Anne Lamott’s priest friend Tom, how to get through: "Left foot, right foot, left foot, breathe," he said. "Right foot, left foot, right foot, breathe." Salon April 25, 2003

Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.

Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns.

Dogs are the closest we come to knowing the divine love of God on this side of eternity.

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

Sometimes I think that Jesus watches my neurotic struggles, and shakes his head and grips his forehead and starts tossing back mojitos.

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.

Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.

I thought the secret of life was obvious: be here now, love as if your whole life depended on it, find your life's work, and try to get hold of a giant panda.

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.

In the world we live, either everyone is stupid or no one is.

I'll be quite for now because I make mistakes too... but once The Perfect Almighty One judges you, there are no excuses.

I look under the skin of countries' economies, and I help them make better decisions and be stronger, to prosper and create employment.

I believe that people take risk, and there are rewards if they do well; they should lose if they don’t.

What's right for New York or California, is not necessarily right for Iowa.

To my credit, I think I'm a gentle control freak. Maybe even a little manipulative.

I keep hearing tree talk water words and i keep knowing what they mean.

Self-suppression is often necessary in the interest of truth and nonviolence.

To reap a perpetual harvest you need to sow a perpetual seed. I got a need for seed.

The minute you say "I can't", it is another wrong affirmation to your subconscious that you choose to lose.