Spring is here. I have been waiting for Spring.  I have a long list of things I am looking forward to.

1. No more turtleneck sweaters, sweatshirts, and heavy winter coats because
2. Warmer temperatures, and
3. No more snow or shoveling snow, or slipping on ice, and
4. No more cabin fever. I am being optimistic, and assuming self-isolation will grant me a few hours in the
5. Sunlight
6. Cadbury Eggs, and
7. Girl Scout cookies (I have boxes safely hidden from prying eyes)
8. Saying Buh-bye to a New Year’s Resolutions because of #6 and #7
9. Bright colors
10. Flowers, songbirds, and my budding garden.

What Spring things are you looking forward to?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Spring is here, Spring is here, Spring is here. Can you tell how excited I am? Winter may try to remind us of his fury, but Mother Nature will ensure that he does no more damage than a tempest in a teapot. Already the first golden jewels have appeared. Capture those images quickly, for soon, they will deepen and transform into every shade of green. Sap runs in my Maple trees and colors the tips of their branches with a deep burgundy glow. The buds have softened in the sun’s warmth, and they stir, ready for a long uncurling stretch like a cat waking from her nap.

Green speckles erupt in my garden’s dirt. Crocus and tulips hear the call and push back the covers from their deep slumber. It is time to grow and bloom. I sense what was almost imperceptible a few days ago, and I cannot resist the quiet song. The slow, plodding drumbeat increases its tempo. The birds sing, and a robin adds his voice to the choir.

Mahler is right. When Spring arrives, we can breathe deeply again. Winter causes us to constrict, hunker down and conserve the little heat we have. The forecasters predict temperatures to soar to 60 degrees this weekend. It’s not shirt sleeves, shorts, and flip-flop weather, but working in the garden under a sunny sky, I expect to shed a layer or two, soak up some vitamin D, and remember how to breathe.

Have you been waiting for Spring?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

We ordered Chinese food this week. I’m a sucker for Moo Shoo Pork, Double Stir Fried String Beans, Salt and Pepper Smelt, Eight Treasure Tofu Pot, and well, I like everything on the menu. Oh, and egg rolls. Don’t forget the egg rolls. The entertainment portion of the evening is reading your Fortune Cookie. Mine made me cry because we all know the predictions in Fortune Cookies are always 100% accurate. It said, “You will start that thing you have been putting off.”

I have sound reasons for delaying this thing. First, I’ve had too many projects in various stages of completion. Each one vies for my attention and makes me juggle competing demands, worry over unnecessary delays, and run in continuous circles. I have used postponing the start of my pet project as a carrot. Once I have cleared the deck and finished these annoying, never-ending tasks, then I earn my reward.

The second reason I have banished my shiny new “thing” to wait in the wings is that it is a passion project. Once I begin, I know it will consume me. My muse will become my obsession. I won’t have time for anything else because I intend to devote every available moment to my project. Work-life balance won’t exist. My work and my life will intertwine, and there will be no conceivable way to distinguish between the two. I won’t want to separate them.

I will forget to eat, and I won’t notice when someone enters the room. I’ll lose track of time and become irritated when my body requires sleep. Some people deem this level of focus a sacrifice, but not me. There is nothing in the world I would rather be doing. Creating my work brings me happiness and inspires me to drive past reasonable limitations.

Galileo Galilei said, “Passion is the genesis of genius.” I can’t wait to pour gas on this glowing ember, start a blazing fire and let my passion run wild.

Do you have a “thing” you have been putting off?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

I have been thinking a lot about, well thinking. How do great minds think, and how do we learn to think? I don’t remember taking any class or instruction on how to master thoughts. Wanting to know more, I stumbled upon an essay by William Deresiewicz entitled Solitude and Leadership. In it, Deresiewicz states “Thinking means concentrating on one thing long enough to develop an idea about it.” It’s thought-provoking, and if you can ignore Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook for five to ten minutes, I recommend reading it. The concepts he discusses prompted me to explore how I process ideas, where I find my flash fiction and daily quotes topics, and how I arrive at my beliefs.

