This is the title of Anne Lamott's newest book. It's about the three essential prayers for life. I've loved her writing, ever since I read her book Bird by Bird - about 12 years or so ago.
I bought this copy to give as a gift. I wasn't sure who I was going to give it to - but something told me to buy it. I realized once I started to read it that I knew exactly who to give it to, though. It will be unexpected, but I'm praying that it will be well received.
Of course I had to read it before I gifted it - and I wanted to keep some quotes handy that moved me...
I can't settle on a quote or two from the "Help" section of the book - I'd just write all of it and then my fingers would be tired. But needless to say it's the best part of the book for me. I need to make a God box...
"You say, Thank you for lifting this corner of the curtain so I can see the truth, maybe for just a moment, but in a way that might change my life forever." p. 49 "Thanks"
"We are hurt beyond any reasonable chance of healing. We are haunted by our own failures and mortality. And yet the world keeps on spinning, and in our grief, rage, and fear a few people keep on loving us and showing up. It's all motion and stasis, change and stagnation. Awful stuff happens and beautiful stuff happens, and it's all part of the big picture." - page 51 in the "Thanks" section
"'Thanks' is a huge mind-shift, from thinking that God wants our happy chatter and a public demonstration and is deeply interested in our opinions of the people we hate, to feeling quiet gratitude, humbly and amazingly, without shame at having been so blessed." p. 60 "Thanks"
"You breathe in gratitude and you breathe it out, too. Once you learn how to do that, then you can bear someone who is unbearable." p. 60 "Thanks"
"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." p. 86 "Wow"
"We pray to be of solace, and to find the courage to let people have their feelings. We breathe and pray to stay silent while people find their own way through. (Well, we try.) We pray to stay calm when the earth shakes and explodes. The universe is always having spasms and eruptions. It's labor. That's how things get born." p. 95 "Amen"
"I pray not to be such a whiny, self obsessed baby, and give thanks that I am not quite as bad as I used to be (talk about miracles.). Then something comes up, and I overreact and blame and sulk and it feels like I haven't made any progress at all. But it turns out I'm less of a brat than before, and I hit the reset button much sooner, shake it off and get my sense of humor back. That we and those we love have lightened up over the years is one of the most astonishing sights we will ever witness." p. 95-96 "Amen"
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