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fd98f95
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I liked those ladies! They were helpers, and they danced.' These are the words I want on my gravestone: that I was a helper, and that I danced.
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Anne Lamott |
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b87d542
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most of the time, all you have is the moment, and the imperfect love of the people around you.
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love
inspirational
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Anne Lamott |
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2c96a78
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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.
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Anne Lamott |
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e879799
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My gratitude for good writing is unbounded; I'm grateful for it the way I'm grateful for the ocean.
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Anne Lamott |
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5b806bb
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the three things I cannot change are the past, the truth, and you.
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prayer
past
truth
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Anne Lamott |
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e45234c
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Sometimes grace works like water wings when you feel you are sinking.
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Anne Lamott |
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bd0fbdc
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This is one thing they forget to mention in most child-rearing books, that at times you will just lose your mind. Period.
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Anne Lamott |
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c570286
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Certainty is missing the point entirely.
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Anne Lamott |
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f529fab
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music is about as physical as it gets: your essential rhythm is your heartbeat; your essential sound, the breath. We're walking temples of noise, and when you add tender hearts to this mix, it somehow lets us meet in places we couldn't get to any other way.
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Anne Lamott |
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af5cced
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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.
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nature
christianity
god
trinity
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Anne Lamott |
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f17a79e
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S]he believed that the Buddhists were right-that if you want, you will suffer; if you love, you will grieve. (68)
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want
grief
suffering
love
buddhism
desire
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Anne Lamott |
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6df2225
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I'm all over the place, up and down, scattered, withdrawing, trying to find some elusive sense of serenity." The world can't give that serenity. The world can't give us peace. We can only find it in our hearts."
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Anne Lamott |
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6b122ed
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I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much. We do not think that she has a rich inner life or that God likes her or can even stand her. (Although when I mentioned this to my priest friend T..
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Anne Lamott |
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c480ebd
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I don't think you have time to waste not writing because you are afraid you won't be good at it.
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Anne Lamott |
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e1a2667
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Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.
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writing
inspirational
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Anne Lamott |
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d216474
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The society to which we belong seems to be dying or is already dead. I don't mean to sound dramatic, but clearly the dark side is rising. Things could not have been more odd and frightening in the Middle Ages. But the tradition of artists will continue no matter what form the society takes. And this is another reason to write: people need us, to mirror for them and for each other without distortion-not to look around and say, 'Look at yours..
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writing
writers
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Anne Lamott |
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f4b87fc
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If you are a writer, or want to be a writer, this is how you spend your days--listening, observing, storing things away, making your isolation pay off. You take home all you've taken in, all that you've overheard, and you turn it into gold. (Or at least you try.)
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Anne Lamott |
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9107c8c
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The thing about light is that it really isn't yours; it's what you gather and shine back. And it gets more power from reflectiveness; if you sit still and take it in, it fills your cup, and then you can give it off yourself.
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Anne Lamott |
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ab63313
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If we stay where we are, where we're stuck, where we're comfortable and safe, we die there. We become like mushrooms, living in the dark, with poop up to our chins. If you want to know only what you already know, you're dying. You're saying: Leave me alone; I don't mind this little rathole. It's warm and dry. Really, it's fine. When nothing new can get in, that's death. When oxygen can't find a way in, you die. But new is scary, and new can..
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life
stuck
safe
new
scary
dying
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Anne Lamott |
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22d3ac5
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You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should've behaved better.
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truth-telling
kindness
self-awareness
honesty
genuineness
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Anne Lamott |
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21659c3
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I wish grace and healing were more abracadabra kind of things. Also, that delicate silver bells would ring to announce grace's arrival. But no, it's clog and slog and scootch, on the floor, in the silence, in the dark.
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Anne Lamott |
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24a1693
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I was reminded of the Four Immutable Laws of the Spirit: Whoever is present are the right people. Whenever it begins is the right time. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened. And when it's over, it's over.
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Anne Lamott |
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05726b1
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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.
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Anne Lamott |
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35c789c
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I don't know where to start," one [writing student] will wail. Start with your childhood, I tell them. Plug your nose and jump in, and write down all your memories as truthfully as you can. Flannery O' Connor said that anyone who has survived childhood has enough material to write for the rest of his or her life. Maybe your childhood was grim and horrible, but grim and horrible is Okay if it is well done. Don't worry about doing it well ye..
