In Laura’s Words
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
My To BE List
I love a list. Not a To Do list. But a To BE list. I also love word To Be lists. I call myself a word wanderer. For years my screensaver words have been: Playful, curious, awed, kind… I landed on those words after thinking long and hard about what I value. What I want to be. What is at the essence of who I am and have always been. Those words...
No Black Friday
Give yourself or someone you love a Haven Writing Retreat for the holidays! My next one is March 19-243, 2025 and it's filling fast. Click here for the other 2025 dates, more info, and to book an introductory call with me! Does an online writing community and education feel like more of a fit for now? Haven Nest is now open for enrollment. The...
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 to replace it with a kind, loving inner voice, all inspired by the plot twists of travel. Part I: In which I describe this voice, and give you concrete writing exercises to finally shed its destructive nature. Part...
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 it, I weep and awaken… Especially this time of year. May it land in your heart. Nothing that I planned for this Christmas season happened. And then everything that matters did. I’m looking at empty nest this fall, and so...
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 my thoughts and prayers,” and maybe that’s true. Maybe you actually know what to think or pray on that person’s behalf. Personally, I’m never sure. You can tell them that you’ll be there for them—that...
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. And for heaven's sake, you don't need some powdered packet from the grocery store. I have been playing around with my gravy for years, and this is where I've landed. It's a commitment, but you will be having...
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 with the virus, on top of a job/income on pause, and a cancelled book tour for a novel that took eight years to write......isn't an alluring place to look. But often, that which we resist, is the very thing we need...
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 Sunday Paper Montanans like to say, “You won’t know that a mountain lion’s stalking you until you feel its teeth on the back of your neck.” For years, I felt that stalking— those teeth. The thing is: I rarely felt...
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 of Montana where over a thousand people have come in the last twelve years to dig deeply into their creative self-expression on the page in intimate groups. That is my invitation to them. This is my promise: We will...
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 spend money on presents or decorations or on our big Christmas party. Let’s have an experience! Just us.” My twenty-one year old son said, “I agree. We have enough stuff. Let’s go somewhere and have...
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. I sort of expected that happiness, but not to be so totally stunned by how hungry I was to gather again and in this profound way. To be with true word wanderers again. Seekers who long for their...
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 an intense experience after the last year and a half of social distancing, sheltering in place, not being able to see people's smiles, not being able to hug. How is it going for you? Have you been to a...
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, self-expression, and Montana... Click here for more info and to set up an introductory phone call. September 8 – 12, 2021 (still room) September 15 – 19, 2021 (one spot left)...
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 realize that just because we’re in a pandemic, there are still ways to connect with people in the most mundane yet human way. And that perhaps, just perhaps, I need to stop using the pandemic as an excuse to be a hermit.”
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 stitching us to another place on the globe.”
