Dear Writers, I’m emerging from a two-week break from teaching and my normal pandemic routines. Karyn and I had plans to go to Mexico to see our grandkids during this time, but canceled as Covid cases spiked around us. I decided to take the time off as a creative staycation. In the midst of the insanity of the exiting administration, surging deaths, a vaccine rollout, and the end of this horrible year, I’ve been happily ensconced in my own creative bubble, remembering that I am not just a writing teacher, but an author! I pulled out my memoir, Wholehearted, which I completed a year ago. I had not looked at it since then—like me, Wholehearted has been in pandemic limbo. I really didn’t know how I would feel about the book after a year away, and I used every procrastination tactic ... [Continue Reading]

Dear Resource Readers, I’m going to take a staycation/holiday break from teaching, social media, and putting together these biweekly resources. This will be the last issue for the next couple of weeks. I’ll be back with more for you in the New Year. Thank God it will be a new year! You can keep emailing me referrals and ideas if they’re not time-limited. But I won’t be reading them or responding for a while! Have a good holiday and stay safe, Laura Dear Writers, I wanted to share this piece by my student, Nancy Rosulek Kramer, the mother of four young children, in response to the prompt, “What is Broken?” It’s a thoughtful look at the consumerism that all too frequently subsumes Christmas. As we all head into the holidays needing to turn our normal traditions on ... [Continue Reading]

Dear Writers and Friends, I’ve had the great honor and privilege of teaching at Tassajara Zen Center retreat for the past few summers. This past July, my in-person retreat with my friend and colleague, the wonderful meditation teacher Tova Green, was canceled because of Covid. But now, under the auspices of Tassajara, Tova and I will be offering a one-day online retreat on Saturday, January 9th, entitled Writing Our Way to Hope and Commitment. It will be the first retreat I have taught since the spring and the only one on my calendar. Please join me for this very rare and special opportunity. Here are the details: Writing Our Way ... [Continue Reading]

Dear Writers and Friends, I’ve had the great honor and privilege of teaching at Tassajara Zen Center retreat for the past few summers. This past July, my in-person retreat with my friend and colleague, the wonderful meditation teacher Tova Green, was canceled because of Covid. But now, under the auspices of Tassajara, Tova and I will be offering a one-day online retreat on Saturday, January 9th, entitled Writing Our Way to Hope and Commitment. It will be the first retreat I have taught since the spring and the only one on my calendar. Please join me for this very rare and special opportunity. Here are the details: Writing Our Way ... [Continue Reading]

Dear Writers and Friends, I’ve had the great honor and privilege of teaching at Tassajara Zen Center retreat for the past few summers. This past July, my in-person retreat with my friend and colleague, the wonderful meditation teacher Tova Green, was canceled because of Covid. But now, under the auspices of  Tassajara, Tova and I will be offering a one-day online retreat on Saturday, January 9th, entitled Writing Our Way to Hope and Commitment. It will be the first retreat I have taught since the spring and the only one on my calendar. Please join me for this very rare and special opportunity. Here are the details: Writing Our Way ... [Continue Reading]

Coronavirus & the Pandemic Response A Room, a Bar and a Classroom: How the Coronavirus is Spread Through the Air Excellent set of graphics that explain coronavirus transmission from El Pais, a Spanish magazine. The article looks at three different scenarios: a home/family gathering, a restaurant/bar and a school and examines both droplet and aerosol transmission of the virus—how it works and the best ways to mitigate it. There is a big long gap in the middle of the article, but keep scrolling and you’ll get to the rest. Thanks to Deo Robbins for the heads up. Click here to access this ... [Continue Reading]

Coronavirus & the Pandemic Response Larry Brilliant Says We’ll Beat Covid—After We Go Through Hell This is the best article I’ve read about Covid in a long time. It’s an interview with epidemiologist Larry Brilliant in Wired Magazine, who say the next few months will be “the best of times and the worst of times.” Clear information from an excellent source. Click here to access this resource. Private School Tents & Public Longing A powerful essay about the inequities that have become more glaring than ever in the education of poor versus wealthy ... [Continue Reading]

I’d like to greet you today with a terrific poem sent to me by Nancy Grace. I just loved it. Read it out loud to get the full impact. It feels great on the tongue! A Charm Against the Language of Politics --Veronica Patterson Say over and over the names of things, the clean nouns: weeping birch, bloodstone, tanager, Banshee damask rose. Read field guides, atlases, gravestones. At the store, bless each apple by kind: McIntosh, Winesap, Delicious, Jonathan. Enunciate the vegetables and herbs: okra, calendula. Go deeper into the terms of some small landscape: spiders, for example. Then, after a speech on compromising the environment for technology, recite the tough, silky structure of webs: tropical stick, ladder web, mesh web, filmy dome, funnel, trap door. When you ... [Continue Reading]

Coronavirus & the Pandemic Response Super-spreader wedding party shows COVID holiday dangers - Los Angeles Times This cautionary tale of the amount of devastation and death caused by one wedding should remind us all to be very, very careful this holiday season. Click here to access this resource. Racial Justice & Educational Resources Holding Biden’s Feet to the Fire on His Promises to the African-American Community In his victory speech last Saturday, Joe Biden stated, “The African-American community stood up for me. You’ve always had my back and I’ll always have yours. America called ... [Continue Reading]

Coronavirus & the Pandemic Response COVID-19 Risk Tracker Meanwhile, you might find the COVID-19 risk tracker from Brown University’s Alpert Medical School useful. You can put in an activity–such as grocery shopping or going to a restaurant or a trip—log in your location, and determine your risk. Great for planning and also lowering your risk. Thanks to Roz Spafford and www.newsyoumayhavemissed.com for this handy tool. Click here to access this resource. Coping with Fear and Anxiety | Amen Clinics Midway through this article is some good advice about dealing with stress and anxiety during this ... [Continue Reading]