Laurette made every minute of every day count:

When I was nine or ten, I noticed that every day had to
be justified. Life was kind of a gift or a responsibility,
depending on the day. Aliveness was sometimes a burden but
something I was very conscious of. There seemed to be the need
to acknowledge that a day had passed. I remember on a bus one
day, I was looking out the window. I even remember the house I
was looking at. I was on my way to school, and I was standing
up because the bus was full. I remember this thought came into
my head, and it was the first time it had been conscious, that
I had to acknowledge each day in some way. It was something I
had automatically done, but now it was conscious. I'm always
aware that I'm adding to the list. [OH 371]

She enjoyed the sunsets, from her studio high above the sea;
one ritual acknowledging each passing day of her busy life.

Above,17 October 2004. The Mad River in the foreground -- then the sand spit -- then the Pacific.

Above,19 October. Essentially the same view as the 17th, but during a storm.

Above,17 May. The river as calm as a bathtub; the ocean at ease; the sky cloudy but not threatening.

Above, 9 September. Our property extends across the Mad River and the spit to the high tide mark. The spit and river protect our bluff, which is mainly just an ancient compacted sand dune, from the winter surf -- the breakers can exceed thirty feet in height from December through February. When angry surf over runs the spit and forms huge whirlpools in the river, life becomes more interesting as large logs and other debris from upstream are deposited well above the river bank. There is a fault just a few hundred yards off shore and we have experienced many significant earthquakes here. There has been no damage because the house (with foundation dug into compacted sand) behaves like a yacht at sea riding out a gale. We have a chandelier on an eight foot chain hung from a nineteen foot ceiling which behaves as a pendulum in an earthquake. After we built our house in 1992, our insurer dropped by to inspect it and, as fortune often will have it, he was treated to a quake which required grabbing on to a railing just three feet from the chandelier which appeared to be swinging in a two foot arc (actually, of course, the chandelier was perfectly still -- it was the 3100 square foot structure which was moving!). Our agent was able to see and feel first hand that our home was sound and so signed it off at once.