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Happy Labor Day First name / Friend! This holiday pays tribute to the contributions and achievements of workers here in the US, with celebrations, picnics, bbqs, fireworks and gatherings happening from coast to coast. We hope you're taking some time to enjoy the day off!
 
For many, the first Monday in September also represents the end of summer and back-to-school season. A time of change and turning into a new chapter. 
 
We wanted to share a thought with you as you embark on your work this fall, whether it's starting a project, creating an ensemble, being in school, taking auditions or applying for jobs. It's taken from Anne Lamott's 2017 TED Talk, “12 Truths I Learned from Life and Writing” and this is Number 6:  
 
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                                                       Photo credit: Marla Aufmuth / TED
 
Every writer you know writes really terrible first drafts, but they keep their butt in the chair. That's the secret of life. That's probably the main difference between you and them. They just do it. They do it by prearrangement with themselves. They do it as a debt of honor. They tell stories that come through them one day at a time, little by little.
 
When my older brother was in fourth grade, he had a term paper on birds due the next day, and he hadn't started. So my dad sat down with him with an Audubon book, paper, pencils and brads -- for those of you who have gotten a little less young and remember brads -- and he said to my brother, "Just take it bird by bird, buddy. Just read about pelicans and then write about pelicans in your own voice. And then find out about chickadees, and tell us about them in your own voice. And then geese."
 
So the two most important things about writing are: bird by bird and really god-awful first drafts. If you don't know where to start, remember that every single thing that happened to you is yours, and you get to tell it. If people wanted you to write more warmly about them, they should've behaved better.
 
You're going to feel like hell if you wake up someday and you never wrote the stuff that is tugging on the sleeves of your heart: your stories, memories, visions and songs -- your truth, your version of things -- in your own voice. That's really all you have to offer us, and that's also why you were born.
 
Have 16 minutes? Watch the whole talk here! 
 
We wish you a fall season filled with presence, intention, and progress!  Here's to keeping your butt in the seat and knowing what you're capable of when you take it bird by bird. 
 
Love,
 
Ixi, Tiffany & Ted 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
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