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
The Purge: Reclaiming my office. Reclaiming my solitude.
Do you have a place in your home where you let all the things you don’t want to deal with stack up? And then ignore it for so long that you can feel its teeth in the back of your neck every time you pass it by? I do. It’s my office. The room at the bottom of the stairs, one step removed from family activity. A place I could steal away to when I...
How to Not Hate Writing an “About Me” Page…
There is something that has been on my list for a month, and every time it finds its way to the top, it gets somehow pushed back into the mix. Okay…fine. I somehow bury it. Maybe you can relate. It’s the About Me section for my new website, and my Author Bio for my novel coming out next year—basically the same thing: capturing the essence of who...
Inside Out and Backwards
For the last few months I have been putting on my clothes…wait for it: not just backwards, but inside out too. Backwards and inside out. Over and over again. What’s that about? Is it the disorientation of Empty Nest? Is it a mourning period after a one month high of solo travel in Morocco? Is it that I’m alone for the first time in my LIFE on a...
How to Find YOU in Empty Nest
You know when you run a life marathon, and it’s over? And you’re lying in your bed staring at the ceiling wondering how to stop running? That’s where I am. Right now. It started with the moon last night, like a clementine section moving from window pane to window pane. And then with the first bird, calling me out of Mother’s Day and reminding me...
Mother’s Day
Give your mother, your daughter, yourSELF the gift of a Haven Writing Retreat! Now Booking my fall retreats: Sept 18-22 Sept 25-29 The other day I was wondering about my great-grandmother and the land she came to Illinois to Homestead with her husband and eight kids. I have a photograph of the family in my office, all seated in their finest...
The Art of Being Led
I went to Morocco alone for a month to find “that girl” again. I’d grieved my Empty Nest for the six months I gave myself. A grief “gift,” I called it. I observed the end of this stage of my full-time motherhood in committed vigil. And I realized that I can live with dinners for one and a very quiet house, (even if it’s been heavy on Mrs....
Sent from my iPhone by Laura Munson
I haven’t lived in a city since cell phones or emails or the internet infiltrated our civilization. So as much as I long for my inner-child Chicago city fix, especially in the deep midwinter dormancy of Montana, when I get that fix, I’m always stunned, disoriented, and frankly worried for our world. The romance of the city, the beat and brash...
The Complete Puzzle
My kids and I spent hours and hours of our holiday this year, doing jigsaw puzzles. It was their idea. I couldn’t really get them to do puzzles when they were little, but suddenly it’s “Mom, can we do a puzzle?” and I’m thrilled. No screens. No polite or forced let’s-make-this-moment-count conversations. Just hanging out, focused on putting...
Come Together…Right Now.
There have been two events in the last week that have brought deep calm and hope to me where I didn’t know hope was missing. I hadn’t realized how much the news had been weighing on me. I’ve felt a responsibility to watch it, read it, try to understand it-- but I think that the current state of this country has been breaking me down from the...
Heart Language
I woke early this morning, as I seem to do these days, with words. They were for myself, and I relished them. And then I decided to give them, in gratitude, to my Haven Writing Retreat alums on our private online page. As I wrote them, it occurred to me that I am just as grateful for my readers. So I offer these words to you, as a...
“Allow Yourself To Be Spelled Differently” A Fable in Two Parts
(Borrowed from my journal on an island in Greece, 1986) Once upon a time, there was a wildly curious but wildly terrified nineteen year old girl. She realized one day that her curiosity was more wild than her terror, so she decided to throw it away and step full force into her wonder. She started to make choices that didn’t please anyone but...
The Art of Giving Up…to Go On.
Part One Ten years ago, I watched my friend go through Empty Nest. Her solution: drive a massive ice-breaking truck at the McMurdo Research Center in Antarctica. She brought some home-made hula hoops too, and a few instruments, because she’d never go anywhere without those personal items. She faced Empty Nest with something more like...Empty...
Managing Expectations: Or how to drive a U-haul in San Francisco
Now booking the fall 2018 Haven Writing Retreats! From book writers to journal writers and everything in-between, Haven will meet you where you need to be met! Come find your voice in the woods of Montana! September 19-23 (FULL) September 26-30 (one spot left) October 24-28 (two spots left) Well it’s summer and likely, if you’re anywhere over...
Ask Your Mother
Well it's Mother's Day. I am ever aware of how grateful I am for mine, and for the honor of being a mother too. Not everyone feels so great on this day. I have a hard time on Father's Day. But for all of you, no matter what...there are people you love, who are older than you, and who have inspired you. Here's a list of questions that bring...
Ladies, We Need to Talk Money!
There's nothing like 4 am for all the good haunts, money being at the top of the list. This morning, I realized: We need to start talking about money. Period. Throw aside your east coast cranky Yankee “T.J. Max’s finest,” your mid-western farm-stock “Hand-me-down,” your mountain-mama “Made it myself,” your mildewy PNW, “5 bucks at a thrift...
