I worry that Jesus drinks himself to sleep when he hears me talk like this. Anne Lamott More Quotes by Anne Lamott More Quotes From Anne Lamott And you try to quiet your mind so you can hear. Anne Lamott mind trying quiet There are a lot of us, some published, some not, who think the literary life is the loveliest one possible, this life of reading and writing and corresponding. We think this life is nearly ideal. Anne Lamott reading writing thinking Some people may have thought that this book was too personal, too confessional. But what these people think about me is none of my business. Anne Lamott book people thinking It's better to be kind than to be right. Anne Lamott be-kind kind There is something so tender about this to me, about being willing to have your makeup wash off, your eyes tear up, your nose start to run. Its tender partly because it harkens back to infancy, to your mother washing your face with love and lots or water, tending to you, making you clean all over again. Anne Lamott eye mother running Now, if you ask me, what’s going on is that we’re all up to here in it, and probably the most important thing is that we not yell at one another. Anne Lamott ask-me asks important Remember that you own what happened to you. If your childhood was less than ideal, you may have been raised thinking that if you told the truth about what really went on in your family, a long bony white finger would emerge from a cloud and point to you, while a chilling voice thundered, "We *told* you not to tell." But that was then. Just put down on paper everything you can remember now about your parents and siblings and relatives and neighbors, and we will deal with libel later on. Anne Lamott sibling clouds thinking Toni Morrison said, "The function of freedom is to free someone else," and if you are no longer wracked or in bondage to a person or a way of life, tell your story. Risk freeing someone else. Not everyone will be glad that you did. Members of your family and other critics may wish you had kept your secrets. Oh, well, what are you going to do? Anne Lamott risk secret wish My friend Terry says that when you need to make a decision, in your work or otherwise, and you don’t know what to do, just do one thing or the other, because the worst that can happen is that you will have made a terrible mistake. Anne Lamott decision mistake needs Can you imagine the hopelessness of trying to live a spiritual life when you’re secretly looking up at the skies not for illumination or direction, but to gauge, miserably, the odds of rain? Anne Lamott odds spiritual rain Life with most teenagers was like having a low-grade bladder infection. It hurts, but you had to tough it out. Anne Lamott teenager tough hurt When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. Anne Lamott absurdity-of-life dancing laughing Sam said to me the other day, "I love you like 20 tyrannosauruses on 20 mountaintops," and this is the exact same way in which I love him. Anne Lamott i-love-him love-you way by then I'd figured out the gift of failure, which is that it breaks through all that held breath and isometric tension about needing to look good: it's the gift of feeling floppier. Anne Lamott break-through feelings looks I've given guys blow jobs just because I've run out of things to talk about.' Oh, Rae. Who hasn't Anne Lamott running jobs sex Rituals are a good signal to your unconscious that it is time to kick in. Anne Lamott signals writing inspirational They always threw their arms around and hugged me while crying our Yiddish endearments. Yet none of them believed in God. They believed in social justice, good works, Israel, and Bette Midler. I was nearly thirty before I met a religious Jew. Anne Lamott israel religious justice I kept asking God for help, and after a while I realized something -- that Josh was not enjoying this either. He was just trying to take care of himself, and I made the radical decision to let him off the hook. Anne Lamott hook decision trying [Her] work taught me that you could be all the traditional feminine things -- a mother, a lover, a listener, a nurturer -- and you could also be critically astute and radical and have a minority opinion that was profoundly moral. Anne Lamott taught minorities mother Mine was a patchwork God, sewn together from bits of rag and ribbon, Eastern and Western, pagan and Hebrew, everything but the kitchen sink and Jesus. Anne Lamott kitchen together jesus
