My Website and Blog
Thirty years ago, my journey as an essayist began following the Great Flood of ’93 in the Midwest. Returning from a month of teaching at the National Geographic that July, Kit and I flew over the floodwaters of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers before landing in Saint Louis. Eager to see the extent of the flood damage firsthand, we drove directly to Hartsburg—a small farm community near our home bordered by high limestone bluffs, rich farmland and the Missouri River. In the center of town, a sandbag barricade had been constructed by volunteers as the river rose and made its way into town. Stunned, I reached my hand over the wall and felt my fingers touch the river a mile from its bank below the bottoms.
That electrifying moment is when my writing life took a new direction. For the next three months, I showed up daily to volunteer in the cleanup effort. Then I wrote an essay about the experience for the Boone County Journal and was soon writing a weekly column, “Notes from Breakfast Creek,” for the paper. In 1997, the column was picked up by the Columbia Tribune and appeared thenceforth every week until Kit and I moved to California in the spring of 2021.
Nine month before leaving Missouri, Sunitha Bosecker—a business consultant active in Columbia’s literary community—designed and continues to manage my website where I publish a weekly blog at cathysalter.com. She also does owns a mental health private practice and helps with strategies for small businesses. Today, you are reading my 200th blog.
My website includes a several testimonials for Notes From Boomerang Creek, my second collection of published essays. I’ve included two of them here to provide a sense of where my mind goes when I write each week. From Brooklyn-based author Matthew Goodman—
“Cathy Salter has an artist’s eye, a poet’s ear, and a lover’s heart. Her essays invite the reader to partake of a wonderous life filled with the joys of country walks, great books, travel to distant locales, and good food shared with dear friends. Pour yourself a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and settle in by the fire. You won’t find a more rewarding place to spend time than Boomerang Creek.”
From Suzanne Dunaway, author/illustrator of two cookbooks wrote—
“…(Those) who wish to swim in uncharted waters must read Cathy’s lovely chronicle of days filled with the richness, surprises, and downright love of country living and world travel in all their glory. …She has created a kind of Tao of Writing…which can be used as a springboard for one’s own personal note taking. Have paper and pen at the ready as you take in these informed and intimate glimpses into a very abundant life.”
My website invites visitors like you to join me as I share scenes encountered along my writer’s journey, viewed up close and from a distance. Weekly blogs can be accessed by selecting “Read My Blog” highlighted in yellow on the website. I invite you to not only read today’s blog, but to journey back over the 200 essays written during this latest chapter in my writing life.
Here is an excerpt from my 38th blog, published May 28, 2021—a month after Kit and I arrived in California. Its message still resonates powerfully today.
“What a complex and demanding world we live in. Our new newspaper, The Union, is tossed at the foot of our driveway around 6:30 a.m. five days a week by a young driver in a light blue Prius, introducing us to local news, views of its columnists and cultural events in and around historic Nevada City (pop. 3,150) and the larger town of Grass Valley (pop. 12,820) just 4 miles to the west on Hwy 49. Beyond that, I can hardly take in national political news and the latest global conflict. At least not until boxes that still await unpacking have been opened. Instead, I focus on keeping my balance as I navigate unfamiliar territory and establish new routines.
“These days, I breathe in and breathe out. This is what I did when I began swimming three days a week, back and forth following the results of the 2016 presidential election. Not allowing the weight of the political and racial chasm that characterized that administration to sink my spirit.
“Thinking back on those dark times, I recall two magical encounters with nature that buoyed my spirits and helped restore my sense of balance. As I walked across the glade at Boomerang Creek, our former home in Missouri, a box turtle walked in front of me. It instinctively pulled its head in and remained perfectly still. Instead of being disturbed by the towering figure that threw a dark shadow over its path, it encountered ten toes painted a lovely shade of plum when it finally stuck its head out for a peek. Soon its head and feet reemerged, and onward it went unharmed.”
Part of the excitement of being a writer is that I never know beforehand where a story will take me. That makes writing a fascinating journey of discovery every time. After thirty years, what remains a constant in my writer’s life is the joy I feel in sharing my encounters and thoughts along the way.
I invite you to visit my website and blog at cathysalter.com.