{"id":4725,"date":"2025-09-21T09:41:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T17:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/?p=4725"},"modified":"2025-09-21T09:45:54","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T17:45:54","slug":"replinishing-the-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/?p=4725","title":{"rendered":"Replenishing the Well"},"content":{"rendered":"

REPLENISHING THE WELL<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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How do I know about the world?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By what is within me.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Lao Tzu<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00f8;<\/p><\/div>\n

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I began writing at age 7 when I began to write poetry. Here\u2019s the first effort:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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WISHES<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I wish I were a little dog<\/strong><\/p>\n

And had a little tail,<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019d do tricks and chase sticks<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like in a doggie tale.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Or I wish I were a little pig<\/strong><\/p>\n

And could waddle in mud all the while.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Children walk around me with laughter<\/strong><\/p>\n

And smile.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Or I wish I were a little bird<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the sky so high,<\/strong><\/p>\n

And could fly around all day<\/strong><\/p>\n

And sing my merry song so gay.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Or I wish I were a little fairy,<\/strong><\/p>\n

And so many playmates in which to play,<\/strong><\/p>\n

And sing and dance and prance all day.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Though I wish to be all these things,<\/strong><\/p>\n

I still remain a child,<\/strong><\/p>\n

Carefree and merry.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Admittedly, a humble beginning though I continued to write, becoming a published poet at age 17 and 18.\u00a0 I began writing in a journal at age 12 and continued this habit until I began writing the first of 8 books from age 50 on.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Earlier<\/strong> a passion for acting led me to my first career in the theatre in New York where I performed in 55 plays:<\/p>\n

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Cassandra in The Trojan Women<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Then writing 11 produced plays which led to an invitation from Hollywood and writing film and television for a few years in the \u2018City of the Angels\u2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Leaving Los Angeles 4 years later commenced in a new birth, a new life as I continued to teach writing workshops. In Big Sur, CA at the Esalen Institute, developed 3 workshops which gave birth to my first 3 books. The Way of Story: The Craft & Soul of Writing <\/em>+ 2 others.\u00a0 <\/em>About this time, when invited to speak, I would sometimes begin with, \u201cGood evening, my name is Catherine, and I am a recovering workaholic.\u201d Laughter followed which broke the ice yet I knew beyond doubt that what I had said was true.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 After my 8th<\/sup> book, Remarkable Women<\/em> (2025), arose some health concerns and for the first time ever, I began to notice that I was, as are all, growing older. This prompted a necessary hiatus from writing. At first there was guilt then a feeling of lost identity. \u201cIf I was not a writer then what was I?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Life is short and Art is long! The day before his death Socrates in his prison asked a musician to teach him an air on the lyre. \u201cWhat\u2019s the use,\u201d said the man, \u2018since you\u2019re about to die?\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Socrates responded, \u201cTo know it before I die.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>It took a while, but eventually, I began to surprisingly enjoy my hiatus. I still led workshops and did psychic readings (my 50th<\/sup> year as a practicing psychic!) yet had more time to be with friends & family. Cancelled a teaching trip to England, read history, and watched many good films \u2013 mostly older films. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Then unexpectedly, a small miracle as I surrendered the need for identity and relaxed, let go, and sank into my Self. I still swam laps 3 x a week and attended to some needed house repairs. After teaching globally for years following 16 years teaching graduate school in NYC and LA, I had no interest in jumping on a plane to Europe or Asia or anywhere at all as I had done. Gradually, I realized that I was \u2018replenishing the well\u2019 and it was good. <\/strong><\/p>\n

I was home and felt no need to go anywhere. A new daily mantra emerged, \u201cThere is nowhere to go, nothing to do, no one to be.\u201d And it was good.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Hiking in Ojai<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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REPLENISHING THE WELL     How do I know about the world? By what is within me. Lao Tzu           I began writing at age 7 when I began to write poetry. Here\u2019s the first effort: \u00a0         WISHES I wish I were a little dog And had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4730,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-catherine-ann-jones","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4725"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4740,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4725\/revisions\/4740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}