Laura Davis

What I’m Letting Go Of

By 17 Comments · · · · · · Read & Respond

My brother and I packed up my mother’s mobile home, #94 at DeAnza Mobile Home Park, in three days. We cleaned it out three weeks after I’d brought Mom in for a “trial” at Sunshine Villa, a trial I knew would last the rest of her life, if we were lucky. If we weren’t lucky, she could end up somewhere far, far worse.

Mom didn’t know that she was leaving her home for the last time. Because a month-long trial was all she could agree to. But in her case a month might as well have been a year. Her sense of time—except for the eternal now—and the far past, especially around the 1940’s—is pretty much ... [Continue Reading]

My Personal Ten Commandments

By 1 Comment - Read & Respond

This piece was written in response to a prompt I gave in writing class this week, "Make a List of Your Own Personal 10 Commandments." 1. Thou shalt, preserve and cherish long-term relationships with history, ending them only when absolutely necessary. 2. Thou shalt embrace change because it's what life is all about. 3. Whenever possible, thou shalt prioritize your children and their well being while they are growing under your care. 4. Thou shalt make life choices that push your edges and force you to grow. 5. Thou shalt face your flaws and weaknesses, do what you can to change and have humor about what you can't. 6. Thou shalt tell the truth the greatest extent possible, to yourself and then to others. 7. Thou shalt find ways to create, express what's in your heart, ... [Continue Reading]

Searching for Sabbath

By No Comments - Read & Respond

In preparing to lead the Coming Home retreat in November with my partner Karyn Bristol, I’ve been waking up in the early morning to reread one of my all-time favorite books: Sabbath by Wayne Muller. My copy is dog-eared and yellowed with many highlights, notes in the margins, the corners turned down. Every time I pick it up and read even a paragraph or two from its musty pages, my breath deepens and the tight places in my chest relax.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about this weekend retreat. It has a very different ... [Continue Reading]

How to Be A Writer

By No Comments - Read & Respond

I just had the great privilege and joy of facilitating my 8th annual Commonweal Writer's Retreat in Bolinas, California last week. "The Writer's Retreat of Your Dreams" is always one of my favorite weeks of the year. The confluence of a perfect environment, incredible healthy food cooked with love, the wild California coast, an incredible collection of writers, and ample time to dive deep into yourself and into words--always leads to powerful transformative experiences and a retreat filled with laughter, tears, profound and funny words, and love. Here's what a couple of the participants had to say about this year's retreat:

“Close your eyes. Imagine getting to spend a week on a mythological island, populated only by funny, creative, sensitive people of ... [Continue Reading]

The Choice

By No Comments - Read & Respond

There was once a hundred year old man. Everyone who met him marveled at his vitality and the vibrancy of his mind. He radiated joy and people wanted to be near him. When asked the secret of his long and happy life, he replied, “When I turned fifty, I was determined to find a way to stay youthful and young at heart, so I decided that every five years, I would study something new.” And so every five years, this man embraced a new activity and poured his energy into it, letting the joy of learning lead him in a new, surprising direction.

I don’t know what he chose to study, but let’s imagine what his trajectory might have been: fencing at 55, sailing at 60, Indonesian at 65. At 70, gourmet cooking. At 75, Shakespeare. At 80, a pair of knitting needles. It ... [Continue Reading]

10 Things I Know the Real Truth About

By No Comments - Read & Respond

I gave the assignment in class a couple of weeks ago to, "Write about 10 things you know the real truth about." Once we honed our lists (which was quite a process in and of itself), we wrote lists--or a paragraph that succinctly summarized what we knew about the topic at hand--what we knew deeply. I loved this exercise and wanted to share a couple of the topics I wrote about:

I know the truth about being a famous author:

1. When you are a famous author, people will either adore you, worship you, idealize you, not care about you, not know about you, feel jealous of you, project all their feelings on to you, hate you, blame you, attack you, belittle you, target you or love you. Very ... [Continue Reading]

10 Things I Know the Truth About: Part 2

By No Comments - Read & Respond

A couple of months back, I gave my students assignment, "Write about 10 things you know the real truth about." Once we honed our list of subjects, we wrote wrote a piece that succinctly summarized what we knew about each of the ten topics--what we knew deeply about them. Last month, I shared a couple of the subjects I'd put on my own list. Here's another: how to make peace with a mother you're estranged from. This is a subject I know a lot about, mainly because I've successfully reconciled with (and have an excellent relationship with) my own mother, from whom I was estranged for seven years. I got so interested in the topic of estranged relationships and how to mend them, that I wrote a whole book about it, [Continue Reading]

The Liberating Failure of Learning Something New

By 3 Comments · · · · · · Read & Respond

I got this hair-brained idea last summer that I wanted to learn a language. It all started when I went to Paris with my daughter, who happily chattered her way through Paris cafes and department stores, through the Uzes market negotiating for AOC goat cheese and brightly colored napkins, ordering the bits of duck we cooked on a grill at our table outdoors in the plaza in front of our glorious, sun-drenched apartment. There she was, petite and lanky and gorgeous, perfectly dressed and coiffed in that casual but perfect teenage way she has, ordering le chocolat chaud and canard-being told everywhere what a great accent she had-while I couldn't even ask where the bathroom was.

[Continue Reading]

Sending a Son to College Feels Like This

By 4 Comments · · · · · · Read & Respond

I was sixteen when I turned down a full scholarship to Wellesley College. I don’t remember what that scholarship was worth in 1972 dollars, but I’d have to say, from my perspective now, that it would have been priceless. Wellesley offered me an open door into science and philosophy and language and strong women and self-esteem and intellectual passion that could have opened the world to me. They offered me Aristotle and Simone de Beauvoir, Sartre and Collette, Emily Dickinson and Michelangelo. They offered me classical sculpture, medieval history and macroeconomics, the riches of the Renaissance, fluency in a language, travel abroad, and in 1972, the rare opportunity to live at the beating heart of the emerging ... [Continue Reading]

Why I’m Taking the Summer Off

By 8 Comments · · · · · · Read & Respond

It’s been so many years since I’ve taken a summer vacation that I can’t remember the last time I took one. Why now, you might wonder. Why now, when my kids are almost launched—Eli heading off to college in August and Lizzy rounding the bend into 10th grade—am I finally taking a whole summer off? Why didn’t I do it when my kids were younger, when they really needed me? Why did I keep working? Keep writing? Keep producing? Keep teaching? Because I thought I had to. Because I was a breadwinner. Because I was afraid to stop. I didn’t know how to say no.

But now I must. I must say it loudly and repeatedly. I must keep saying it to myself and to everyone around me, but most especially to myself. Something in my midlife, sandwich generation, ... [Continue Reading]

Recent Posts

Other Posts:

Writing Retreats

Whether you are a beginner, an established writer, a published author, or are looking for a creative vacation with your spouse…I have a retreat for you.

Read more . . .