Home > Work > Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith
21 " Joy is the best makeup. "
― Anne Lamott , Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith
22 " 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. "
23 " Sometimes grace works like water wings when you feel you are sinking. "
24 " Sometimes grace is a ribbon of mountain air that gets in through the cracks. "
25 " I remember staring at my son endlessly when he was an infant, stunned by his very existence, wondering where on earth he had come from. "
26 " God sent Jesus to join the human experience, which means to make a lot of mistakes. Jesus didn't arrive here knowing how to walk. He had fingers and toes, confusion, sexual feelings, crazy human internal processes. He had the same prejudices as the rest of his tribe: he had to learn that the Canaanite woman was a person. He had to suffer the hardships and tedium and setbacks of being a regular person. If he hadn't the incarnation would mean nothing. "
27 " Nell's husband has short-man syndrome. Eddie is one of those deadly dull people who is so upbeat that I suspect he would subconsciously like to go through the neighborhood, house by house, with a machine gun. He seems oblivious to the effect that his long, rambling monologues have on people - he doesn't notice the blank faces, the fingers flexing like those of people buried alive, the ocular tics. You could write down his words verbatim, show them to him, and he'd probably say, 'I know someone just like that!' Then he'd tell you about that person until your teeth hurt. His hostage-taking is passive-aggressive. "
28 " And that almost everyone was struggling to wake up, to be loved, and not feel so afraid all the time. That's what the cars, degrees, booze, and drugs were about. "
29 " When I was young, I used to be so jealous of other girls that it crippled me. "
30 " Usually with life, you start wherever you are, and you flail around for a while-- "
31 " Being human can be so dispiriting. It is a real stretch for me a lot of the time. "
32 " Jealousy always has been my cross, the weakness and woundedness in me that has most often caused me to feel ugly and unlovable, like the Bad Seed. I’ve had many years of recovery and therapy, years filled with intimate and devoted friendships, yet I still struggle. I know that when someone gets a big slice of pie, it doesn’t mean there’s less for me. In fact, I know that there isn’t even a pie, that there’s plenty to go around, enough food and love and air.But I don’t believe it for a second.I secretly believe there’s a pie. I will go to my grave brandishing my fork. "
33 " If you have a body, you are entitled to the full range of feelings. It comes with the package. "
34 " it really is easier to experience spiritual connection when your life is in the process of coming apart. When things break up and fences fall over, desperation and powerlessness slink in, which turns out to be good: humility and sweetness often arrive in your garden not long after. "
35 " Kathleen Norris said, many years later, “Prayer is not asking for what you think you want, but asking to be changed in ways you can’t imagine,” and "
36 " Twenty minutes later, my ski patrol woman did come back, rubbing her bare hands together. “How you doing?” she asked. At first the enthusiasm in her voice worried me, because she sounded as if we might now move on to calisthenics. "
37 " she is willing to try anything that affords you the opportunity to shake up the Etch A Sketch of everything you suppose is true, a chance to question all your secret opinions: that this thing is good, that one is bad; that this person is better, that one is worse. "
38 " I have to. I’ve changed my mind so often.” Neither of us spoke for a minute. “That’s the worst reason to do something,” I said. "
39 " Old age on a good day is a dance we don’t know the steps to: we falter. We may not be going in the direction we’d anticipated, or have any clue at all about which way to turn next. "