Quotes From "Plan B: Further Thoughts On Faith" By Anne Lamott

Help" is a prayer that is always answered. It doesn't matter how you pray--with your head bowed in silence, or crying out in grief, or dancing. Churches are good for prayer, but so are garages and cars and mountains and showers and dance floors. Years ago I wrote an essay that began, "Some people think that God is in the details, but I have come to believe that God is in the bathroom. Anne Lamott

I have become the woman I hardly dared imagine I could be. There are parts I don’t love–until a few years ago, I had no idea that you could have cellulite on your stomach–but not only do I get along with me most of the time now, I am militantly and maternally on my own side. Left to my own devices, would I trade this for firm thighs, fewer wrinkles, a better memory? You bet I would. That is why it’s such a blessing that I’m not left to my own devices. . Anne Lamott

Most of us don’t notice how great we look until years, even decades later. Not long ago, I was looking at photos of myself at various ages and weights–way before the neckular deterioration began, way before the fanny pack of menopause–and I could see how gorgeous I must have looked to everyone else. Anne Lamott

There's a lovely Hasidic story of a rabbi who always told his people that if they studied the Torah, it would put Scripture on their hearts. One of them asked, "Why on our hearts, and not in them?" The rabbi answered, "Only God can put Scripture inside. But reading sacred text can put it on your heart, and then when your hearts break, the holy words will fall inside. Anne Lamott

When we did art with the kids, the demons would lie down. Anne Lamott

I have a lot of faith. But I am also afraid a lot, and have no real certainty about anything. I remembered something Father Tom had told me--that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns. Anne Lamott

Certainty is missing the point entirely. Anne Lamott

A good marriage is supposed to be one where each spouse secretly thinks he or she got the better deal. Anne Lamott

Usually if you pray from the heart, you get an answer–the phone rings or the mail comes, and light gets in through the cracks, so you can see the next right thing to do. That’s all you need. Anne Lamott

Only God can put Scripture inside. But reading sacred text can put it on your hearts, and then when your hearts break, the holy words will fall inside. Anne Lamott

Prayer usually means praise, or surrender, acknowledging that you have run out of bullets. Anne Lamott

First find a path, and a little light to see by. Then push up your sleeves and start helping. Anne Lamott

The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns. Faith also means reaching deeply within, for the sense one was born with, the sense, for example, to go for a walk. Anne Lamott

I danced alone for a couple of years, and came to believe that I might not ever have a passionate romantic relationship–might end up alone! I’d always been terrified of this. But I’d rather not ever be in a couple, or ever get laid again, than be in a toxic relationship. I spent a few years celibate. It was lovely, and it was sometimes lonely. I had surrendered; I’d run out of bullets. I learned to be the person I wished I’d meet, at which point I found a kind, artistic, handsome man. When we get out of bed, we hold our lower backs, like Walter Brennan, and we laugh, and bring each other the Advil. . Anne Lamott

Forgiveness means it finally becomes unimportant that you hit back. You're done. It doesn't necessarily mean that you want to have lunch with the person. If you keep hitting back, you stay trapped in the nightmare... Anne Lamott

If you haven't already, you will lose someone you can't live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and you never completely get over the loss of a deeply beloved person. But this is also good news. The person lives forever, in your broken heart that doesn't seal back up. And you come through, and you learn to dance with the banged-up heart. Anne Lamott

Hope is not logical. It always comes as a surprise, just when you think all hope is lost. Hope is the cousin to grief, and both take time: you can’t short-circuit grief, or emptiness, and you can’t patch it up with your bicycle tire tube kit. You have to take the next right action. Anne Lamott

Why couldn't Jesus command us to obsess over everything, to try to control and manipulate people, to try not to breathe at all, or to pay attention, stomp away to brood when people annoy us, and then eat a big bag of Hershey's Kisses in bed? Anne Lamott

It gets darker and darker, and then Jesus is born.” That line came back to me, from out of nowhere, and I decided to practice radical hope, hope in the face of not having a clue. Anne Lamott

We can see Spirit made visible when people are kind to one another, especially when it's a really busy person, like you, taking care of a needy, annoying, neurotic person, like you. Anne Lamott

You celebrate what works and you take tender care of what doesn’t, with lotion, polish, and kindness. Anne Lamott

What you're looking for is already inside you. You've heard this before, but the holy thing inside you really is that which causes you to seek it. You can't buy it, lease it, rent it, date it, or apply for it. The best job in the world can't give it to you. Neither can succes, or fame, or financial security - besides which, there ain't no such thing. Anne Lamott

But you don't always get what you want;, you get what you get Anne Lamott

When I asked Father Tom where we find God in this present darkness, he said that God is in creation, and to get outdoors as much as you can. Anne Lamott

He lost the great big outward thing, the good- looking package, and the real parts endured. They shine through like crazy, the brillian mind and humor, the depth of generosity, the intense blue yes, those beautiful hands. Anne Lamott

Our shadow is on the outside. And we can see in the dark: we can see you, we see you turn away, but one day we finally understand that you turn away not from our faces but from your own fears. From those things inside you that you think mark you as someone unlovable to your family, and society, and even to God. Anne Lamott

One of the immutable laws of being human is that the people who show up are the right people. Anne Lamott

But you are not your bank account, or your ambition. You're not the cold clay lump you leave behind when you die. You're not your collection of walking personality disorders. You are Spirit, you are love, and even though it is hard to believe sometimes, you are free. You're here to love, and be loved, freely. If you find out next week that you are terminally ill - and we're all terminally ill on this bus - what will matter are memories of beauty, that people loved you, and that you loved them. Anne Lamott

I've spent my whole life trying to get over having had Nikki for a mother, and I have to say that from day one after she died, I liked having a dead mother much more than having an impossible one. [p. 47] Anne Lamott

I prayed for my heart to soften, to forgive her, and love her for what she did give me--life, great values, a lot of tennis lessons, and the best she could do. Unfortunately, the best she could do was terrible, thee the Minister of Silly Walks trying to raise an extremely sensitive young girl, and my heart remained hardened toward her. [p. 46] Anne Lamott

I am positive of only a few things in life, and one is that if you want to have a decent middle and old age, you have to get exercise almost every day. Anne Lamott

Her purse was a weight, ballast; it tethered her to the earth as her mind floated away. Anne Lamott

One secret of life is that the reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day. Another secret is that laughter is carbonated holiness Anne Lamott

In biblical times, they used to stone a few thirteen-year-olds with some regularity, which helped keep the others quiet and at home. The mothers were usually in the first row of stone throwers, and had to be restrained. Anne Lamott

When you’re kind to people, and you pay attention, you make a field of comfort around them, and you get it back–the Golden Rule meets the Law of Karma meets Murphy’s Law. Anne Lamott

One secret of life is that the reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day. Another secret is that laughter is carbonated holiness. Anne Lamott

... the reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day. [pp. 65-66] Anne Lamott

Holiness has most often been revealed to me in the exquisite pun of the first syllable, in holes- in not enough help, in brokenness, mess. High holy places, with ethereal sounds and stained glass, can massage my illusion of holiness, but in holes and lostness I can pick up the light of small ordinary progress, newly made moments flecked like pepper into the slog and the disruptions. Anne Lamott

I kept my expectations low, which is one of the secrets of life. Anne Lamott

Rule 1: When all else fails, follow instructions. And Rule 2: Don't be an asshole. Anne Lamott