![Hi, I'm Laurie](https://ordinaryinfluence.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/11/3581588038_bb4f02153a.jpg)
Hi there! I’m Laurie. And I’m so glad you’re here.
Since you’re curious about who’s putting these words on the page (You are, aren’t you? That’s why you clicked on the cute little ABOUT button?), then this is for you…
I am quite a bit closer to a mid-life crisis than a quarter-life crisis, though I very often look around and wonder where the grownup is around here. (It’s me, apparently.)
I’m a mother of two boys and a girl, well into their primary school years now. I have no idea how that happened. They’re usually the ones who remind me that I am supposed to be the grownup in the room — usually when they are hungry. Which is always.
I am a passionate lifelong learner and I LOVE to find solutions and ways to make things better. I’m fascinated by what makes people do the things they do, at all ages. I love to introduce people to new ideas that improve their lives.
I am an introvert at heart AND love making real connections with people. I would usually rather write than talk, but I believe passionately in the power of a compelling message no matter the medium. I love to cook good food, read great stories, learn interesting things, make memories, take photographs, and create beautiful, useful spaces and sentences.
I am married to a wonderful man who comes from a different continent, language, culture and religion than mine. This has both opened my eyes (and mind and heart) and been breathtakingly -difficult- challenging in ways I could never have imagined. I’ve been an ex-pat for more than one third of my life – living to early adulthood in the good old U S of A, marrying and having children in England. Then we all went to live in Turkey, where my husband is from, for a few years. And now we are back in England. For now. Maybe.
All of this is to say, I think a lot about perspective, choices, influence, and the meaning of community and home.
I’m also a woman whose main work has been her family for a lot of years. And who feels more than a little conflicted about that. I have an awful lot to say about the importance of “home” work — and also about how important it is that all parents have the opportunity to contribute something beyond it. Without diminishing it.
I’m rebuilding my career now, while trying to preserve all that’s been so precious about the time just focused on my family. It’s messy. And it’s hard. And what’s possible feels different every day. Whatever choices we make about how we spend our time, our energy, our lives — it’s always going to be messy and hard. It’s a side effect, I think, of having a vibrant, varied, voluptuous life. But maybe there are ways to make it a little better?
I don’t have the answers. But I’ve found it helps enormously to recognise the influence that ordinary, everyday things can have on our daily lives. So that’s why we’re here.
Let’s talk about how to make things better, bit by bit.