Dearest Dear Friends,
Our beloved Laura left this life today on her plane ride home with Judy by her side.
This is all I seem to be able to say at this overwhelmingly sad moment.
We welcome your continued postings on this blog as we've all become such a family together through Laura's journey.
We'll let you know about a memorial service sometime after this next week passes.
Love,
Isha
How to Post to this Blog
Hi Everyone,
Here are a few helpful hints regarding how to post comments to this blog.
How to Post Comments to the Blog
- At the end of each topic, click on the link to the right of the time stamp (e.g., 3 comments).
- You'll have the option to "choose an identity." To post, select "other" if you wish to include your name with your posting; or select "anonymous" if you prefer.
- If you have any trouble posting...please reach out to Stacy Parson (sparson@deloitte.com) or Harper Mann (harper.mann@comcast.net)
Posting Personal Notes to Laura
If you'd like to post a personal note to Laura, please post to the topic titled:
Personal Notes to Laura
Thanks for being here.
Love, Stacy
20 Comments:
Laura...from a place of deepest gratitude, thank you for your life, and all you gave the world of coaching.
Your spirit and passion will live on, wherever masteful coaching is done.
Much love and appreciation,
Steve Mitten
Wednesday, February 28, 2007 6:47:00 PM
Laura, you have impacted so many lives through your courage, strength and wisdom - your "Bigger Game"! I was so privileged to be involved in the first Bigger Game retreat where you demonstrated such strength, humour and a true commitment to making a difference and leaving a legacy! You have done all that and so much more!
With much love and gratitude,
Elsbeth Tate
Wednesday, February 28, 2007 7:14:00 PM
Laura, our love and gratitude to you, our great leader in co-active coaching world.
We will continue your legacy in Korea.
With great love,
Susan and Ken Gimm,
Seoul, Korea
Wednesday, February 28, 2007 11:43:00 PM
Thank you Laura for all you have given to me and the world of coaching. Although we never met I felt that you touched and connected to my soul.
Thank you for being such a magnificent presence in this world.
Much love,
Janice
Thursday, March 01, 2007 3:34:00 AM
Laura - I am so grateful for the chance I had to meet you at the first Leadership Retreat 5. Your fiercely loving 'kicks up the butt' have always stayed with me. Right now I join hands with everyone else across the world in remembering you with extreme gratitude.
With my love
Beks Hourston (London, UK)
Thursday, March 01, 2007 6:37:00 AM
I only met Laura through her books. What a gift to meet her in that way yet what sadness to have missed knowing her personally. She reached out to touch people in all ways not just physically. I send my sympathy to all those who mourn her death.
I will share my favorite passage on death:
The very fact of death
gives meaning to our love;
For the more we love, the more
we risk losing.
Love's power comes, in part,
with the courage that is required of giving ourselves to that which is not ours to keep.
E.Forrester Church
To all in our coaching family and profession and specially to her friends and family who will miss Laura you know that she has touched us deeply. John Bellanti
Thursday, March 01, 2007 6:54:00 AM
Dear Laura,
What an honor to have met you just a few months ago at my R4 (the Deer tribe, Dec06). With just your presence, you gave me the gift of "it's very possible." I hold that with me as I continue to take uncertain steps in the world. Thank you for everything you created, and for the way you were, so that I may lead a more purposeful and impactful life.
With gratitude, from a fellow Terp (Univ. of Maryland),
Neeraj Bhagat
Thursday, March 01, 2007 7:03:00 AM
I can only echo Karen's and Steve's words...I cherish the fact
that Laura was my teacher.
I have the deepest gratitude for your life Laura, so well lived and eternally inspiring!
With loving appreciation,
Elizabeth Crouch
Thursday, March 01, 2007 7:58:00 AM
My heart is aching. You will be missed and forever remembered.
Sincerely with love and appreciation,
Linda...
Thursday, March 01, 2007 9:28:00 AM
Laura left a lasting footprint on the coaching landscape. Personally, I had the pleasure of being in Laura's presence on two occasions and experienced her authenticity, her ability to connect with those present and to hold all as 'creative, resourceful and whole.'
