Laura Oliver

Annapolis

Author:The Story Within: New Insights and Inspiration for Writers (Penguin Random House,) among best books of 2011 Poets and Writers and The Writer magazines.

Featured in: Favicon

livestrong.com Favicon

newsbreak.com Favicon

chestertownspy.org Favicon

talbotspy.org Favicon

cambridgespy.org

Articles

In the beginning was the word By Laura J. Oliver

5 days ago | talbotspy.org | Laura Oliver

Here’s what old people do. They talk about their aches and pains and what they had to eat at their most recent meal. Grilled cheese, and my hip hurts. Ha ha. I know you’re reviewing your last conversation with furrowed brow, so I’m trying to make you feel better. To make myself feel better, I’m engaged in an experiment. I have a pain that only manifests when I lie down on my left side, but it’s really interfering with my lack of sleep. That’s another joke. Read it again.
Magnified By Laura J. Oliver

1 week ago | talbotspy.org | Laura Oliver

Every morning, when I get ready for my day, I sit at my dressing table, known as a vanity by the judgy, and check out my face in a mirror that lights up and magnifies by a power of 15. “Why do you do that?” my mother asked when she was alive. And “Stop doing that!” my former dermatologist groaned. “No one expects perfection!”I smiled at him sadly. He was, of course, a man.
And then there were three (For Sharon and Andrea) By Laura J. Oliver

2 weeks ago | talbotspy.org | Laura Oliver |James Dissette

I’m at my sister’s horse farm basking in a late-March, Blue Ridge mountain twilight, enjoying a glass of wine around the firepit with my two older sisters. Golden Mica-dog is on sentry duty gazing out over the fields and lake like the good boy he is—keeping watch for bears, beavers, and falling stars. He will never be known for his intelligence, fairly or unfairly, because he is such a good-looking blond.
In terms of the absolute By Laura J. Oliver

3 weeks ago | talbotspy.org | Laura Oliver

Easter is near, and although I no longer participate in an organized religion with an origin story, we have a brain bias to believe what we have grown up with—a homing instinct, perhaps. So, this is a resurrection story based on my Methodist upbringing —not the resurrection of God Incarnate, but of a family pet called Mr. Fish. Is it silly? Well, it’s about a goldfish, so yes. But also no.
Meet me by the swings By Laura J. Oliver

1 month ago | talbotspy.org | Laura Oliver

How could anyone who loved school as much as I did hate the idea that life itself is a school? And how can someone who was a Safety, for goodness’ sake, be such a bad student? Shouldn’t I be thriving on learning new things in a giant earth classroom with you, my teachers, and classmates? I’ve moved up to the front row because I can’t see over John Houser, and I would be sitting next to Chris, if the seating chart was alphabetized, but he died. So did Sally. Which boggles my mind and breaks my heart.
Everyone Live Here By Laura J. Oliver

1 month ago | talbotspy.org | Laura Oliver

So, I’m sitting at the desk of JT, my personal trainer, and we’re catching up on the week’s pertinent activities before we get to work. I tell him that I just had a steroid injection in my left glute and, oh! that as I was hopping down from the table, the doctor slapped her desk and exclaimed, “You know who you look exactly like?”I pause for dramatic effect, and JT says, “I hate that question.”I hate it, too. For good reason.
The Inside Story By Laura J. Oliver

1 month ago | talbotspy.org | Laura Oliver

The first time my mother brought my father home to the farm, my grandmother said of this charming college classmate in the yellow sportscar, “He’s either the worst thing that ever happened to you or the best.”“He was both,” my mother confided from the far side of that marriage.
If a Little is Good, More is Better: Meditating on a Bed of Nails By Laura J. Oliver

1 month ago | talbotspy.org | Laura Oliver

My friend Brian meditates five hours a day while running a successful multi-state business. We started as editor /writer and are now Zoom friends. We’ve never met. Brian texts me that there is only one guaranteed path to self-love, the basis of all spiritual growth, and it is not relationship. (My theory.)Which you do with others. Which involves food, wine, and eye contact. It’s meditation. Which you do alone. “You do you,” I text Brian. I add a happy face emoji, then delete without sending.
The Last Words You Hear By Laura J. Oliver

2 months ago | talbotspy.org | Laura Oliver

I was wearing masks long before Covid, and I still am. My mask is invisible, I hope. Like a few months ago, I decided I was finally going to ask for help with the agonizing ache in my left hip when I lie down. I took off my invisible mask—the amiable expression I wear in an attempt to please everyone– and told my doctor that although my annual physical results look fine, I’m not fine. I haven’t had more than a few hours of sleep a night in months. She suggested physical therapy.
Rescue Them By Laura J. Oliver

2 months ago | talbotspy.org | Laura Oliver

A quick review before we get to why I am telling you this story. I worked for five years as a volunteer dog walker at the SPCA before I met Leah. She was a grossly neglected, 17-pound, black-and-white terrier mix. Her original owner, overwhelmed by the needs of three kids under the age of seven, had recognized his limitations and surrendered the puppy on her first birthday. I’ll always be grateful.