“Finding sanity” theme: authenticity
“To be sane is to be genuine. This is my defining trait that either draws people in, or pushes them away. Nothing says ‘love’ to me like someone seeing me at my worst, and sticking around anyway.” —Laura Joyce Davis
Episode 88: temper tantrum
“Gabe, buckle your seat belt!”
”I wanna watch a movie…”
”Where’s my cocky?”
”ARRRRRGGH!”
We all have those times when life is a perfect storm of disasters and we just can't take it anymore. Sometimes it's our kids who have temper tantrums. Sometimes, it's us. Today I share the biggest one we've had yet during this quarantine, and what it's teaching us.
Special thanks to Dan Livsey & Mary Reed, Alice & Damon Snyder, and Alexis & Matt Iaconis for becoming supporters of Shelter in Place.
Episode 71: more caught than taught
“The kids have occasionally seen me pee in the bushes in our back yard when I was doing yard work and didn’t feel like going inside. It’s good for the plants.”
In parenting and in life, real change comes from a little less talk and a lot more action.
Episode transcript
Episode 68: difference
“In my darker moments, the lie I believe is that in a family of essential workers, I alone am non-essential. I was not necessary to make this trip happen.”
In the wake of cancelling a long-anticipated trip to see her extended family, Laura explores how the differences that have created conflict within her own family have revealed the lies she has believed about her family and country.
Episode 46: Ahmaud
Ahmaud Arbery was killed on February 23, 2020 while he was out for his daily run. Laura looks to fellow runners Alison Mariella Désir and Bayano Kamani for wisdom on where we go from here.
Episode 86: special
“Perhaps I was just too complex for the Enneagram.”
For the past two weeks, we've been looking at this time through the lens of the Enneagram--but the idea for this series began as a joke. Today Laura shares her own rocky road with the Enneagram, and why she's finally come around to believing that we need it now more than ever before.
Special thanks to Anne & Tyler Elliston, Anne Leaché, and Emily & Donovan Chandler for becoming supporters of Shelter in Place.
Bonus: how we’re doing now with the Transmission Times
The Transmission Times is an audio diary of voices from all across the globe. Today one of those voices is Laura's. In this special bonus episode, Laura talks about how she's really doing, and why even though this time has been extremely difficult, it has also sometimes been beautiful.
Episode 59: standardized
As the University of California university system ditches the ACT and SAT as requirements for college admissions, Laura shares her own story of test-taking and college, and why she hopes her children's experiences of college will be different.
Episode 26: one month later
One month into sheltering in place, Laura reflects on some recent wisdom from writer Victor LaValle, and what his words and the past month have shown her about herself and her world.
Find the critically acclaimed, wild, wonderful writing of Victor LaValle that Laura mentioned here on his website.
Episode 6: Grace
As Laura reflects on the lessons of this last week of sheltering in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19, she faces the hopes and failures of both herself and this world with a much-needed dose of grace.
Episode 85: the individualist
“I remember friends saying things like, “yeah, but you're not like the others.” And by others they meant black people. and I stayed silent there too.”
Keith Watts can hush a room with the beauty and power of his singing voice--but he's spent a lifetime silencing himself. As an Enneagram four, Keith knows how complicated life--and his own feelings about it--can be. In this final installment on our Enneagram series, Keith talks about how he has navigated the beauty and complexity of being a biracial gay man in church leadership, and shares some of the music that has come out of his story.
Episode 74: the challenger
“I don't think it's supposed to be a feel good tool that indulges us in our egocentrism and just pushes us further down that road. I think it's supposed to inspire us to transform.”
The Enneagram 8 is often described as "the challenger." Addiction therapist Jen Sheedy has been speaking truth to power all her life, but this time has brought with it challenges she never could have foreseen, choices that are pushing her to be more courageous than ever before.
Episode transcript
Episode 19: kindness
Laura shares some surprising and delightful research from social psychologist Nicholas Epley, and reflects on the kindnesses that have made a big difference in her own life during times of grief and loss.
Episode 1: lockdown
In the hours after the 3-week 24-7 Shelter in Place mandate to stop the spread of COVID-19, Bay Area author Laura Joyce Davis turns to her art to connect with others and make sense of the chaos in our world. In the first episode, she considers what it means to "shelter in place," and explores how we might see this strange time of isolation and containment time as purposeful.