Bird by bird, brick by brick

One of my favorite books on writing is Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird. I always remember her title-worthy story whenever I feel overwhelmed in the creative process: when her younger brother was staying up all night to finish a report about birds he'd procrastinated on, her father encouraged him by saying, "Bird by bird, buddy." Yes, there may be a lot of birds that need to go into that report, and yes, some of the most glorious birds might be hardest to pin down (I'm thinking of you, peacock!), but one by one, they'll enter.

Right now, my birds are the jobs, homes and cars we're trying to pin down in our recent move to Seattle. Even with my ultra-organized spreadsheet (!), settling down and making this place our own threatens to overwhelm. But just focusing on one bird at a time helps me to maintain a very nice calm in the storm - bird by bird, brick by brick, we'll build our Seattleite life.

Anyway, I started looking for nice bird pictures for this post and found so many that I thought I'd present you a winged mini-gallery. I hope you enjoy them and they can help you to remember to pin down all your flapping birds one at a time this week too.

Also, just wanted to let you know about some of the posts I've got coming up. I've been thinking about my niche a lot lately and am going to come out with much clearer focus in the next few weeks. And with my 30th birthday a month away (exactly today!), I'm thinking about what I'd say in a letter to my 15-year-old self that I'll be sharing next week. So, lots coming up here.

What about you? What are the birds you're grabbing at this week, taming one by one?



{Photos from flickr by simply photo,  Bunny Cuddler, Katey Nicosia, Picnic by Ellie, & pompomrouge (prev. twolimeleaves)}