Anne Lamott: Grace (Eventually)
I’ve read a lot of Anne Lamott. She is one of my contemporary soul sisters, definitely a hero-types who I not only admire and adore but also enjoy laughing alongside. She’s witty, vulnerable, and truthful. Truthful to the max. She lays everything to bear in a way that makes you think, “Me too, sister.” She inspires in her readers kindred emotions along with a feeling of self-acceptance and to coin her phrase, radical kindness.
Her book, Grace (Eventually), came out in 2007 and I just recently picked it up. It’s a compilation on stories divided into sections: Dance Class, Bodies, In Circulation, Forgivishness, Lost and Found, Samwheel, and Earth School. These sections each have three or four bite-sized stories. This book feels as if it’s an appetizer platter of Lamott Lessons. It doesn’t get deep into the meat of issues as some of Lamott’s other books do, but it’s more approachable. Some stories I related to in big ways, and some just didn’t hit me like I hoped. But that’s probably the point. Some stories reach me and other stories will reach you. Her common threads of politics, child rearing, parental issues, society issues, beauty, grace, faith, and environmentalism are all jumbled up in bite-sized portions. But no matter the page, there’s always her honesty and humor.
To give an example, she wrote:
“I wish grace and healing were more abracadabra kinds of things; also, that delicate silver bells would ring to announce grace’s arrival. But no, it’s clog and slog and scotch, on the floor, in silence, in the dark. I suppose that if you were snatched out of the mess, you’d miss the lesson; the lesson is the slog.”
And that’s perfect isn’t it. We all want our fairy godmother wands and magic fixes, and I wouldn’t turn down silver bells. But it’s a slog of a lesson, it always is.
Just as Anne Lamott describes Ram Dass as “hilarious, wise, human neurotic voice,” I find her the same. Her books are also “a box with treasure inside.” Lamott has definitely inspired me to read Ram Dass– which is now written on my to-do list with five exclamation points. But, I wanted to share more of Anne Lamoot’s treasures with you. Some of my favorite quotes from her book, Grace (Eventually), that made me feel the feelings.
Also, take a look at her Ted Talk by clicking HERE.
Quotes from Grace (Eventually) by Anne Lamott
“Almost everyone was struggling to wake up, to be loved, and to not feel so afraid all the time.”
“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.”
“Most of the people in my family would roll their eyes and hope that soon I’d go back to the manic and tranquilizing mall of American life.”
“It’s scary when the self divides into one being who will be noticed and admired, and another, worried person who gapes at the world from inside.”
“See, sometimes, if you’re lucky, you get to a point where you’re sick of a problem, or worn down by tinkering with it, or clutching it. And letting it go, maybe writing it down and sending it away, buys you some time and space, so maybe freedom and humor sneak in—which is probably what you were praying for all along.”
“She was desalt the same basic cards we all were, but somehow she could see that the cards were marked, so she put them down and refused to play. You can’t win with marked cards. Refusing to play has left her with hands free to do what really matters to her, what her heart longs to do in this life.”
“The wound or the danger guides you straight into the heart of itself, and you end up finding you.”
