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Book: Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers
Quotes of Book: Help Thanks Wow: The Three
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  1. Anne Lamott _ Help Thanks Wow: The Three

    These two things are almost all I want, but unfortunately, neither one is my strong suit. I am very strong on blame, and wish this were one of God's values, but trust, surrender? Letting go, forgiveness? Maybe just after a period of prayer, but then when the mood passes and real life rears its ugly head again? Not so much. I hate this, the fact that life is usually Chutes and Ladders, with no guaranteed gains.I cannot will myself into having these qualities, so I have to pray for them more often, if I want to be happy. I have to create the habit, just as I had to do with daily writing, and flossing.
    book-quoteprayerforgivenessletting-go

  2. Anne Lamott _ Help Thanks Wow: The Three

    Most humbling of all is to comprehend the lifesaving gift that your pit crew of people has been for you, and all the experiences you have shared, the journeys together, the collaborations, births and deaths, divorces, rehab, and vacations, the solidarity you have shown one another. Every so often you realize that without all of them, your life would be barren and pathetic. It would be Death of a Salesman, though with e-mail and texting.
    book-quotegratitude

  3. Anne Lamott _ Help Thanks Wow: The Three

    I pray not to be such a whiny, self-obsessed baby, and give thanks that I am not quite as bad as I used to be {talk about miracles}. Then something comes up, and I overreact and blame and sulk, and it feels like I haven't made any progress at all. But it turns out I'm less of a brat than before, and I hit the reset button much sooner, shake it off, and get my sense if humor back.
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  4. Anne Lamott _ Help Thanks Wow: The Three

    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.
    book-quoteprayermeaningtrouble

  5. Anne Lamott _ Help Thanks Wow: The Three

    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.
    book-quotetruthprayer

  6. Anne Lamott _ Help Thanks Wow: The Three

    Gratitude begins in our hearts and then dovetails into behavior. It almost always makes you willing to be of service, which is where the joy resides. It means that you are willing to stop being such a jerk. When you are aware of all that has been given to you, in your lifetime and the past few days, it is hard not to be humbled, and pleased to give back.
    book-quotegratitudejoy

  7. Anne Lamott _ Help Thanks Wow: The Three

    And as it turns out, if one person is praying for you, buckle up. Things can happen.
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  8. Anne Lamott _ Help Thanks Wow: The Three

    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.
    book-quotedeathprayercomfort-zone

  9. Anne Lamott _ Help Thanks Wow: The Three

    A nun I know once told me she kept begging God to take her character defects away from her. After years of this prayer, God finally got back to her: I'm not going to take anything away from you, you have to give it to Me.
    book-quoteprayergodcharacter

  10. Anne Lamott _ Help Thanks Wow: The Three

    Love falls to earth, rises from the ground, pools around the afflicted. Love pulls people back to their feet. Bodies and souls are fed. Bones and lives heal. New blades of grass grow from charred soil. The sun rises.
    book-quote

  11. Anne Lamott _ Help Thanks Wow: The Three

    If I were going to begin practicing the presence of God for the first time today, it would help to begin by admitting the three most terrible truths of our existence: that we are so ruined, and so loved, and in charge of so little.
    book-quote

  12. Anne Lamott _ Help Thanks Wow: The Three

    My belief is that when you're telling the truth, you're close to God. If you say to God, "I am exhausted and depressed beyond words, and I don't like You at all right now, and I recoil from most people who believe in You," that might be the most honest thing you've ever said. If you told me you had said to God, "It is all hopeless, and I don't have a clue if You exist, but I could use a hand," it would almost bring tears to my eyes, tears of pride in you, for the courage it takes to get real-really real. It would make me want to sit next to you at the dinner table.So prayer is our sometimes real selves trying to communicate with the Real, with Truth, with the Light. It is us reaching out to be heard, hoping to be found by a light and warmth in the world, instead of darkness and cold. Even mushrooms respond to light - I suppose they blink their mushroomy eyes, like the rest of us.Light reveals us to ourselves, which is not always so great if you find yourself in a big disgusting mess, possibly of your own creation. But like sunflowers we turn toward light. Light warms, and in most cases it draws us to itself. And in this light, we can see beyond our modest receptors, to what is way beyond us, and deep inside.
    book-quotetruthprayerlight
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