You can tell if people are following Jesus, because they are fedding the poor, sharing their wealth, and trying to get everyone medical insurance.
Anne Lamott’s priest friend Tom, how to get through: “Left foot, right foot, left foot, breathe,” he said. “Right foot, left foot, right foot, breathe.” Salon April 25, 2003.
Peace is joy at rest. Joy is peace on its feet. quoting her pastor in Salon, April 25, 2003.
He got me a cup of tea with honey, toast with honey, yogurt with honey, like I was John the Baptist with the flu.
Most marriages are a mess, and the children get caught between two bitter, antagonistic parents. My parents stayed married for 27 unhappy years, till their kids were grown, and this was a catastrophe for us.
I never had a particularly strong craving to procreate, except for earlier fantasies of wanting to be Marmee in Little Women.
Presents can make up for some of the disappointments that life doles out, such as it makes almost no sense and is coming to an end more quickly than ever.
My mother’s eyes were large and brown, like my son’s, but unlike Sam’s, they were always frantic, like a hummingbird who can’t quite find the flower but keeps jabbing around.
When I was young, I used to be so jealous of other girls that it crippled me.
Jealousy has always been my cross, the weakness and woundedness in me that has most often caused me to feel ugly and unlovable, like the Bad Seed.
Mothering has been the richest experience of my life, but I am still opposed to Mother’s Day. It perpetuates the dangerous idea that all parents are somehow superior to non-parents.
I’d like to learn to meditate with more enthusiasm. I can sit down and get quiet for 20 minutes, but it just has not been a part of my Christianity at all.
Grace arrived, like the big, loopy stitches with which a grandmotherly stranger might baste your hem temporarily.
I was raised in a family where none of us ever raised a voice, so there was no room to express feelings of rage or even unabashed joy – a little bashed joy, here or there, or being mildly disgruntled.
Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.
Rituals are a good signal to your unconscious that it is time to kick in.
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.
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.
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.
So how on earth can I bring a child into the world, knowing that such sorrow lies ahead, that it is such a large part of what it means to be human? I’m not sure. That’s my answer: I’m not sure.