Daily Inspiration: Meet Elizabeth Laura Nelson

Hi Elizabeth, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Though I was born and raised in Colorado, I’ve lived in New York City for nearly 20 years; long enough that it feels like home. I moved to the East Coast because of Judy Blume: Ever since I read “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing,” I knew that NYC was the place for me. I’d never even been to Los Angeles until December 2023, when I felt a nudge from the universe, telling me to sign up for a weekend meditation course given by Susan Chen, who teaches out of her studio in Mar Vista.

While I was in LA for that course, I stayed with my dear friend Nicole Ghastin, in Culver City. We had so much fun together, hiking in Temescal Canyon, singing karaoke at Boardwalk 11, and driving up to Ojai to have tarot card readings. When I found out the meditation course was actually six long weekends, over the next several months — I’d thought it was just the one weekend — I was thrilled to have a reason to come back.

In February 2024, and again in April, I  returned to study meditation with Susan and spend time with Nicole. I started to feel at home in West LA, and wondered if it might be time to pull up stakes and switch coasts. At the end of May, my longtime best friend, Jeff, became very ill while visiting his sister in LA. He was at Cedars-Sinai and asked if I’d be willing to fly out and accompany him home. I’d become comfortable navigating LA by then, so it was easy to say yes.

Jeff died two weeks after I brought him home to NYC. But during the two days we were in LA together, our friendship had blossomed from friendship into romance. These events became the subject of a Modern Love column in The New York Times.

Now I’m working on a memoir of my friendship with Jeff. The Modern Love column was a tiny slice of our story; the book will tell the whole tale. I spent this past February in Cheviot Hills, cat-sitting for a friend. I was glad to escape the harsh NYC winter weather, and also to be in LA, where Jeff and I had our whirlwind romance. Our time there was like a mini-honeymoon, before the difficult days to come; it felt right to be there again while I wrote about him. I took long walks through Cheviot Hills, to Culver City, Beverlywood, and Century City, soaked up the sunshine, and wrote my heart out.

I’m home in New York now, but something tells me it won’t be long before California calls me back.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It’s been a rough road, for sure. Having a consistent meditation practice, and doing deeper study of the Vedic worldview, has gotten me through. It’s helped me understand how connected we all are. We’re not separate; we’re all part of universal consciousness. Also, change is not optional. There’s no sense fighting it. Evolution is all that’s ever happening. And evolution is good. “Something good is happening,” as my teacher, Susan Chen, says.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
As a writer, I’m primarily focused on personal narrative — telling stories that are honest, vulnerable, and compelling. I co-founded Jenny, a website for women over 40 that covers culture, relationships, health, and style, and now I’m writing a book about friendship, love, sex, and death. So stay tuned! There’s much more to come.

So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
I think the more we open up and share our stories with each other, the more we realize that our struggles are universal. We all wake up in the morning wanting to find meaning in the day ahead. We want to be of service, to love others and be loved, to feel joy, to laugh. We are so much more alike than we are different. Being honest and vulnerable with each other — sharing our stories — helps us to know that. I’m passionate about living fearlessly, telling the truth, and building community. If something I write makes someone else feel less alone, or inspires them in some way, then I’ve done my job.