An Interview with Laurel Bobzien
by Jennifer Parker
Laurel Bobzien is a Unity member who primarily attends virtually. I enjoyed meeting her and witnessed her creativity firsthand. I’m glad to include our virtual community members. Selfishly, I hope she chooses to attend sometimes in person.
What would you like to share with the community about your life?
Laurel was born and raised in Janesville. She has one sister who lives in Verona who does search and rescue work with her German shepherd. Their mom was a librarian and dad was a banker.
“I had a happy childhood and was raised as a Christian Scientist. Dad was Lutheran and stepped back unless he thought they should go to a doctor. My first time going to a doctor was when I joined the swimming team in high school. It was very scary because I didn’t know what to expect, mom was so against it. It was scary for dad when she got whooping cough. My first vaccine was Covid. It was my mother’s beliefs, not necessarily my beliefs.”
“I was a mother’s helper in high school for a wealthy Jewish family. It was interesting to see how different their lives were. I was like a mom for their three kids.”
Laurel attended UW-Whitewater and obtained a degree in Art Education. “However, I ended up in retail, in a manager training company with Wohl Shoe Company, part of Brown Group. I enjoyed selling shoes.” Laurel also spent 17 years at Ferragamo selling shoes until 2014. She received salesperson of the year awards at both shoe businesses.
Laurel decided to try another line of work and move from Chicago in 2014. She spent four years completing her graduate gemology degree with the Gemological Institute of America. “My first fine jewelry job was at Barney’s New York in Chicago.”
“I moved back to Wisconsin in 2014 because my mother’s health was failing.” Laurel first worked at Gruno’s Diamonds. I enjoyed selling jewelry for Barney’s and Grunos but did not enjoy selling watches (too technical to be fun).”
She considered her interests and skills and chose organizing. She works for WellRive, formerly Moving Forward, which has their own moving trucks and a team of around 30 people. Laurel enjoys packing up people who are moving and downsizing, most of whom are seniors. She enjoys using her creativity and home designer skills to enhance their lives.
“My art degree is put to good use. I go crazy if I’m not doing something creative.” Her current artwork is beading. “I belonged to the Chicago Bead Society and was awarded Juror’s Choice and Grand Prize.” Jennifer enjoyed seeing her artwork, including screen prints, drawings and paintings, as well as her collection of ceramics.
What brought you to Unity?
For thirty years, Laurel has an appointment once a year with an intuitive spiritual guide. The woman contacts angels who have a message she transfers to Laurel. “She recommended the book The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity by Cathryn Ponder and I saw it was published by Unity Press. I read that book and talked to my best friend who said she attended Unity. It was all because {my guide} gave me homework.”
“I felt so at home.” Laurel likes that Unity teaches there are many names for the one God. Her mother thought her church was the only religion.
She first attended Chicago Unity Church. She likes that they have a lot of guest ministers from different New Thought ministries.
Laurel joined Unity of Madison when Rev. Evin was minister. She did the New Member class with Evin and the Lenten class with Jeff Nesta.
What are your favorite activities at Unity?
“I like that you can hold onto ‘don’t worry, I’m in charge, signed God’. I really like the Daily Word.”
“The class I took for joining was nice. I enjoy the book recommendations. I often listen to them while beading.”
Is there anything you’d like to see Unity do that would make your experience even better?
Laurel disclosed that she feels uncomfortable during the greeting process. She mostly attends via Live Streaming and also listens to the Chicago church since it meets after Unity’s service.
Laurel wonders if the quality of Unity’s Live Streaming could be improved by doing it through YouTube, which the Chicago service does. She thinks it’s a great way to introduce people to Unity.
Laurel likes meeting before or after church for coffee. She also loves other church recreational activities. She likes the idea of attending the MET opera and also suggested going to Ft. Atkinson for dinner theater. While in Chicago, Laurel enjoyed their drumming circles and yoga classes.