear NOT! You don’t need flour. You don’t need to reduce anything....
Someone’s in the Kitchen: allowing your kids to care for you
Sometimes we have to look in the rearview mirror for insights into how to move forward in our lives. The time of Covid lockdown, sick...
Room: how one word can turn the scared into the sacred
***Still a few rare spots left on my October 24-27 Haven Writing Retreat! To book an intro call, go here. As seen on Maria Shriver’s...
Dust Off Your Journal. Talk With Your Soul.
On this summer weekend day, I awoke early, and with a little girl’s butterflies. A whole day of solitude ahead of me, to write, read,...
Find Your Voice in Community– You Don’t Have to Do it Alone!
“I write in a solitude born out of community” —Terry Tempest Williams I am home from leading a five day writing retreat in the woods...
Making Friends with New Holiday Traditions and Adult Children
As seen on Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper My twenty-something children called a family meeting. I readied myself. These are always emotionally-loaded, especially in the way...
A Lesson from the Land of Lack: saying “yes” to everyone but yourself…
You know that thing you want so badly but you’ve told yourself you just can’t have? For decades? That thing which you know would change...
Just Us: Traveling with young adult children
Last fall, on a family Zoom call with my adult children, my twenty-five year old daughter said, “Let’s do Christmas differently this year. Let’s not...
Grateful for Gathering
It’s been two years since I’ve led my Haven Writing Retreats live in Montana and this month I led two back-to-back. I was deliriously happy....
Re-entry: To Dance Again
I hope you are all having a wonderful summer. Around here, people are going out in public and gathering in large groups again. Re-entry is...
Our Long Spring break: how a pandemic posse of young adults filled this mother’s empty nest
Now booking Haven Writing Retreats this fall!! There’s still room…but spaces are filling fast. People are STARVED for the healing power of small gatherings, writing,...
Pass It On: random acts of pandemic kindness
"Maybe I need to think about how good random acts of kindness feel and that there’s still the opportunity for them. Maybe I need to...
An Ode to Migration and the “Willa’s Grove” Paperback Book Tour
"Birds, especially migrating birds, are what we need to not just hope, but to understand movement and unity. When they pass over us, they are...
Bed, Bon Bons, and Book Tour
Even if the world still needs to stop in many many ways, we can be part of the living in a pandemic. We can move...
A Crash Course in Fearless Writing— by Haven Home Expert William Kenower
Here is some brilliance about not just writing, but self expression, from my friend the author, author advocate, teacher, podcaster, magazine editor, and a whole...
Feeling Good in Your Body in Support of Your Craft
Ask yourself: “What movement can I do today that will be fun, supportive, and loving toward myself?” Be curious about the answer.
A Very 2020 Holiday Card/Cure
Well…it’s been a motherf***er of a year. Many of us feel that we can’t complain about it unless we got Covid, lost someone we loved...
Haven Home for the Holidays
Maybe you’d like to write your way through the holiday season… Maybe you’re alone. Maybe your elderly loved ones are alone. Maybe you’re quarantined and...
Happiness Healing… Try it!
Recently a new friend asked me what makes me happy. I talked for a while, trying to get at the truth of it and landed...
Alone Together
I have been an observer of humans all my life. My father used to say, “People are the same everywhere,” and I feel like my...
Distanced and Disoriented
I have never been more hyper-sensitive in my life than in these last six months. At first I was ashamed of it. All my life,...
Haven Summer Blog Series #4: The Pandemic and Me
Here are the last three short essays from Haven Writing Retreat alums in our Pandemic and Me Series. We hope that you will be inspired,...
Haven Summer Blog Series #3: The Pandemic and Me
I will be posting short essays from Haven Writing Retreat alums for the next few weeks… …in hopes that you will be inspired, and mostly...
Haven Summer Blog Series #2: The Pandemic and Me
I will be posting short essays from Haven Writing Retreat alums for the next few weeks… …in hopes that you will be inspired, and mostly...
Haven Blog Series: The Pandemic and Me
I will be posting short essays from Haven Writing Retreat alums for the next few weeks… …in hopes that you will be inspired, and mostly...
Taking Flight from The Empty Nest
I originally published this piece with Covey Club and I re-read it this morning to remind myself that it’s okay to dream about the future...
Pandemic Fatigue
Announcing the summer blog post series! Theme: The Pandemic and Me I will be posting short essays from Haven Writing Program alums for the next...
Summertime Taps: an ode to young motherhood from an older mother
I wrote this twenty-three years ago, as a new mother, at the end of a long Montana summer day… It was my first published piece...
