“Action is the antidote to despair.”
- Joan Baez
In Bird by Bird, writer Ann Lamott recounts a story of how, decades ago, her 10-year-old brother once felt overwhelmed by a school assignment about birds that was due the next day. He’d had three months to write it but hadn’t started. He was “at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the task ahead.” Their father put his arm around the child and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.” To help her from feeling overwhelmed, Ann keeps a small frame on her writing desk to remind herself that all she has to do is write what she can see through that one-inch picture frame—not the whole book at once.
What can seem overwhelming at first? How can you separate the whole into smaller parts to make it more manageable—and enjoyable?
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