Day 2 - Anne Lamott’s Short Assignment
CeCe’s Musings: Bird by Bird
Day 2
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
Anchor Press, 1994
Short Assignments:
“It reminds me that all I have to do is to write down as much as I can see through a one-inch picture frame. This is all I have to bite off for the time being…That is all we are going to do for now. We are just going to take this bird by bird. But we are going to finish this one short assignment.”
When my sister and I cleaned out my mom’s house before she went into assisted living, I inherited three bins of old photos and albums. For two months now they have been sitting in our basement in the back corner wedged between Christmas decorations and the kitty litter. Occasionally I will glance over at these plastic containers as I pour food in the cat’s dish and think, “You know, I should go through those, maybe organize the pictures in piles for my boys and the nieces and nephews. Eventually send each one their own folder of photos, or should I scan them to the cloud?” but I’ve never gotten farther than ruffling through a few pictures, sighing, and then closing the lids.
These bins mock me like loaded time bombs, lying in wait to explode my heart with old memories. I’m not sure if I am ready to be transported back in time to when the kids were little or our parents were young or I was just an innocent teen. I have pulled a few old photos. My Nana’s formal engagement photo hangs on the wall of my office. I framed a sepia shot of Dad and his mothers and sisters, and a black and white of Mom’s family when she was a little girl. They all in our home, reminding me of the family that is gone and the stories left untold.
I will leave the rest for another time, a day when I summon the courage to time travel, willing to fling myself through decades of questionable fashion choices and stiff Aqua net inspired hairstyles. Soon, I say to myself. Soon.
Bird by bird.