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memories
writing
encouragement
child
young
memoir
childhood
writers
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Anne Lamott |
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a095299
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I'm here to be me, which is taking a great deal longer than I had hoped.
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Anne Lamott |
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ca802d4
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My belief is that when you're telling the truth, you're close to God. If you say to God, "I am exhausted and depressed beyond words, and I don't like You at all right now, and I recoil from most people who believe in You," that might be the most honest thing you've ever said. If you told me you had said to God, "It is all hopeless, and I don't have a clue if You exist, but I could use a hand," it would almost bring tears to my eyes, tears o..
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light
prayer
truth
real
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Anne Lamott |
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66993b5
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It was not facing what life dealt that made you crazy, but rather trying to set life straight where it was unstraightenable.
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Anne Lamott |
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22cd349
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It's so awful, attacking your child. It's the worse thing I know, to shout loudly at this 50 lb. being with his huge trusting brown eyes. It's like bitch-slapping E.T.
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Anne Lamott |
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f17a320
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If I were going to begin practicing the presence of God for the first time today, it would help to begin by admitting the three most terrible truths of our existence: that we are so ruined, and so loved, and in charge of so little.
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Anne Lamott |
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65e3958
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If you don't believe in God, it may help to remember this great line of Geneen Roth's: that awareness is learning to keep yourself company. And then learn to be more compassionate company, as if you were somebody you are fond of and wish to encourage. I doubt that you would read a close friend's early efforts and, in his or her presence, roll your eyes and snicker. I doubt that you would pantomime sticking your finger down your throat. I th..
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self-talk
perfectionism
consciousness
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Anne Lamott |
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c549b02
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Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul.
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Anne Lamott |
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5e13052
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Teenagers who do not go to church are adored by God, but they don't get to meet some of the people who love God back.
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god
teenagers
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Anne Lamott |
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dab0fb4
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Perfectionism means that you try desperately not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived. Clutter is wonderfully fertile ground - you can still discover new treasures under all those piles, clean things up, edit things out, fix things, get a grip. Tidiness suggests that something is as good as it's going to get. Tidiness makes me think of held breath, of suspended animation, while writing nee..
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Anne Lamott |
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7b8bfc4
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Rule 1: When all else fails, follow instructions. And Rule 2: Don't be an asshole.
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Anne Lamott |
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68ebcbe
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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.
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Anne Lamott |
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fa65bfc
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Having a baby is like suddenly getting the world's worst roommate.
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Anne Lamott |
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a78fa38
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Rest and laughter are the most spiritual and subversive acts of all. Laugh, rest, slow down.
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Anne Lamott |
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1e4fe6c
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I used to think that paired opposites were a given, that love was the opposite of hate, right the opposite of wrong. But now I think we sometimes buy into these concepts because it is so much easier to embrace absolutes than to suffer reality. I don't think anything is the opposite of love. Reality is unforgivingly complex.
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Anne Lamott |
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62c3450
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Who was it who said that forgiveness is giving up all hope of having had a different past?
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Anne Lamott |
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76d668b
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Then the singing enveloped me. It was furry and resonant, coming from everyone's very heart. There was no sense of performance or judgment, only that the music was breath and food.
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music
inspirational
singing
church
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Anne Lamott |
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33f1907
|
About novel by Anne Lamott. Q: What does the title "Imperfect Birds" mean?
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Anne Lamott |
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cb57e28
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Sometimes grace is a ribbon of mountain air that gets in through the cracks.
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Anne Lamott |
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dc7792c
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If your wife locks you out of the house, you don't have a problem with your door.
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writing
writer-s-block
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Anne Lamott |
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1c12eed
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My son, Sam, at three and a half, had these keys to a set of plastic handcuffs, and one morning he intentionally locked himself out of the house. I was sitting on the couch reading the newspaper when I heard him stick his plastic keys into the doorknob and try to open the door. Then I heard him say, "Oh, shit." My whole face widened, like the guy in Edvard Munch's . After a moment I got up and opened the front door. "Honey," I said, "what'..
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Anne Lamott |