#Live2015 Guest Post and A Giveaway
I'm excited to share [Laurie Whitesel'](http://lauriesnotes.com/about/)s work with you as part of the #LIVE2015 series, in addition to a giveaway of her new book, "What's Right Here." I'll be sending it to one of you! To enter the giveaway, just email me and I'll put your name in a drawing. My email is yoderbl@gmail.com
I first met Laurie through her blog, [Laurie's Gentle Healing Notes. ](http://lauriesnotes.com/) Laurie and I both have a background of an eating disorder and she has journeyed to healing through writing.
Laurie has studied and taught in the areas of early childhood education and dance. She earned a B.A. in psychology in 1995 and worked in special education classrooms for 12 years, before becoming a new mom. It was then, after a long struggle to recover from anorexia, that she turned inward to find peace and healing. She discovered, after searching outside of herself for decades, a place of stillness within that had been with her all along.
Here are some questions I asked Laurie to share with you.
1. **Laurie, tell me how you first started blogging:**
*I started blogging to integrate all of the healing work I had done. I had spent time with healers, explored on my own, and healed myself from a persistent eating disorder. It had been quite a long journey, and I had absorbed and experienced much truth.*
*I wanted to share what I had found. It was a continuation of my own process and an offering to others.*
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2. **Your poems and notes are so refreshing. How did you start writing in this style?**
*I followed what I was doing naturally. I had been collaging magazine photos for a long time. I started out with pictures to connect with what I was feeling and experiencing in the moment. I didn't save my work at first because it was too much. I would just connect with my feelings and experiences and then let go of it.**As I collaged, I practiced noticing what I was drawn to without thinking about it too much. I would move the photos around and take some away until I said, "Yes, that is it."**I had started taking black and white photographs, mostly with my cell phone. I had a young daughter, and I would take pictures in the moment while playing with her. I began to take more pictures wherever I happened to be, mostly of nature. It was like a meditation. It was a way to connect with myself and to the world around me.** *
*After a while, I began to take pictures of moments (what I was experiencing) with words and combine them with the nature photos. I would get quiet and write whatever came and then move the words around like I had done with the collages. After a while, I dropped the pictures and allowed my little poems to stand on their own.*
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3.** What are your hopes for your book and "healing notes?"**
*It is my deepest desire to inspire others to find the stillness within their own hearts. I want to show that healing can be a gentle, sacred journey back to ourselves.*
4. **How have you changed because of the writing journey?**
*I'm okay not matter what shows up. I'm okay in my own skin and in the world. I no longer have the urge or need to numb myself from painful experiences. There are still painful experiences, but I have a different relationship with them now. There is a silence inside that I don't want to give up in order to go back. This silence is always with me now, no matter what is going on around me or inside. I have reconnected with the core of who I am.*
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5.** What are your hopes?**
* I would like to remind people that it is possible to find a place of peace within, even when walking through illness or other very difficult challenges , that peace and wholeness , God , is not somewhere on the other side. I would like to remind us of a gentler way.*
Don't forget to email me at yoderbl@gmail.com to enter your name in the drawing for a FREE copy of her book! I'll need your name and physical address and email address. Thank you!