Hello! I just spent this week building a website for you. I told you all about Heartstrings, and my classes, and my qualifications, and how to contact me... and yet, we've hardly scratched the surface.
5 things that have (pretty much) nothing to do with my job(s) 1. I pretty much always have some song stuck in my head I've been a musician for as long as I can remember--singing harmony in church with my mom, plunking pianos, learning a craft on violin, performing as a vocalist. I am never without music...even when sometimes I wish I could be! Hamilton is the musical du jour in our house, and it is stupendously catchy, so though we are starting to wonder if the 18-month-old will be learning the curse words, we frequently break out into song. However, this beats the Leapfrog toy songs that are even catchier (make a note, Lin Manuel!). P.S. The title is a lyric from "Getting to Know You" from The King and I. P.P.S. I love love love love Julie Andrews. 2. I love living in the Midwest again As a military spouse, I have moved to 5 different areas in the 6 years of my marriage. I grew up in northern Illinois, though, and moving to southern Wisconsin in many ways feels like coming home. The rain smells right, the sunsets look right; the weather is predictably unpredictable, the traffic (and construction) is predictably predictable. Also, it is amazing to be living such a short drive away from my grandma, aunts and uncles, and nuclear family, not to mention many friends. 3. I didn't know how to cook anything except breakfast until I met my husband My husband and I met in my tender learning-to-be-an-adult years, when I had been out of college for such a short time I was always concerned that the money was going to run out, even if it was unwarranted. I had learned to cook a mean breakfast long ago--my grandpa's awesome cheesey eggs, french toast, good maple breakfast sausage. I loved breakfast. I was confident at breakfast. But even chicken breasts seemed like far too expensive a thing to try to cook and screw up. And I had no idea what I was doing. Luckily, hubby (boyfriend) was almost profligate in his use of spices, his willingness to try new recipes with his roommate, and his inclination to use me as his taste tester. Watching him and learning a few things (like chicken thighs are way harder to screw up and taste good in the oven with almost anything/nothing in terms of seasoning) slowly changed my mind about food prep. I started small, only tried things I really thought I'd like, and over time I have become a confident cook! 4. I do not know what I want to be when I grow up There are some people that have a lightning bolt when they are relatively young, a "compass" moment that can guide them. Others grow into a deep love or passion for a certain craft, be it business or boating. Some don't have the kind of privilege and choice that I have had--they do the thing that is available, or the thing they're pretty good at, and that's that. I've been a lawn mower, a telephone interviewer, a data enterer, a small office jack-of-all-trades, the office manager at college admissions, a tutor, a retreat leader, a music minister, a substitute teacher, a choir director, a private voice/piano/Suzuki violin teacher, a PreK-8th grade general music teacher, a "baby" music teacher, and a childbirth educator. I've never gotten my lighting bolt, or my creeping passion, or my rut. 5. I love to dance Zumba, contra dancing, country-western lines, musical theatre workshops, choreography of my own design when no one else is home--you name it, I love it. While I am trying to bloom as a non-perfectionist, there are a lot of things that if I can't win, I don't wanna play. But give me movement, be it yoga class or "Sweatin' to the Oldies" or bouncing my baby around the living room to "Get Lucky" by Daft Punk, I'm there. The feeling of being in my body that fully, putting my attention on the present so completely, is not to be missed. Come dance with me.
1 Comment
|
AuthorMary Hawkins is many things, including a writer and a mommy. ArchivesCategories |
|