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Nobody likes to be told what to do.

Not even when it’s you telling yourself to do things you know you wanna do.

You may recall from last week, I was beginning the journey of putting first what I normally put last.

You might think that the doing of what you set out to do would make you happy.

But in fact this week, I encountered the unique trickery and psychological warfare one can only inflict on oneself.

Old habits die hard, they say.

That’s because to create new ones, you must permit the things that made you…

I tried something this week.

I tried to do first, what most often comes last in the grand to-do list of my life.  

What did I learn?

That the hardest part is starting.

The second hardest thing is stopping, once you have momentum.

The third hardest thing is realizing you have too many things on your to-do list and must kill some of your darlings.

And that’s as far as I got this week. Stay tuned for next week’s reflections on this creative life.
 

Me sharing my to-do list with a patient listener.

Speaking of…

Every Tuesday night, FitzGerald’s invites a handful of singer/songwriters to curate a round robin. Third Tuesdays, it’s my turn to host.

In addition to hosting, we Tuesday night hosts also invite the artists -book them - to play the shows.

Rather than "booker," I like the word they use for visual art, "curate."

Curator originates in Latin, "one who has care," and from curare, "to take care of, or heal." Those are closer to the actual job.

When you're putting a show together, you're taking care of how you want…

Wow. Just…wow. So incredibly grateful for the gift of music and friendship. ♥️

The first-ever Haiku Milieu in Door County was an absolute joy!

Thank you to Terry Lundahl, the Donald and Carol Kress Pavilion in Egg Harbor, Jeanne Kuhns, Jessica Holland, Sue Demel, Katie Dahl, Dorothy Scott, and the audience that filled the hall to capacity and overwhelmed us with their love and creativity. 

Each songwriter shared a beloved, well-worn song alongside of the new song they wrote, inspired by Haiku Milieu. The…

My friend Noah Plotkin asked me this question this week:
"Why do you write songs," he said.

And like all good questions, it was unassailable in its good intentions, deceptive in its simplicity, and ruthless in making me face myself.

"Why do I write songs?" I  thought through the whys so long ago, I can barely remember!

"Hmmm..." I thought. "I wonder what other people say about why they write songs." I turned to the internet, and looked up a few of my musical heroes.

What I found was, pretty much no one tells you…