You don't always have to chop with the sword of truth. You can point with it too. Anne Lamott More Quotes by Anne Lamott More Quotes From Anne Lamott It's funny: I always imagined when I was a kid that adults had some kind of inner toolbox full of shiny tools: the saw of discernment, the hammer of wisdom, the sandpaper of patience. But then when I grew up I found that life handed you these rusty bent old tools - friendships, prayer, conscience, honesty - and said 'do the best you can with these, they will have to do'. And mostly, against all odds, they do. Anne Lamott honestyprayerkids But you can’t get to any of these truths by sitting in a field smiling beatifically, avoiding your anger and damage and grief. Your anger and damage and grief are the way to the truth. We don’t have much truth to express unless we have gone into those rooms and closets and woods and abysses that we were told not go in to. When we have gone in and looked around for a long while, just breathing and finally taking it in – then we will be able to speak in our own voice and to stay in the present moment. And that moment is home. Anne Lamott voicegriefhome Everything was coming together by coming apart . . . It is the most difficult Zen practice to leave people to their destiny, even though it's painful - just loving them, and breathing with them, and distracting them in a sweet way, and laughing with them . . . if something was not my problem, I probably did not have the solution. Anne Lamott destinypracticesweet Age has given me what I was looking for my entire life - it gave me me. It provided the time and experience and failures and triumphs and friends who helped me step into the shape that had been waiting for me all my life...I not only get along with me most of the time now, I am militantly and maternally on my own side. Anne Lamott triumphagewaiting I have a lot of faith. But I am also afraid a lot, and have no real certainty about anything. I remembered something Father Tom had told me--that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns. Anne Lamott lightrealfather A good marriage is where both people feel like they're getting the better end of the deal. Anne Lamott marriagelovepeople It turned out this man worked for the Dalai Lama. And she said gently-that they believe when a lot of things start going wrong all at once, it is to protect something big and lovely that is trying to get itself born-and that this something needs for you to be distracted so that it can be born as perfectly as possible. Anne Lamott buddhistmenbelieve You can either set brick as a laborer or as an artist. You can make the work a chore, or you can have a good time. You can do it the way you used to clear the dinner dishes when you were thirteen, or you can do it as a Japanese person would perform a tea ceremony, with a level of concentration and care in which you can lose yourself, and so in which you can find yourself. Anne Lamott finding-yourselfartisttea I think joy and sweetness and affection are a spiritual path. We're here to know God, to love and serve God, and to be blown away by the beauty and miracle of nature. You just have to get rid of so much baggage to be light enough to dance, to sing, to play. You don't have time to carry grudges; you don't have time to cling to the need to be right. Anne Lamott lightspiritualthinking Nothing heals us like letting people know our scariest parts: When people listen to you cry and lament, and look at you with love, it's like they are holding the baby of you. Anne Lamott babypeoplelooks People help you or you help them and when we offer or receive help, we take in each other. And then we are saved. Anne Lamott offershelpingpeople Laughter is carbonated holiness. Anne Lamott laughterhumorgrace Forgiveness is giving up all hope of having had a better past. Anne Lamott giving-uprelationshippast Human lives are hard, even those of health and privilege, and don't make much sense. This is the message of the Book of Job: Any snappy explanation of suffering you come up with will be horseshit. Anne Lamott sufferingjobsbook Churches are good for prayer, but so are garages and cars and mountains and showers and dance floors. Anne Lamott carchurchprayer Rule 1: When all else fails, follow instructions. And Rule 2: Don't be an asshole. Anne Lamott when-all-else-failsfailinginstruction But grace can be the experience of a second wind, when even though what you want is clarity and resolution, what you get is stamina and poignancy and the strength to hang on. Anne Lamott gracewantwind You can get the monkey off your back, but the circus never leaves town Anne Lamott circusmonkeysrecovery You get your intuition back when you make space for it, when you stop the chattering of the rational mind. The rational mind doesn't nourish you. You assume that it gives you the truth, because the rational mind is the golden calf that this culture worships, but this is not true. Rationality squeezes out much that is rich and juicy and fascinating. Anne Lamott intuitionspacegiving I didn't need to understand the hypostatic unity of the Trinity; I just needed to turn my life over to whoever came up with redwood trees. Anne Lamott unitytreeneeds
