Today remember the importance of being messy!!! X

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“Clutter and mess show us that life is being lived...Tidiness makes me think of held breath, of suspended animation... Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist's true friend. What people somehow forgot to mention when we were children was that we need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here.” 

― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

This morning as I was pondering what to post for today's inspiration and I thought of Anne Lamott's father's wonderful advice to his son who was freaking out at the kitchen table.  She tells the story of her father's reminder to approach all things, especially overwhelming things, with a 'one thing at a time' approach; bird by bird. Needless to say, I am facing overwhelming to-do lists that have me quaking in the corners of my apartment :)

But as happens many times with my dailydress inspiration postings, as I was searching for the 'bird by bird' reference, I found this other quote by Anne Lamott and it was the quote I REALLY needed to hear today.  The idea that life is messy and messiness is a part of living (you see I am messy, but I get a lot of heat for my messes) 

So today let's celebrate our messes as they help us to discover the who and why of us!!! 

And for good measure, here is the reference to the 'bird by bird' method ...

"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.'"

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