Laura Davis

Facing Sickness, Uncertainty, and Loss

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I’m just climbing out of a two-plus-week bout with the flu. I don’t remember ever being so sick, not since I had cancer 12 years ago. I’m am still regaining my strength but was finally back in the swimming pool this morning at 6:00 AM, doing laps, a sure sign that the flu will soon be entirely behind me.

But not quite.

Along with fever, chills, headaches, mucus, coughing, body aches and intense malaise, I also developed a middle ear infection. Two weeks ago, I woke up unable to hear out of my left ear. Instead of sound coming in from the outside, sound was arising from the inside in a steady stream—tinnitus.

As I write this post, this sound fills ... [Continue Reading]

Summer Musings Lead to Change

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It’s the end of August and I’m already gearing up for the start of my fall classes (how did that happen?). How can it be that summer’s almost over? Let’s see, what did I do on my summer “vacation?” I spent almost five weeks in Indonesia—scuba diving, on my own private writing retreat in Bali, leading a tour through Bali and Java. After I flew home from Asia, there were the weeks “coming back” from traveling—this year it took me longer than usual to feel physically grounded at home with my full energy back. I had my birthday. I played cards. I read. I watched my grandchildren. My wife and I took a hiking trip to the Eastern Sierras. I did some work for an old client helping her get her book ready for ... [Continue Reading]

What it Really Takes to Write a Book

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As many of you know, I’m hard at work on a memoir. It tells the story of my tumultuous, transformative relationship with my mother: two souls who just couldn’t quit each other. I’ve been writing bits and pieces of this book for the past 10 years. A lot of the original source material is coming from boxes of old journals dating back more than 40 years, as well as fat folders of correspondence between me and my mother. I also took tons of notes during my mother’s dementia and decline—my observations, my thoughts, her stories, our dialogue. My mother was a complex and wonderful human being and she makes a great character. And there was definitely lots dynamic conflict between us—--we spent years at war and then reconciled—and then went through it all over again at the end of her life--all ... [Continue Reading]

From There and Back Again

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I was late in life getting a passport. For decades, I had no interest in international travel. Zip. I'd toured the United States, but had never been abroad. When conversations about travel rolled around, I'd go silent. I hadn't been anywhere. I didn't see the point. If I had any extra money, I preferred buying something tangible: a Mixmaster for the kitchen, a brake job for my used car, a down comforter. I wanted something I could use for years, enjoy over time. Why waste my money on something as fleeting and ephemeral as travel? Maybe I was following in my mother's footsteps. She didn't get her first passport until after she was 40. It wasn't until my father walked out on her to find himself at the Esalen Institute that she started traveling. She was a school social worker and she ... [Continue Reading]

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