Like the death of Thomas Leonard, Laura's transition leaves a hole in our hearts as well as a reminder of the legacy each of us leaves.
Thursday, March 01, 2007 9:32:00 AM
Laura - your life impacted me greatly, as it did so many others. With deep appreciation I cherish all the times your fierce love and passion for greater learning brought me to higher levels of awareness. I am forever inspired by your life.
In love and gratitude,
Rebecca Coppel
Thursday, March 01, 2007 9:56:00 AM
Laura,
Since I met you last summer, I've carried the WWLD (What Would Laura Do?) question with me. When I get stuck, I ask that question, and I receive your guidance.
You are with me, with us, with your communities, even now. Your ripple extends to the far corners of the world. After I left R3, I thought to myself, "She just set off the nuclear love -- its effects will be felt beyond our knowing."
You inspire me. You guide me. You have a voice that keeps on speaking.
With Otter devotion,
Maggie
Otter Tribe
Thursday, March 01, 2007 10:26:00 AM
Laura, thank you for blazing a trail for coaches around the world. Your integrity, compassion and commitment serve as a lighthouse for all of us.
With deepest gratitude and appreciation,
Kay Cannon
President, International Coach Federation
Thursday, March 01, 2007 12:01:00 PM
My Partner Laura died. She’s taking her journey on to other places now, places I can’t go, won’t go or shouldn’t go. She’s often doing that it seems, leaping out and ahead and then looking back and saying “come on guys catch up”. I am going to miss her pulling on my sleeve and on my arm and locking horns with her as she tries to pull me forward in some new or other direction. I anticipate a time in the future where I will feel that familiar tug again and know it is Laura wanting me to get moving in some direction or another. There is no one like her; she is one of a kind.
My partner Laura died. An interesting word partner, used in so many ways these days. Laura was my partner in creativity. Man oh man we created stuff. We laughed, loved, fought, shouted, cried, moaned, were hopeless and helpless, were victorious, and were warriors and chiefs together. Most of all we talked. We talked about all sorts of things Laura was thinking about or reading about and that the three of us were doing or reading about and that talk turned into things that helped people learn and grow and become better human beings. The talk we had also had us grow and learn and become better human beings. So maybe she was my talking partner.
I already miss talking and creating with her. I miss her coming up with some crazy idea and me saying No No NO to it and her insisting she had her hands around something and then Karen or me finding a piece of it that we could play with and then building off of that and then shaping and turning and making something grow from that first crazy seed. After that would follow another not so crazy seed and then a totally off the wall seed, and I had the feeling they were just lined up in her ready to plunk down in the middle of our talks at any time. It was truly the gift she gave of putting something out there to create from.
Oh and Laura could mix it up too. She had this uncanny ability to make it and keep it real. She had a very low tolerance for any kind of sweetness that was pasted on top of some unexplored truth. So if you were a client, a group or an entire conference of people and you were sitting sweetly on top of an unexpressed truth you were in trouble because my partner Laura would not back away or fit in nicely to that scenario she would rise up and turn her flashlight on and make damn sure that truth was exposed. You could count on it.
My partner Laura though was a little girly girl and had this smile and puppy dog look in her eyes that just invited play and fun. It had this entirely mischievousness quality to it and you felt like you were going to have some really good fun with a little bit of “are you sure this will be alright?” quality to it. It was always not only all right but a great time was had by all.
So I miss my partner Laura and I am grateful beyond words for all the gifts she brought to me in this life.
I love you Laura
Thursday, March 01, 2007 12:30:00 PM
Dear Laura,i returned after R3 with full inspiring of you, every one I met I told about your great fighting, about your commitment.
I will keep you in my heart and in my memory.
Prayer to your spirit from Nazareth
Peace and Love
Raed Habib-Allah
Nazareth
Thursday, March 01, 2007 1:23:00 PM
Laura...your boldness, creativity, passion and vision crossed all the divides -- social, economic, racial, religious, gender and even Coach Training Program affiliations! -- that keep humans apart. Instead, you and your ideas will always be known for connecting people. I met you many times at ICF fora, at the Executive Coaching Summit, where you modestly came to learn and not to teach. Vibrant life force forever. We all honor that life and your memory.
