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There are a couple of little embroideries that I made recently with the intention of stitching up rice bag/lavender sachets, but I am waiting to get some orris root (which is supposed to help the scent last longer) before I finish them.

This one is inspired by Annie Lamott’s wonderful book, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.  The title comes from a story she tells about her brother needing to write a report for school on all the birds of North America or some such thing.  He put it off and put it off, and then the night before it was due, sat at the kitchen table in a panic.  When he wondered aloud how he would ever get it done, his father told him, “Just take it bird by bird.”  The moral, of course, is that when you are feeling overwhelmed — in your writing, in your life — with the sheer volume of tasks or obligations that lie ahead, just focus on what comes next.  Just take things bird by bird.  I take a deep breath and say this too myself all the time.  It is a mantra that wards off insanity and paralysis.  Try it.

If you are not familiar with the work of Annie Lamott, you should be.  Read her book, Travelling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith, and I promise that your life will be 100% better than it was before.  (Yes, it’s about her faith in Jesus, but honestly, it’s about everything else under the sun as well.)  I have owned so many copies of this book I have lost count — I have to keep replacing it because I am always giving it away to someone.  You can get a taste of her work by reading some of her old columns over at Salon.

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