In school, I found silence was my refuge from the constant barrage the world inflicted. I consumed a steady diet of Herodotus Histories, Benjamin Franklin, Marcus Aurelius, Carl Sagan, and Steven Hawking. The Classics, including Heart of Darkness, were required, and welcome reading. I gravitate to intellectual debate, listening to other’s opinions, researching facts, and testing the validity of those reported data. I read articles that align with my convictions and those diametrically opposed to what I think I believe. I pull arguments part, examine logic, and expose them to the bright light of a healthy dose of skepticism.

I still allow myself the space to consider I am incorrect in my assumptions. And in pursuing discovery, I have endured ridicule because I hadn’t watched the latest episode of the newest mind-numbing series. Like Audrey, I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong.

What do you believe in?
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Keep on writing.
Jo Hawk The Writer

I love St. Patrick’s Day, and I really missed the celebrations last year, and sadly I must miss them again this season. The long-standing Chicago tradition of dying the river green was a no-go in 2020, and a late “Oh, ok, do it then” from the Mayor was disappointing. Still, they killed the parades, nixed gathering, stopped pub crawls, and canceled fun. The cancelation of the annual events, my harbinger of Spring, has left me searching for signs of Blarney Green.

That was what attracted me to today’s quote. I could become a magical leprechaun. Pots of gold exist, and granting other people’s wishes is easier than you could imagine. A kind word can often change the trajectory of someone’s day. A simple act of kindness can have an enormous impact. Holding a door open for a frazzled mother or an older person might be the best human interaction they have all week.

My grocery store has a raffle where they hand out game pieces for prizes. They base the number of cards you receive on the amount of your purchase. This week I gave all of my cards to a woman in another line. She had been arguing with the cashier about how many she should receive. Her expression was priceless. But hands-down, the best payoff was the look on the cashier’s face.

On St. Patrick’s Day, I am cooking a massive corned beef brisket with cabbage, potatoes, a loaf of Irish Soda Bread, along with my new favorite dish Colcannon. If you like cabbage and potatoes and a bit of yummy bacon added as an extra treat, more is never a problem. This newly minted magical leprechaun would be remiss if we overlooked a dram or two of good Irish whiskey. Then I plan to search for more wishes needing to be granted.

Whose wish will you grant today?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

The exercise of writing every day teaches us many lessons. There are glorious periods of sunshine when the muse whispers in your ear and fills your working session with wonder. You look forward to sitting at your desk, and by some magical method, words, sentences, and paragraphs become completed pages. The process is effortless. Other days you drag yourself to the keyboard. You seem uninspired, but you sit, force yourself to type, and you connect to the magic, the obstacles disappear, and you finish with more than you could have imagined. You feel as if you could write forever. These are the days I forget to eat, and hours and minutes pass in unique ways, expanding and contracting as if I were aboard some strange time machine.

Then there are days when, despite your best efforts, the words are crap. You forget how to spell simple words, turning a phrase turns into compost bin scraps, and the delete key sees more use than any other under your inept fingers. How easy it would be to give up, vow to double down on your day job, and kiss your dreams goodbye.

Discipline makes you strong, and you battle through, working, and writing until you reach your daily goal. The chances are, when you edit those hard-won words, you find gems you didn’t recognize when you wrote them. Even words written on a good day could be crap. Regardless, they exist on the page. They are words you can edit. Words you can spit-polish and shine to tell your best story.

How is your writing discipline developing?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Daylight Savings Time should be packaged with a Freebie Monday. I’m not a morning person, and even on an ordinary day, hauling my still sleeping body from my comfy warm bed is a Herculean task. Asking me to move an hour earlier, and trying to mislead me by stating the clock reads the same time, is just cruel. It turns out it may be bad for our health and our brains.

A recent article from UT Southwestern Medical Center states, “desynchronization of our body clocks has been linked to increased health risks such as depression, obesity, heart attack, cancer, and even car accidents. Changes in daily patterns can trigger stress in our brains and cause sleep deprivation, disorientation, and memory loss. It can also lead to difficulties with learning, social interactions, and overall cognitive function.”

