Practice Ways with Laura Pashby

Practice Ways is a monthly feature on Balance Practice, sharing practice notes from writers, makers, and coaches, and offering perspectives on what practice looks like as real life is happening.

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The fog rolls in off the Pacific Ocean like clockwork, blanketing the San Francisco Bay Area in a thick, damp cloud. I’ve lived in Berkeley (my birthplace) and in other pockets of the bay at various points in my life — as a small child, a summer holiday visitor, a university student, a new mom — and the region’s iconic marine layer has always offered a steady albeit cool embrace.

Most recently, while living in Marin, my two toddlers and I would curl up on adirondack chairs under wool blankets on our porch to watch the fog make its way through the Golden Gate Bridge most evenings. Kind of like watching the sunset. A different sort of curtain closure, the fog’s descent offered a distinct inward invitation and daily cooldown as it wrapped me and my goose bumped, awestruck kids in reflection of what had happened, and what might be. This also came at a time when my daughter was obsessively drawing rainbows and to this day when I think of fog, I see rainbows, which somehow feels like an accurate representation of fog’s perspective-shifting resonance.

I’m not sure I realized how comforting fog has been to me until I came upon writer

Laura Pashby

’s beautiful work and words. In her new book, Chasing Fog, Laura explores her curiosity and passion for the elusive weather condition and creates a meditative adventure that follows her pursuit of fog from Cornwall to Scotland, London to Venice, and beyond. Not unlike her newsletter, Small Stories, where she shares her exploration for magic and meaning, Chasing Fog offers a whimsical sense of place and timely prompt for reflection.

Laura is generous in sharing her thoughtful and timely perspective on the themes of balance and practice with us, her words inspiring clarity even as we find our way through the metaphorical mist that each day brings.