10,000 Kisses

Posted in Bumpboobs, Life, Life despite cancer, Love by

Today is July 24th, 2015. That means it’s the 10 year anniversary of my first kiss with Zsolt. It’s also the 10 year anniversary of when I thought to myself, “I could marry this guy.” AND it’s my 10 year anniversary since having that absolutely perfect moment I’d always wanted with another person—it wasn’t just the perfect setting or situation as we lay on the beach side by side, sharing earbuds and listening to Iron & Wine’s Such Great Heights; it was perfect for reasons that can’t be put into worlds. It was my first totally perfect moment. I remember realizing this as I lay there beside him, and then feeling amazed.

The blog has been largely quiet this summer. The reason for this is because I’m here with him, and we’re by the Balaton shore, and everything feels so much in the present moment. Being with my husband, especially in a place like this where we are relaxed, and easy, and free, is simply put, curative for the soul.

I know what it is to feel fully alive and totally happy. I know what it is to be totally well and healed in the most essential of ways. It is because of this tall, hansome Hungarian I kissed ten years ago today. It is because I am totally with him and am totally for him, as he is with and for me.

So today I am healthy, and happy, and free. It’s all longed for, and I am grateful.

Happy anniversary, Zsolt.

Love always

Catherine

Beach at Nice 2015

P.S. 10,000 kisses? Well, at three kisses a day for 10 years, we’re about there. But in fact, we suspect it’s really about 20,000. 😉

Economy of Fear

Posted in Fun, Life, Reading, Writing by

Hello you lovelies,

My good friend and podcasting partner Kevin is doing a pretty big thing. I mean, he’s been doing a lot of big things this summer, including adding a new tiny daughter to family of ladies, and now he gets to add ‘squeal book‘ to that list. Kevin and I met over a year ago, when we got together to discuss writing. I’d just finished his book The Page Turners, and he had just finished reading Claire Never Ending. I’ll never forget how he showed up at the coffee shop with a list of questions to ask and a book to be signed. I showed up with  . . . ahh, well. . . nothing, actually, except nerves and a mindset to make a new friend. But that momnet is a good snapshot of Kevin, if you don’t already know him. He pours himself into his projects. He exceeds expectations.

Anyhow, right now at this moment he has a pre-order party happening for the follow up novel to the Page Turners, called Economy of Fear. But Kevin being Kevin didn’t stop with, ‘”hey I have a new book, guys,” He’s gone and created this bundle – because he has this funny deep love for bundles. Normally I’m all anti-bundle. Even in the grocery store when Zsolt wants to buy 2 cans of tuna for the price of one, I full on reject the idea because hey, we don’t need two cans of tuna! (Except that we do, in reality) however, I actually think Kevin has knocked this one out of the park. Again, exceeding expectations.

But because you guys probably haven’t read Kevin’s work – I’ll give you the skinny on it now. To celebrate the sequel in the series, he is giving away an entire audio book of the Page Turners:Blood (the first book), plus he’s giving away audio commentary, a prequel chapter and a 40 minute video where I get to interview him about writing! It’s like the coffee shop all over again, except I’M IN CONTROL!

Ha. Ah. That got awkward.

Kevin books are, I think, a cross of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with the kids from Freaks and Geeks. It’s dark, deep and dives into the world of small towns, friends, depression and how books can both save and change you.

If you want a good and gory read, check it it 🙂 Pre-ordering stars now!

The First (and the only) Mindful Monday

Posted in Uncategorized by

I don’t ever do a mindful Monday, but a friend sent this quote to me the other day around blood, vibration and motherhood. She was at an event, and this passage was read, and it made her think of my novel, Claire Never Ending. (I’m quite honoured that she made such a wonderful connection). I read the passage and it made me think: DAMN THAT’S POWERFUL. Now it’s your turn to read it and feel your own response. I’ll link to the origin of the post below.

It is often said that the first sound we hear in the womb is our mother’s heartbeat. Actually, the first sound to vibrate our newly developed hearing apparatus is the pulse of our mother’s blood through her veins and arteries. We vibrate to that primordial rhythm even before we have ears to hear. Before we were conceived, we existed in part as an egg in our mother’s ovary. All the eggs a woman will ever carry form in her ovaries while she is a four-month-old fetus in the womb of her mother. This means our cellular life as an egg begins in the womb of our grandmother. Each of us spent five months in our grandmother’s womb and she in turn formed within the womb of her grandmother. We vibrate to the rhythms of our mother’s blood before she herself is born. And this pulse is the thread of blood that runs all the way back through the grandmothers to the first mother. We all share the blood of the first mother – we are truly children of one blood.

Layne Redmond

From When the Women were Drummers,
found on Gaiman Life

P.S. Did you ever consider how you originated in your grandmother? This is some literal linkage here! And the vibrating! I’ll say it’s the ripples of Claire, but you can call it whatever you like. 🙂