Laura’s Blog

“Instructions for life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” —Mary Oliver Tell me about a time you were astonished by life in a wonderful, life-affirming way.

“The truth about our childhood is stored up in our body, and although we can repress it, we can never alter it. Our intellect can be deceived, our feelings manipulated, our perceptions confused, and our body tricked with medication. But someday the body will present its bill, for it as incorruptible as a child who,

“You are lucky to be one of those people who wishes to build sandcastles with words, who is willing to create a place where your imagination can wander.” — Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life When I let my imagination wander . . .

“There are two kinds of daily life: the life in time, and the life in values: something which is not measured by minutes or hours, but by intensity, so that when we look at our past it does not stretch back evenly but piles up into a few notable pinnacles, and when we look at

“As women we’re told that approval is oxygen, but approval can be suffocating.” —Naomi Wolf, address at San Miguel Writer’s Conference, 2/12 Tell me about a time you stopped needing someone else’s approval.

“Anesthesia and amnesia are the two greatest sins of our culture. We forget and we go numb.” —Francis Weller Describe a time you numbed yourself (anesthesia) or forgot (amnesia). How have these forces impacted your life?

“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which (s)he has overcome.” —Booker T. Washington What do you consider the most important obstacle you have ever overcome? Tell us about that obstacle and how you overcame it.

“At the end of the day people won’t remember what you say or did, they will remember how you make them feel.” — Maya Angelou Describe someone who made you feel loved. Make the description so vivid that the reader feels loved, too.

“It got so cold in the house that icicles hung from the kitchen ceiling, the water in the sink turned into a solid block of ice, and the dirty dishes were stuck there as if they’d been cemented in place. Even the pan of water that we kept in the living room to wash up

“Whenever another loved one dies, all the others that went before her rise up to be counted.” —woman in an online support group for people with cancer Tell me about your dead. List their names, write an essay about them, or paint a portrait of one particular person you loved who has died.

“The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them.” — Maya Angelou Describe a time you failed to believe someone when they revealed themselves to you and tell me about the price you paid.

“It’s a reactive thing, like a Geiger counter; you click whenever you come close to whatever you were built to do.” —Stephen King Tell me about a time when you knew you were doing exactly what you were meant to do. Describe yourself doing that thing and show us how it felt to do it.

“The very first thing I tell my new students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth. We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason they write so very

“Smell is a potent wizard that transports us across thousands of miles and all the years we have lived. The odors of fruits waft me to my southern home, to my childhood frolics in the peach orchard. Other odors, instantaneous and fleeting, cause my heart to dilate joyously or contract with remembered grief.” –Helen Keller

“Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.” —Jane Howard, Families Tell me about your tribe, your extended family.