tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66102002024-03-07T13:16:58.676-05:00Creative Ink<b>Welcome to my writing laboratory. </b>
<i>"Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little."</i>—Tom Stoppard, playwright<p>
</p>Wendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.comBlogger1004125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-44463257687126639562017-04-30T13:14:00.001-04:002017-04-30T13:16:57.483-04:00St. John's Bible continues to illuminate
Years ago, I had the chance to write about the St. John's Bible when it spent some time at John Carroll University. It is so distinct and unique that I recognized the art immediately when I received a copy of Health Progress, the quarterly journal of the Catholic Health Association. Throughout it's latest issue, there are pages from the St. John's Bible used as illustrations. It's Wendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-47482892016547338412016-10-10T21:11:00.000-04:002016-10-10T21:11:00.736-04:00From patient to survivor
Survivor (noun): One who continues to live after illness, accident or war.
"So when do I go from patient to survivor," I asked my oncologist earlier this month. It's a question that has consumed me since surgery in July.
Clockwise from top left: Flowers sent to my work from my hubby and boys; certificate of completion from radiation; bathroom is full of creams and gels;Wendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-23122377667086470342016-09-13T21:20:00.001-04:002016-09-13T21:20:03.659-04:00You are where you need to be ... just breatheRadiation treatment has begun and it's the final stage of my cancer treatment. I'm in week two of a six-week course of treatments that last all of five to eight minutes. By October 10th, I'll be done. The countdown to completion is on.
Unlike chemotherapy or surgery, radiation cannot be seen or felt. It's a big ole mystery to me. So I ask questions. Its effects are cumulative, I'm told. Wendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-72225895043067411532016-09-08T20:58:00.001-04:002016-09-08T21:18:38.540-04:00If You Were Born Today, September 8:
If You Were Born Today, September 8:
You are not only creative, you are able to channel your vision into practical avenues of expression. You are not well-suited to routine work. Your mind is always busy, and if you’re not using it productively, you are given to worrying and overanalyzing. Some worrying is good–you are strong at organizing. Too much, and you fret over the small stuff. Overall, Wendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-53875820246250694192016-09-05T12:12:00.000-04:002016-09-05T12:12:59.775-04:00A year of living with cancerMy husband tried to get me to open up. We had a long weekend ahead of us to wait to learn the "official" results of my biopsy. It seemed I was doomed to have all diagnostics on Fridays when the delay in getting results would be excruciating.
I kept telling myself, "You can deal with anything once you know what it is."
But over the Labor Day Weekend in 2015, no amount of self-talk was working onWendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-53789923032037007072016-09-01T13:55:00.000-04:002016-09-01T13:56:00.115-04:00Why Lin-Manuel Miranda is my latest crushThe Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony Award-winning Lin-Manuel Miranda makes me smile whenever I see anything he says or Tweets. That he is wicked talented goes without saying. What I absolutely adore in him is his epic joie de vivre and love for all of humanity. If you doubt what I'm saying, check out the wedding surprise he concocted for his wife. It's apparent that his talent for performance wasWendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-84817876969827173542016-08-31T14:50:00.002-04:002016-08-31T15:03:12.801-04:00Inspiration from poet Mark Nepo
Breaking Surface
Let no one keep you from your journey,
no rabbi or priest, no mother
who wants you to dig for treasures
she misplaced, no father
who won't let one life be enough,
no lover who measures their worth
by what you might give up,
no voice that tells you in the night
it can't be done.
Let nothing dissuade you
from seeing what you see
or feeling the winds that make you
want to dance Wendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-43963085240551334022016-08-24T14:54:00.000-04:002016-09-01T14:01:03.226-04:00Time is a precious gift, no matter how you get it
The idea of a sabbatical has always been appealing to me--a paid leave to rest, travel, research, study. Education and religious orders understand the value, but the rest of our society is not so enlightened. Now in week 5 of my medical leave, I am grateful for the mental and technological break from a job that can easily consume.
In the weeks leading up to my leave, which granted is a result Wendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-34602175416501943012016-07-04T14:58:00.000-04:002016-08-31T15:06:41.304-04:00Cancer, a Moonshot and Vice President Joe BidenHappy Fourth of July, everyone! Catching my breath after a crazy week
and busy weekend. I had the opportunity to participate in the Cleveland
Cancer Moonshot Summit on Wednesday. Here's a link to the discussion. http://www.ideastream.org/cancermoonshot
As a follow-up to the Summit, Vice President Biden
came to Cleveland on Thursday to offer his support for our efforts and
to learn more about Wendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-55903617424666349062016-06-02T15:07:00.000-04:002016-08-31T15:08:52.535-04:00The stranger in the mirrorI can't speak for the male cancer experience, but as a woman, when your
hair begins to fall out in clumps due to chemo, there's nothing anyone
can say that makes that OK. It's traumatic and you look in the mirror
wondering who the sickly stranger is reflected back.
Like so many things
with cancer treatment (for example, bone pain), it is something to be
endured. So be gentle to those who Wendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-6314063637222472082016-05-31T15:18:00.000-04:002016-08-31T15:18:51.423-04:00Book Review: The Nightingale
From time to time, I'll post mini book reviews. As a warning, I'm rarely reading the latest thing.
