I thought I had it all figured out. My Goodreads bookshelfs were about as done as the way I cook muffins so they don’t burn on the bottom – fifty degrees lower temperature and about half an hour longer than what’s called for. Perfect. Then the book bird by bird by Anne Lamott comes along and makes me think of a new one, forcing me to rethink my carefully laid-out homeostasis. I’ve called it the “buy this book” shelf. hehe

Over the years and through all of our moving, my bookshelf has dwindled to an almost scary capacity. Scary in that there isn’t much left. I seem to be able to let go of more and more. My reading habits have changed, turning me into a voracious library vampire, sucking all the nourishment I need out of dusty old pages and discarding them without guilt or conscience. It’s quite a deal: I grow, I feed, I’m free. Still there are a few favorites I hold dear and close, but my list of allies grows thin.

(Ok, ok… I’ll quit with the references.)

I gleamed so much goodness from Ms. Lamott. The subtitle “some instructions on writing and life” is perfect. I’m not much of a writer yet, but she called me. When she would describe all the writing mojo, I got it. And when she compared the mojo to life, I got it.

She gives extremely down to earth advice on letting go of perfectionism, “retail therapy” and being as compassionate with yourself and your writing as you would be with your best friend. I’m going to try her index cards idea. She says she carries them everywhere. To jot down the inspiration, character, thought, deep moment she doesn’t want to lose. For years I’ve been tri-folding up whatever 8 1/2″ by 11″ piece of paper that is nearby when I start reading a book and using it as a bookmark and to do the same as her index cards. Only big pieces of paper tend to lost or thrown and don’t have that fileable quality about them as index cards do. Well, except somehow, miraculously, I still have the folded up paper in my highschool copy of Little Women, each side dedicated to one sister and page numbers or snippets for character reference.

And Anne, if you are listening, this blog post is my shitty first draft. For days I’ve been wanting to write this little ditty and put it off due to lack of spark. But today I sat down and told myself that I would write. And I did.

Share this post!

You may also be interested in these posts:

1. The start of that list I belong to a super awesome collection of women. We...