With great respect,
Meryl Moritz
Thursday, March 01, 2007 2:05:00 PM
Dear Dear Laura,
I must say how deeply saddened and stirred I am on this day. I have continued to gaze at the pictures of you at your 59th birthday celebration. You remain eminently radiant.
Your stance for and contribution to the profession of coaching is unparalleled and has served as a personal inspiration to me ever since we first 'officially' met in San Francisco over Memorial Day weekend in 1995 to establish the Professional and Personal Coaches Association.
Truth. Presence. Passion.
Your light continues to shine brilliantly through all those whose lives you touched.
With love always,
David Matthew Prior
Thursday, March 01, 2007 3:26:00 PM
I remember Laura had that picture of herself with a
huge bear she had killed. That picture meant
something to her, something big that I never really
understood.
But THIS bear, this cancer, she couldn’t kill. So she
climbed up, so gracefully, onto its back. She stood
up, spread her arms wide, turned her face to the sun,
raised her voice, and rode that bear, singing at the
top of her lungs.
The bear’s destination was unchangeable. So, she
guided it to an alternate route. She rode it through
lush forests, towers of shimmering crystal, meadows
of fragrant flowers, crests of ocean waves. Then,
she took that bear, she held that bear in the way that
only Laura can hold, and she made that bear fly and
fly, until it set her free. And surely, she is now,
and will ever be, flying, laughing, with her face to
the sun.
Thursday, March 01, 2007 3:52:00 PM
Dear Luara
I am siting here in Israel and crying...reading the blog and crying ...waching in your picture and crying....
I am crying because i miss you already and i know that our tribe have anather one retreat and Big Laura will be there just with her spirit.
I want to share the e-mail that i was sending her few weeks a go:
Dear Laura
I am happy to write you an e-mail; it makes me feel you're close to me even though there are thousand off miles between us.
I want to tell you few things.
First –i love you so much!!!!
I was looking for teacher for a years and I am filling that finally I have found my teacher- yes, you are such a big teacher for me.
I would like to tell you: Thank you!!!!!!!!! For showing up so clear during the retreat and standing there with all your pain with every thing in side you but STANDING THERE.
I am praying for you almost every morning and asking healing for your fight from the god….
I hope and pray that you will win in the fight, but I want to tell you that when my time will come to fight on my life – you will be with me and I will remember you with your courage with your wisdom with yourself.
I love you, suport you, pray for you …
Boaz.
By the way:
Can you send me the name off your mother- please- I need it to some ritual…..
And thaen ,she was so happy and send me back this e-mail:
Dear Boaz;
Your email brings tears to my eyes. It is my pleasure to stand as a role model for you as your journey toward your final fight- as we all must do someday. I treasure the scarf you gave me and wear it regularly. My Mothers name: Mary Jane or Mary Jane Keller.
I love you. Be big.
Love,
Laura
And then anathere e-mail from her:
Hello Boaz; Me again. I had Judy read your email to me and she cried too. She said it was very inspiring and made her want to show up more in life.
That of course will be one of your most important jobs. Like mine. To inspire.
I wonder if you would be willing to post your email to my blog. The email address is below. I know they say it can be complicated to learn how to get your name set up, but it will be worth it to all of those who read it. If you will, please. (-:
So ,i love you Luara so much and so happy that Finally i found my teacher...
I love you and praying for your soul
You always be with me ,always.
Boaz - Israel
Thursday, March 01, 2007 10:49:00 PM
Laura
Thank you for the opportunity to enter your world of co active coaching. It has been an incredible journey for me and my family.
Now you are in another place where you can influence so many others - hopefully you will meet my Dad. He would love what you stand for.
And your spirit lives on.......................
Lots of love - and beautiful flowers.
Sheila Richards
Cheltenham
UK
Friday, March 02, 2007 5:39:00 AM
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