Radical self-care is quantum, and radiates out into the atmosphere, like a little fresh air. It is a huge gift to the world. When people respond by saying, “Well, isn’t she full of herself,” smile obliquely, like Mona Lisa, and make both of you a nice cup of tea.
ANNE LAMOTTHope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.
More Anne Lamott Quotes
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One thing I know for sure about raising children is that every single day a kid needs discipline. But also every single day a kid needs a break.
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I can tell you that what you’re looking for is already inside you.
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You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories.
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Nothing heals us like letting people know our scariest parts: When people listen to you cry and lament, and look at you with love, it’s like they are holding the baby of you.
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Getting into a new relationship is like pouring Miracle-Gro on your character defects.
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A big heart is both a clunky and a delicate thing; it doesn’t protect itself and it doesn’t hide. It stands out, like a baby’s fontanel, where you can see the soul pulse through.
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Small is how blessings, healing, progress and increase occur.
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Laughter is carbonated holiness.
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Forgiveness is giving up all hope of having had a better past.
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Rule 1: When all else fails, follow instructions. And Rule 2: Don’t be an asshole.
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The road to enlightenment is long and difficult, and you should try not to forget snacks and magazines.
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People help you or you help them and when we offer or receive help, we take in each other. And then we are saved.
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If we stay where we are, where we’re stuck, where we’re comfortable and safe, we die there… When nothing new can get in, that’s death.
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Gratitude, not understanding, is the secret to joy and equanimity.
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The reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day.
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Human lives are hard, even those of health and privilege, and don’t make much sense. This is the message of the Book of Job: Any snappy explanation of suffering you come up with will be horseshit.
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How do you begin? The answer is simple: you decide to.
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Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.
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Or you might shout at the top of your lungs or whisper into your sleeve, “I hate you, God.” That is a prayer too, because it is real, it is truth, and maybe it is the first sincere thought you’ve had in months.
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I spent my whole life helping my mother carry around her psychic trunks like a bitter bellhop. So a great load was lifted when she died, and my life was much easier.
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We are not here to see through one another, but to see one another through.
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The miracle is that we are here, that no matter how undone we’ve been the night before, we wake up every morning and are still here. It is phenomenal just to be.
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Hope begins in the dark.
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Everyone is flailing through this life without an owner’s manual, with whatever modicum of grace and good humor we can manage.
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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 have behaved better.
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Here are the two best prayers I know: ‘Help me, help me, help me’ and ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.
ANNE LAMOTT