I raise my hand and attest to feeling sleep-deprived and disoriented. I am laying my current difficulties in concentrating on my writing squarely on this silly and unnecessary mandate of changing the clocks. If they must subject us to the lunacy, I feel entitled to a Freebie Day off to ease my transition into the new schedule. Mother Nature is much kinder to humans, and she only adjusts daylight hours by a few minutes every day. She at least doesn’t want to shock our systems without a good cause. I think I need a nap.

How is your Monday?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

The change to Daylight Savings Time always messes with my internal clock. It takes a week or more to acclimate, reset, and alter my perception of time. Everyone says I need to relax and take it easy. Yeah, right? It should be as simple as taking a deep breath and saying, “ok, I’m relaxed now.” It doesn’t work that way. Have you ever noticed when you finally schedule a vacation, a full seven days away from your everyday routine, that you don’t feel any different until day three?

We bombard our bodies with daily doses of stress hormones. They make our hearts race, our stomach churn, we breathe faster, and our muscles tense as we decide whether to fight the stampeding herd of wooly mastodon or run. Normally, I choose to engage the beast. You never know when you might get your next opportunity to throw a grass-fed mastodon burger on the grill.

After a busy week of bringing home the bacon and creating tasty meals, I reserve Sunday for R&R. I turn off the alarm, indulge in an extra cup of coffee, and allow myself to lounge around in yoga pants all day while sipping a glass of wine. The yoga pants are the key to the entire weekend. How else do you think I’m going to overindulge on those scrumptious burgers?

How do you spend your Sundays?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

I don’t remember when I last booked a hotel suite, checked in, and focused on my work for an entire weekend. Working in a fantastic location with a commanding view, 24-hour room service, and inspiration galore for a full seven days has never happened. Boy, if I felt self-indulgent, I could entertain my fantasy of directing all my focus, energy, and dedication to a project that was only important to me. Imagine the word count I could accumulate.

It is a dream of many of us artistic types. What masterpieces would we create with a week free from life’s demands, a dedicated space, and zero interruptions? We require a magnificent venue, inspiring music, our favorite pen, a lucky vision board, and a host of other talismans to set the stage. Perhaps if the planets assumed a favorable alignment well, I would exhaust my list of excuses of why I’m not writing. Life is messy. Challenges multiply whenever you decide to attempt something novel, and waiting for perfection before we take action, is a delay tactic.

There is nothing wrong with where you are today, doing what you can to accomplish one small step forward amid your daily pressures. I created my Do Not Disturb sign and hung it for all to see. I have no illusions I will experience countless hours of solitude or needle-moving progress. But with a bit of luck and solid determination, I plan on accomplishing big things. Who knows, I might even write a book.

What are you doing today to move the needle?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Nothing goes better with Friday than pizza. Friday night pizza is a tradition that goes back longer than I can remember. Everyone has their favorite toppings, crust thicknesses, preferred sauce, and opinions on the best pizza joint in the country. Some concoctions range from bizarre to interesting, while others tip the scale at horrifyingly disgusting. I love watching people dig in and seeing the expressions their first bite of bliss evokes. It always makes me smile.

My tastes run towards the from-scratch, homemade and simple. Forget the bells and whistles, exotic ingredients, and anything other than a fresh tomato sauce. My dough is AP flour, a little yeast, a touch of sugar, a pinch of salt, a drizzle of EVOO, and water. The dough is mixed and pressed into a thin layer. The sauce of tomatoes, seasonings, and a gurgle of more olive oil, I puree in the blender and apply it judiciously to the crust. The next layer is fresh buffalo mozzarella. I add a generous handful of basil and pop it into a hot oven for a few blistering moments.

The house smells amazing, my stomach growls in anticipation, and I can’t wait for it to cool. I can’t see my expression when I can finally get a piece stuffed into my mouth, but I know I look ridiculous.

What are your favorite pizza toppings?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer