Catherine Sevenau's Blog: Writings~Rambles~Rhymes, page 56

0.2. Through Any Given Door: Dedication, Billet-Doux, Credits

 Dedication To my siblings… who told me their stories. I wrote them down, then added my own. This memoir is for them. Stephanie Moore Through her I found not only grace, I found my voice. Michael Naumer Before I met Michael, I was asleep. After working with him, as the song sways, “I can see clearly now, the […]

1.1 Through Any Given Door: Part I, Sonora

Part I Faded Snapshots Sonora, California 1943 – 1953 1943 • Sonora, Tuolumne County, California Emerging from the crown of Highway 49 and a mile from end to end, the town of Sonora is tucked into the foothills and ravines of the Sierra Nevada, the gateway to California’s gold mining region. In the mid 1800s it […]

0.1. Through Any Given Door: Poem, Lineage, TofC

    Teller of Tales This tale is a history, a fable, a prayer of those gone before me, now gathered with care. The diaries and pictures and letters enclosed deciphered my kin and what they supposed. Those who are living, their stories intact, Those gone before us, who knows what was fact? I met […]

Sonoma Sun #5: In Search of Funny

At a book talk at our library, a young woman asked me about humor, and how do you learn to be funny. I responded, “I don’t think you can learn to be funny. Either you are, or you aren’t.” Humor is often closely related to pain, and arises as a reaction to suffering—like a coping […]

Sonoma Sun #4: Keeper of the Lines

Why bother? I mean, really. They’re dead. Who cares about the past, and what difference does it make? But you know, there are occasions we do something for its own sake, simply because it’s interesting, or satisfying, or it feels worthwhile. For a number of years I’ve researched my genealogy, gathering all the historical facts, […]

A Dwarf, A Boy, and His Dog

My brother and oldest sister were a year apart, with the same dark brown hair and brown eyes. When he was four, Larry wore an eye patch, and in first grade, glasses. He had a lazy eye, the only thing that was ever lazy about that boy. In September of 1940, he attended first grade at Notre […]

Bacon and Piggy Banks

Our family moved back and forth between the towns of Vallejo and Watsonville. In 1940, Dad was working for Union Ice Company. He was a top ice-refrigerator salesman, then became a manager and foreman of the ice delivery crew. He occasionally took Larry with him on deliveries. My brother was impressed with the tons of ice in the huge vending […]

Pass the Potatoes

At the dinner table, Ma–my grandmother Barbara Clemens–put only one item on her plate at a time, which was an enormous bother. When the rest of the family raised their forks to take a bite, it would be time to please pass her the platter of meat… the plate of potatoes… the basket of bread. It […]

A Higher Possibility

Forty Principles, Tools, and Aphorisms  Consciousness is that which recognizes itself. The universe is not oppositional—only our minds are. Everything changes. Everything happens in cycles. Everything contributes. Everything contains within itself the seed of its apparent opposite. There are no accidents. Things are not happening to me—they are happening for me. Do I want to […]

Money, ’tis better to have it than not

Money isn’t my issue this time around, not that it’s always abundant. I’ve worked since I was twelve. I’ve saved it, spent it, lost it, found it, stolen, borrowed, gambled, lent, collected, stashed, donated, and shared it. I have frittered it away and hoarded it close. I’ve been foolish and wise with money, along with thoughtless […]