Anne Lamott is an American teacher, speaker, and author of numerous novels and nonfiction books. Her writings and teachings cover subjects such as faith, Christianity, and sobriety.
CLEAR ALL
There is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious. It is too good to waste on jokes.
Stay a verb—don’t become a noun.
4
Life’s work is to wake up, to let the things that enter into the circle wake you up rather than put you to sleep. The only way to do this is to open, be curious, and develop some sense of sympathy for everything that comes along, to get to know its nature and let it teach you what it will.
3
There is light in darkness. You just have to find it.
5
Respect the fact that all you do and are now has evolved for a good reason and serves an important purpose.
1
People’s sense of self-worth is pivotal to their ability to look clearly at the hurt they’ve caused. The more solid one’s sense of self regard, the more likely that that person can feel empathy and compassion for the hurt party, and apologize from an authentic center.
When we do not put our primary emotional energy into solving our own problems, we take on other people’s problems as our own.
2
Anger is a tool for change when it challenges us to become more of an expert on the self and less of an expert on others.
Avoidance will make you feel less vulnerable in the short run, but it will never make you less afraid.
Happiness is closer to the experience of acceptance and contentment than it is to pleasure. True happiness exists as the spacious and compassionate heart’s willingness to feel whatever is present.