I'm finding this journal incredibly helpful right now. Trying not to feel swamped by my ongoing project to dig out is an uphill battle, and this little book makes me feel so good! I love being able to see the progress of each piece getting done. A little map of intentions completed.
A book I read a while ago really put this all into words. It was a collection of Essays by Annie Lamott, "Bird by Bird". In it she describes being a kid working on a composition that she has left till the last night. Sitting in front of the list of eight birds that she needs to describe and detail, she's overwhelmed. Frozen, she asks her father, a writer, how she can get it all done. His answer, "bird by bird". Just one bird. Just one bird at a time. Like the old saying, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
I remind myself that I built this mass of projects one at a time (well, usually), and I can dig myself out, one project at a time. I am exercising my finishing muscle, which had atrophied. I am exorcising my completing demon. I am indulging in metaphors. Now I'm going to go stitch.