Bird By Bird

Last evening a friend and I were chatting on the phone a few minutes. It turns out a project she was facing was sending her 'over the edge' of feeling quite overwhelmed. Oh yes, I recognized that feeling, having experienced it numerous times over my lifetime.

But I was pleased when a little story I'd read a very long time ago from Anne Lamott's book, bird by bird, Some Instructions on Writing and Life, fluttered to the surface of my mind.  It seemed the perfect advice for the occasion.

In the event you are facing your own insurmountable mountain this week, here is the excerpt from the book.  Trust its sane truth turns the mountain into a molehill and beauty settles back in its place.

"Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write.  (It) was due the next day.  We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead.  Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy.  Just take it bird by bird.' "

Wishing you grace for the journey!

Brenda

Don't Leave Home Without A Book!

Source

"We raked books off the shelves by the dozens and hauled them along on picnics, to haylofts, up oak trees, to bath and to bed. The one terrifying possibility was of finding oneself without a book." ~ Kathleen Norris, 1941

To find oneself without a book ... oh my, that would be terrible. I recognize the feeling completely. The one time I decide not to pop a book into my bag 'because I won't need it on this outing' is often the very time I find myself stuck, stalled, or otherwise in a waiting mode for something else to happen.

Which is why I decided to take the old American Express motto to heart and make it a non-negotiable rule: No matter where I go or how short a trip I think it'll be: Don't leave home without it.


So, to keep life beautiful even in the waiting moments ... don't leave home without it!

Wishing you a great day,

Brenda

xox

Monet and Being Short-Sighted

Claude Monet --  Artist's Garden at Giverny, 1900

I never considered being short-sighted and having to wearing eyeglasses a positive thing, although I was grateful for my corrective lens. But when I came across a fellow named Daniel at Mr. London Street, I enjoyed and appreciated reading his own view on being near-sighted:

“It’s great being shortsighted. Because any time I like I can take my glasses off and the world looks just like an Impressionist painting.”

Now, that's a delightful way to look at it. Which reminds me of the fun I used to have as a girl at Christmas time, when I could take off my eyeglasses and watch the twinkly lights on our decorated evergreen tree turn into halo-circled fairy-tale sparkles. Loved it.

 

For those of us who wear glasses, maybe we should take them off more often and give ourselves a new perspective on what we're looking at around us. Just sayin' !

Happy Impressions,
Brenda
xox

Simple Pleasures Thursday

O U T S I D E    MY    W I N D O W

At first I was dismayed that I did not wake up to a morning

'embroidered with birdsong'.

I will admit it felt a little dismal to see our world covered

-- once again --

in swirls of snowy frosting.

BUT...

I was gratified to remember my grocery shopping was done yesterday,

so I don't have to go out into the windy day.

There is no real reason not to enjoy the beauty

-- if not exactly welcome --

of what this day has to offer.

BESIDES...

Spring came to my house yesterday,

when a dear friend brought me the

lovely bouquet of blossoms you see at the top.


Wishing you a pleasant day,
Brenda

Simple Pleasures Thursday

"It is the sweet, simple things of life

which are the real ones after all."

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

We're joining with Dayle at A Collection of This and That on her Simple Pleasures Thursday.  Dayle says she set this time up in her week to help her 'slow down and pay closer attention to the simple things in life.'  I like that!  It fits with what I've been longing to do in my own life.

To me there's nothing like the SIMPLE PLEASURE of eating hot buttered toast smothered in blackberry jam, and sipping a freshly brewed coffee with it.

Here's to enjoying your own simple pleasures this Thursday!

Brenda
xox