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Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith QUOTES

Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith QUOTES

1 " 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 , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

2 " The road to enlightenment is long and difficult, and you should try not to forget snacks and magazines. "

― Anne Lamott , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

3 " ...most of the time, all you have is the moment, and the imperfect love of the people around you. "

― Anne Lamott , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

4 " 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 , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

5 " Every Sunday I nudge Sam in her direction, and he walks to where she is sitting and hugs her. She smells him behind the ears, where he most smells like sweet unwashed new potatoes. This is in fact what I think God may smell like, a young child's slightly dirty neck. "

― Anne Lamott , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

6 " 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 , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

7 " I stared at the little white agates in my hand, delicate as moon drops. The mystery of God's love as I understand it is that God loves the man who was being mean to his dog just as much as he loves babies; God loves Susan Smith, who drowned her two sons, as much as he loves Desmond Tutu. And he loved her just as much when she was releasing the handbrake of her car that sent her boys into the river as he did when she first nursed them. So of course, he loves old ordinary me, even or especially at my most scared and petty and mean and obsessive. Loves me; chooses me.

Remembering this helped, but here is what in fact saved me: Sam came over to see what I held in my palm, glared contemptuously at my small white pebbles, and then without missing a beat slapped the bottom of my hand so that the agates scattered. He ran off down the beach, laughing with glee. It surprised me so, this small meanness, that it made me catch my breath. Boy, I thought, is he going to be hard to place.

When I was young I would have felt, What’s the point of trying to be good if the people who aren’t even trying get to be equally loved? Now I just picked up my pace and tried to catch up with that rotten Sam, because I don’t know much of anything for sure. Only that I am loved – as is "

― Anne Lamott , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

8 " Courage is fear that has said its prayers. "

― Anne Lamott , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

9 " And we've read scary books and watched scary movies and TV shows together. He's met monsters, ghouls, and demons on the page and on the screen. There's nothing like watching Anaconda with your best friend or lying in bed next to your mother reading Roald Dahl, because that way you get to explore dark stuff safely. You get to laugh with it, to step out on the vampire's dance floor and take him for a spin, and then step back into your life. When you make friends with fear, it can't rule you. "

― Anne Lamott , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

10 " 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. "

― Anne Lamott , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

11 " And I guess when you take away the resentment and disappointment, it's that simple. It is what we do in families: we help, because we were helped. "

― Anne Lamott , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

12 " I tell you, families are definitely the training ground for forgiveness. "

― Anne Lamott , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

13 " I'll live as well, as deeply, as madly as I can--until I die. "

― Anne Lamott , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

14 " I watched him carefully. He was making art because he has to, and because he's brave enough to try and make contact, right there on the edge of madness, where he dreams. "

― Anne Lamott , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

15 " His art springs out of bubbling underground necessity, as if he's somehow dipping himself into the river that gave him life; he's making dream material visible. "

― Anne Lamott , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

16 " Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die. "

― Anne Lamott , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

17 " The clipping said forgiveness meant that God is for giving, and that we are here for giving too, and that to withold love or blessings is to be completely delusional. "

― Anne Lamott , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

18 " The depth of the feeling continued to surprise and threaten me, but each time it hit again and I bore it...I would discover that it hadn't washed me away. "

― Anne Lamott , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

19 " We kept on cooking and walking the dog, taking the kids to the park, cleaning the kitchen, and letting Sara and Adam hate what was going on when they needed to. Sometimes we let them resist finding any meaning or solace in anything that had to do with their daughter's diagnosis, and this was one of the hardest things to do -- to stop trying to make things come out better than they were. We let them spew when they needed to; we offered the gift of no comfort when there being no comfort was where they had landed. Then we shopped for groceries. "

― Anne Lamott , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

20 " Grief ends up giving you the two best things: softness and illumination. "

― Anne Lamott , Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith