The house is quiet.

The last of my cats crossed the Rainbow Bridge recently (or, as I put it more frequently, “gone off to college,” because they’re no longer around and they never call, they never write), and since that’s it for us — too many allergies involved, and we need to breathe again after twenty years — the house is quiet, and bit by bit, the things associated with them have gone away. The food and water bowls are put away, the litter box cleaned out and shoved into the corner, and the toys … well, the toys stay where they are. They’re not hurting anyone.

My office tended to have at least one cat curled up on top of piles and piles of paper. When they were feeling neglected, there would be two or three clustered together, and yes, the piles of paper sliding all over the place made it a roller-coaster for sleepy cats. They would try to climb onto my keyboard and then leap their way to their little beds after they made their point, that I should have been paying attention to them (at all times, of course).

Now, of course, the piles of paper stay in their place. My keyboard has no cat hair — how can it work without it?! And yet it does.

The house is quiet. It’s strange — after nineteen years, this is the first time this house has had no cats demanding attention — but the memories of how we spoiled them rotten remain.

Eilis Flynn

Everyone’s heard the bit about setting priorities. We should all do it, it’ll help us not get overwhelmed. Yes … but like getting organized, it’s easier said than done. Or like watching your weight. It’s something that you know you have within your power, but before you know it, it’s beyond your immediate grasp. And with great reluctance, you find yourself having to start all over, because if you don’t, you bitterly regret it.

But how do you do it? What’s the secret? Sadly, there isn’t one. The best you can do is make up a list of things to organize. And if you’re like me, you’re not a big fan of lists, but it helps you set up those pesky priorities. You strike off each item, one by one, until you’re back in control.

I speak from experience. It’s only March, but I’ve already got my list drawn up, ready for the items on it to be struck off. I figure if I start now, by the time I really get busy, I won’t feel as though I’m drowning.

That’s my secret to setting priorities. How do you do it?

Eilis Flynn
ECHOES OF PASSION, on sale now

Everyone thinks that they can multitask. Everytime you see someone on the phone as they drive, texting as they drive, texting as they cross the street (and sometimes blithely STOP in the middle of the street as they do so), work on the computer as they chat with someone either on the phone or over the cubicle wall or outside the office — anyway, you get my point. Multitasking is part of our lives.

But it’s not necessarily something we should be doing. Note the rising number of accidents because drivers are chatting or texting and not paying attention to the traffic. Or, in my case, trying to podcast as I’m trying to make dinner. This morning I have a lovely wound at the tip of my thumb because I was chopping carrots and managed to scrape off the epidermis into my curry mixture. To my credit, I didn’t scream; I did keep talking and wadded a paper towel onto my thumb, chatting away as I lost blood.

That’s not so bad, you think. It was fun times, I tell you. I sliced off a bit of my thumb, but then the coffee I was trying to make kept not getting made and I didn’t notice, only to discover that my cup had a hairline fracture, so the water went all over — and I kept pouring water in, not realizing I had already prepared it, only noticing after the podcast that water was everywhere. I just kept thinking I hadn’t done it because I was chatting and bleeding all over the place.

And there’s more: my cellphone battery kept beeping, telling me it was almost dead, so when it did die (during a Q&A), I had to grab another phone and log in again.

And that was all during one podcast. So multitasking is a lovely theory, but I’ve known for some time that it’s not for me, or at least not most of the time. Think about this the next time you think you can do more than one thing, or even two things, at a time. Maybe you can … and maybe you can’t.

Eilis Flynn
INTRODUCING SONIKA and ECHOES OF PASSION (both are available at CerridwenPress.com and on Kindle, incidentally)

Unlike the Midwest and East Coast, the Puget Sound, where I live, has had mild weather (and not even a whole lot of rain in recent weeks). The temps have been in the 50s, with sunshine coming through (and we’ve been very confused about it!). So yeah, it’s been in the mid-50s, the sun’s out … and what am I doing? I’ve been yearning for spring. Yes, I’m looking forward to mid-50s and … rain. That’s what spring is here in the Seattle area: pretty much what we’re having right now, plus rain.

Why is this? Why can’t I enjoy the weather we’re having NOW? Because it’s the wrong season! In February, we should be having chills and even icy rain! Seriously, when we have nice weather (dry, that is) around here during the winter, when we look at the surrounding mountains and we don’t see the peaks gleaming white, it’s bad news, because that could mean we’ll be facing a water shortage come summer.

So my desire to have spring come has a rational, logical basis. Or so I tell myself.

To tell you the truth, while a water shortage during the summer is something to worry about, I’m looking forward to spring because of a typically springy thing: flowers. I’m not a big garden person, mainly because I start sneezing, but I found myself looking forward to the golden profusion of daffodils that we get around here toward the end of March (but if the weather doesn’t cooperate, we may have it much earlier than that!).

So no matter how your weather’s been, whether the groundhog saw his shadow (I hear he did) In Pennsylvania, whether you had to slog through ice and snow and freezing temps, I think it’s unanimous: WE WANT SPRING!

Eilis Flynn
ECHOES OF PASSION on sale now!