On the Road in Marin County, CA March 2014

 Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA Talk & Book Signing.

Great independent Book Store drawing large crowds for book signings and audiences with intelligent questions. Good to know that folks in this country are reading and thinking!

Dana is the manager of Book Passage and we enjoyed discovering that our first career was acting. Once an actor, etc., etc., etc. I’ve always thought it pretty awesome how many lives we live in this life. Different homes, different partners, different careers, new and different friends, and yet there’s a thru line – as we say in Hollywood – something remains constant. Mine is ever questing, ever learning, ever discovering new lands both within and without. Grateful for that for life is never, never dull. Goya remarked at age 92, “I am always learning.”

Met the wonderful Justine Toms in Petaluma, CA when she interviewed me for her splendid radio show, New Directions. Felt totally that we were in the zone as the kids say. 

Interview to air May 14, 2014, free for 2 weeks then available in archives at

New Dimensions .org

 

 

http://www.newdimensions.org/healing-through-focused-journaling-with-catherine-ann-jones/

Peggy Sebera, an artist friend of Justine’s was there in the audience and later when we chatted, discovered that we were both on campus of University of Texas-Austin, students, when the Tower Murders occurred. Each of us were about 5 minutes from the center plaza where 26 people were shot. It was the first of what unfortunately now is almost commonplace, and the shock was unforgettable. The same feeling around that time later then -also in Texas – President Kennedy was killed. The feeling that America had lost her innocence as we -though in our teens – had certainly lost ours. (Happily, Peggy lived on and created beautiful landscape paintings of Marin County.)

Talk, book signing, and 1-hour interview done, time to play.

So suggested to my friend, Jett, that we head for San Francisco to Golden Gate Park and go museum hopping. It was a rainy day, perfect for getting lost in art indoors. First, Legion of Honor where we visited the Rodin collection of sculpture and then on to the Matisse exhibit. I tried to pay as I entered the museum and was asked if I banked with Bank of America. I do. Then it was a free day for all those who did! Nice happening, like winning a prize, remember how that feels – especially when unexpected!

Rodin’s The Hand  – aptly titled and powerful. It reminded me when years ago I was in Paris and visited Musee’ Rodin. What power in all his work. The young poet, Rainer Maria Rilke, was for a time secretary to Rodin, and he once asked the Master Artist, “What is the secret of making great art?” Rodin replied, “Work. Work. Work.”    Of course, Rilke went on to do just that and left us poems as great as Rodin’s sculptures.                                                

Later on, still in the Legion of Honor, I found an old friend, the 16th c. artist  Le Tour whom I fell in love with on my first visit to the Louvre in Paris. It’s something about the way he paints light and the reflection on a face of that same Light. (see below) When I visit great art, I find myself standing quite still, absorbing the great works, then letting go a great sigh of satisfaction, as if I’ve just had the most wonderful meal. I have, nourished by these timeless masterpieces. Thank goodness, we have them whenever we choose to go and visit them. To write well, it is not enough to simply read good books. One must absorb beauty as often as possible, devour it, it will transform you from within so that when you write, there is something more in you to come out and onto the blank page.  

 

 

 

 

 

To end a grand holiday mixing work and play, we visited John Muir Woods, a national park. This is the view just before we entered the ancient park with towering Red Woods, hundreds of years old, majestic. Magically, the rain stopped for more than an hour while we hiked the Park and crossed rivers and gazed upward in wonder at the giant Red Woods.

Standing in this great Redwood split by time, I feel a sense of reverence rather like a great cathedral such as Chartres in France. There is a particular silence, sacred and timeless. One can only be grateful for Nature’s gift.

Time to hit the road and return home, carrying with me good memories and a lasting ‘yes to Life!’