However, I recently finished Kristin Hannah's 'The Nightingale."
The story of sisters Isabelle and Vianne and their harrowing survival during
World War II occupied France hooked me from the beginning. Their stories
move through the war in parallel and sometimes intersecting ways. The
war and Wendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-16897252359596375672014-11-07T07:40:00.000-05:002017-04-30T12:38:46.655-04:00A trip into the writing archives
During a meeting yesterday, a project designer we're working with mentioned the St. John's Bible as inspiration for a project we're working on. I remembered writing about in 2008 and he asked to see it. Searching through my writing archives was a lot of fun, so I'm sharing some works from that time. First up? The St. John's Bible story.
St. John's Bible illuminates the word of God for our Wendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-57479861914012845952010-09-08T07:08:00.002-04:002010-09-08T07:12:50.084-04:00If your birthday is today...This year, you open up to new possibilities; you can manifest much of what you desire. Creativity marks your days, actions and words. Others simply enjoy working with you. Those in your personal life enjoy you more than ever. If you are attached, defer to your sweetie and remain sensitive to him or her. You could become quite me-oriented. A fellow Virgo can be like you used to be--nit-picky and Wendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-42691514108214944492010-09-06T21:26:00.003-04:002010-09-06T21:37:03.817-04:00Seeing things differentlyReading "The Artist's Way Every Day: A Year of Creative Living," by Julia Cameron and found resonance in a portion of the entry for August 28th. Been meaning to share because I think it so aptly applies to writing."The creative journey is characterized not by a muzzy and hazy retreat from reality but by the continual sorting and reordering and structuring of reality into new forms and new Wendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-28185054854978859182010-06-04T11:44:00.006-04:002010-06-04T12:22:27.438-04:00Life–at warp speedIt's the last day of school, a cause for celebration of the impending freedom that comes with summer. Yet I'm feeling the pull of life zipping me along at lightning speed. Isn't there any way to slow down this ship?As of today, I am officially the mom of a senior in high school. What an exciting time for him! And yet he's also adjusting to the new world order. Last weekend he began work at his Wendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-82005408146756806262010-06-02T09:11:00.002-04:002010-06-02T09:12:46.906-04:00My new mantra"We cannot do great things on this earth. We can only do small things with great love." -- Mother TheresaWendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-70480164626535483722010-05-16T14:00:00.001-04:002010-05-16T14:02:18.254-04:00Wise words from a Roman poet"Take rest; a field that has rested gives a beautiful crop." -- OvidWendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-44430139035903228072010-05-15T11:52:00.003-04:002010-05-15T12:19:42.635-04:00Delicious distractionsWhat a gorgeous day! I have so many chores to accomplish that I'm afraid it's pleasures are going to slip by. While my hubby tackles the yard, cleans the deck and gets the patio furniture out, I'm working on the inside of the house. Sometimes you find pleasures in the mundane tasks of a Saturday.Several months after I starting working outside of the house, my middle son convinced me to give up Wendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-52270514688115113582010-05-12T20:13:00.006-04:002010-05-12T20:59:48.785-04:00Writing that makes a differenceMy first exposure to William Zinsser was in 1990 when I picked up "On Writing Well" in an effort to improve my journalism. What I discovered was a lifelong mentor to accompany me on my writing journey.Fourteen years later in 2004, I had the great pleasure of meeting him in person and introducing him to an audience of journalists gathered at a conference in New York City. (Pictured above) I've hadWendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-87782865790326871072010-05-08T09:17:00.003-04:002010-05-08T09:52:04.716-04:00Playing with poetryPoetry has always terrified me: Not the reading of, but the writing of poetry. It is writing stripped bear of anything except the most essential. The austerity of it intimidates a writer of prose such as myself.And yet I am drawn to its simplicity, to its power and to its raw emotion. Maybe my capacity to be pithy, to get to the essence of an idea, is increasing as I age. I think more and speak Wendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-14375530748874925332010-05-07T17:16:00.002-04:002010-05-07T17:18:58.463-04:00Merton on the truth about suffering"The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of beinghurt." -- Thomas MertonWendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-44395518276029589662010-05-06T22:27:00.002-04:002010-05-06T22:30:39.253-04:00Sleep and writing"My trouble is insomnia. If I had always slept properly, I'd never have written a line." -- Louis-Ferdinand CelineWendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-62905684883238677802010-04-25T21:43:00.003-04:002010-04-25T22:41:39.265-04:00Live the questions now"I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which would not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions nowWendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-6629009329391367142010-04-20T06:57:00.004-04:002010-04-20T07:15:21.979-04:00My beach readsOne of my favorite things about beach vacations (aside from the beach) is the reading time it affords. On my latest vacation to Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, I had books loaned to me from two of my friends. One was “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert. I know, I know, EVERYONE has read that book. But I’m never one to read books when they are all the Oprah-induced rage.But as I perused the stack Wendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610200.post-19237789645422101822010-04-19T08:39:00.002-04:002010-04-19T08:44:51.984-04:00April is..."April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain." -- T.S. EliotWendy A. Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03039022203181979743noreply@blogger.com0