First Chapter (pdf)
Front Material, Prologue and Illustration (pdf)
Sample illustrations
(pdf)
ISBN 0-9753194-9-3
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A story twitches inside us all, echoing discoveries of inward voyages. What we find along the way may be more precious than what we sought. Hope sustained me during the years I lay crippled from a rare bone disease. Loyal pets, family, and friends frame images of times long ago in a world of newfound hope, oozing with possibilities to heal. By embracing troubles, I glimpsed others’ hardships. My parents told me we’re all connected: all things are one. Do we need to adjust our vision to see more clearly?
“That which comes from the heart touches the heart.”
-Samuel Taylor Coleridge
In the 1960s Kansas of my youth, friends and family wrestled with troubles. Unbroken, they endured with a quiet dignity, whispering hope. We improvised with toil and imagination. A gentle courage unearthed new ideas.
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Changing the way we see alters what’s seen. Imagination powers new vision: a world born of reading with my father’s tender escapes; one swirling with splendors of Grandfather Kearney’s flower gardens. Imagination opens hope-filled vistas. Sharing struggles with wise people may also change vision, perhaps a first step toward healing. Aren’t hard times a fine teacher, daring to guide us toward wisdom and inner peace? Awe in a grand and mysterious universe gurgles up over moss-covered stones. It jets from low-flying clouds born on winds at dawn. If hope is a fine breakfast but a poor dinner, then growth eked out along the way crafts one scrumptious feast. |
Parts of “Thistledown Rising” may sound familiar. It may be everyone’s tale: one dawning
"A wise person once mused that we can live without a lot of things. But we can’t live, won’t live, without hope. I should like to meet that man: meet him and shake him by the hand to thank him. Simply to thank him." -Sean Redmond
“Find what has meaning now and tomorrow and a thousand years ago. Meaning is a whole other dimension. In that sense, your story is only the plot or backdrop. It isn’t the most important part of what you write, just a tool to help your readers see and know what you meant. If you do this, then maybe you’ll have something. Then, I won’t need to come back to thump you for making a darn fool of yourself.” - Grandmother Helen (Cloddie) Kearney
Thistledown Rising (poem) Prologue
1. Come Home from Evening Pasture
2. To Hear Dad Tell It
3. A Fine Dawn to View
4. Day of the Coyote
5. Barnyard to Platter
6. Ripple a Riddle, Echo a Wish
7. Memorial Day in a Country Cemetery
8. Afternoon Pool, Evening Picnic
9. Flower Gardens, Allspice, and Rocket Ships
10. Train Ride West
11. West with the Night
12. Night Train to Los Angeles and to Points Beyond
13. Hound Ears and Dental Floss
14. Trouble Came Calling
15. Just Waiting for the Bombs to Fall
16. Dusty Tales
17. 4-H Run
18. Fresh Milk and Fodder
19. A Puff in Time Saves Nine
20. Heir of Mystery
21. Sticky on Top
22. Off it Must Come!
23. Too Sad to Build a Fire
24. Wintry Flight
25. To the Farm to Heal
26. Mourning Those Dry Bones
27. My, Could That Man Dance!
28. The Goats and I Helped!
29. Fly Away
30. New Neighbors
31. Artisan of Soils
32. Came Calling A Stranger?
33. Ripples of A Mysterious Universe
34. Seasons of Discovery: A Time to Remember
35. Mystery Sounding Inward, Echoing There
36. Starlight, Star Bright, the Color White
37. Back Against the Wall 38. A’hunting We Will Go 39. Dreaming of Red
40. A Summer Social Farewell
41. Dad’s 1960 Dodge
42. Our Personal Laboratory
43. Lo, A Twinkling Diamond’s Evening Glow
44. Let Us Dance!
45. Simplify
46. Stairs Came Crashing Down
47. Mr. Bentley and the Melon Snatchers
48. Jim’s Song
49. Spiders Spying Gunnysack Genius
50. Slop the Hogs, Momma!
51. The Deuce, If You Please
52. The Creek Draws Near at Twilight, The Draw Creaks Nigh at Dusk
Thistledown Dawning poem -- Our Story Has Just Commenced
This final piece lays the groundwork for many stories to come. I fancy believing this story is part of us all. Is it only just beginning? Well, if it is, I choose to end this episode of Thistledown Rising right here. That's fitting since I began this story at the close of another one. At any rate, this ending of Thistledown Rising is a fine place for its real commencement.
Rarely are tales richer in hope ever found than on windswept prairies: still dusted with down. -Sean Redmond
I’ve grown enchanted by restless thistles on windswept prairies, the Kansas of my youth.
- Sean Redmond
I should think there never was a finer word than this small one, this gigantic one called hope, on which all the rest depends. And hope is cultivated by imagination, sprouting in the loamy soil of ideas, tended with wonder: It grows in the fertile gardens of the human mind. -Sean Redmond
ISBN 0-9753194-9-3
$25 Order now
Sean Redmond
438 Pinewood Circle
Lafayette, Colorado 80026