Rumi (13th-century Persian poet and mystic) * Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right-doing, there is a field. I will meet you there. Pema Chodron (1936–living), American-born Tibetan Buddhist teacher) * Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know. * If we learn to open our … [Read more...]
Musings, Opinions, Beliefs
An Idea Whose Time Has Come
NEWS FLASH: I pulled the lever and moved my Real Estate Broker's license from my business office to my home. I'm officially and happily retired. No more getting lost showing property, writing contracts, and holding open houses. No more attending endless meetings, conferences, and trainings. No more … [Read more...]
To Serve The People, by LeRoy Chatfield
Guest post by LeRoy Chatfield Personal Introduction: Because my background is somewhat unusual and not easily understood, I believe it might be helpful to provide some personal commentary by way of explanation. Changes of Life: In 1963, I met Cesar Chavez in Delano, California when he was … [Read more...]
For the Mothers
ON THIS MOTHER'S DAY To the women (and men) who've mothered me over the years. To those I've mothered, and to those who've shared that mothering with me. To those caring for their elder or infirm mothers, swapping roles. To those who've lost their mother. To those whose mother has lived a long life … [Read more...]
My Impending Demise
A Time to Dance, A Time to Mourn ~ We think we have time. The question is, how much? That leads to other questions. Will I be satisfied with how I lived my life? What am I compelled to complete before I die? What legacy will I leave? When I attended my 81-year-old cousin’s funeral, her son said, “I … [Read more...]
Opening Doors
It doesn’t matter that I’ve lived here since 1973, nor does it matter that Sonoma Valley is a relatively small area. I’ve been practicing real estate here since 1982 and I still get lost. A lot. That's why I'm not crazy about showing houses to buyers. Sellers are easier to work with because I can … [Read more...]
An Indoor Girl
Look, I rode a donkey up the cliffs of Crete, waterskied down the Colorado River, and hiked the Cinque Terra. I trekked through the Mayan jungle and climbed Tikal. I hiked the pine forest above Rio Caliente, scaled Nevada Falls, and climbed rickety ladders to peer into ancient painted caves in New … [Read more...]
The Summer of Love
The Haight • 1965-1968 ~ I worked for my father in his store on Haight Street during the summers, saving my money for French fries, milkshakes, school clothes, and college. In the early '60s the Haight was a middle-class white neighborhood with a smaller community of black families. Over the next … [Read more...]
Keeper of the Lines
Why bother? I mean, really. They’re dead. Who cares about the past, and what difference does it make? However, there are occasions when we do something for its own sake, simply because it’s interesting or satisfying, or it feels worthwhile. For several years I’ve researched my genealogy, gathering … [Read more...]
A Higher Possibility
Beyond the Game Michael Naumer and his wife Christina created The Mind of Love, which later morphed into Beyond the Game. Incorporating concepts from Gurdjieff, Oscar Ichazo, Werner Erhard, and a number of other consciousness teachers, they created a transformational body of work where the … [Read more...]
Money, ’tis better to have it than not
Money isn’t my issue this time around, not that it’s always been abundant. I’ve saved it, spent it, lost it, found it, stolen it (I was seven), borrowed, gambled, lent, collected, stashed, donated, and shared it. I’ve frittered it away and hoarded it close. I’ve been foolish and wise, thoughtless … [Read more...]
Shopping Queen: Sonoma Sun #3
Many of us have too much stuff, and with the holidays upon us, more of it creeps into our space. My dilemma is shopping locally, versus not shopping at all. I have grandchildren, and as much as I like to buy them presents, I refrain and give them money (so they can buy their own stuff), take them on … [Read more...]
How did I get here? Sonoma Sun #1
Posted in the Sonoma Sun, on October 14, 2016, by Catherine Sevenau ~ In 1943, my father exchanged his iceman’s uniform for a suit and tie. Union Ice Company was having financial difficulties, and Dad had enough sense to get out of the cold. Offered a management position with Sprouse Reitz, he had … [Read more...]
On the Woo-Woo Side
Two events occurred on my trip to Southern California that caught my attention. The first was at the funeral of Kay’s (a high school friend) mom. Family and friends drove in a caravan with a police escort to the cemetery after the service at the Mormon Church up the road. Standing behind where the … [Read more...]
Credo For Today
Why am I here? Who am I? What do I believe? How shall I live my life? Where do I stand? When do I speak out? CREDO FOR TODAY Ten Commitments I shall honor Spirit: my God, your God, their gods, and the god within me. I shall honor my word, and take responsibility for what I … [Read more...]
Rattled
At 4:00 in the morning, I’m jolted from a sound sleep by a long, eerie howl—and by then on high alert with a second one that quickly followed. The ear-splitting cries are coming from the top of the staircase just inside my bedroom door. It was either a deranged human, or a crazed animal. I’ve … [Read more...]
Queen Bee
Queen Bee Audio (Click link to play) I am the Queen Bee. You know how I know? My friends tell me, and I also have a pair of blue bikini panties with a queen bee on them that proves it. I have been known as the Carrot Juice Queen, the Dance Floor Queen, and the Queen of Curb, Gutter and Sidewalk. I … [Read more...]
Putting Pen to Paper
Why write? It’s complicated. I never had any intention of becoming a writer, to externalize and expose myself on paper. But as life would have it, I had a meltdown in a course I was taking, and out of that emotional quagmire I wrote a short piece called “Queen Bee.” That’s how all this started. I … [Read more...]
It’s All About Me
Life... it’s all about me—me, and what I want. No one wants to admit that. Why? Because we don’t want anyone to think we’re self-centered. Google synonyms for self-centered. It has four pages of like words for those of us who are all about ourselves. Yet, we abhor others who are … [Read more...]
Dharma
“We’ve been brought here for a very short time, against our will, and we don’t know why.” I love that line. What is the point of our birth and life and death? Why are we here? What is our true purpose? These thoughts keep some of us up at night; others have never … [Read more...]
California Mid-Century Classic
On my last marker birthday (sixty-fifth) I muddled over penning my obituary, my epitaph, or a newspaper ad. My own obituary was too weird to write. My epitaph was a no-brainer ... And since I’ve been in real estate in Sonoma forever (actually it’s now 35 years, which is about … [Read more...]
Positively Haight Street, 1968
Audio: (click arrow to listen) 1968 was the year Eldridge Cleaver published Soul on Ice. He and his wife Kathleen, who had the most immense head of hair I'd ever laid eyes on, banked at my teller window. It was the year of the Yippies, Black Panthers, and the SDS, the year Martin Luther King was … [Read more...]
In Search of Funny
Someone asked me about humor, and how do you learn to be funny. I said I don’t think you can learn to be funny. Either you are, or you aren’t. I told her I thought humor is often closely related to pain, that it arises as a reaction to suffering like a coping mechanism, that sometimes it’s the only … [Read more...]
A Dream Story
Many of my dreams, the ones I remember, are of me trying to get somewhere, usually on some odd form of transportation, not knowing how to get there, and often with people following me who think I actually know where I'm going. In one I'm riding a horse, leading the way; in another I'm in an English … [Read more...]
Bless This Mess
I’m hard-wired for formal prayer. I find myself reciting the Our Father when an earthquake hits, and oftentimes at night as I go to sleep. "How weird,” I think, stopping in the middle, but then a Hail Mary (a woman about whom I hold equally … [Read more...]