Life with most teenagers was like having a low-grade bladder infection. It hurts, but you had to tough it out.
Anne LamottRead
You want to give me chocolate and flowers? That would be great. I love them both. I just don't want them out of guilt, and I don't want them if you're not going to give them to all the people who helped mother our children.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a desire for genuine affection over gifts given out of guilt.
Anne Lamott emphasizes the importance of authentic gestures of love and appreciation in relationships. She conveys that while chocolate and flowers are delightful, they lose their value if given as mere obligations or if not extended to those who have also contributed to her life, reflecting the importance of equity and gratitude in nurturing relationships.
In practice
In a speech about community support, one might use this quote to illustrate the importance of recognizing collective effort.
Life with most teenagers was like having a low-grade bladder infection. It hurts, but you had to tough it out.
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.
Your problem is how you are going to spend this one odd and precious life you have been issued. Whether you're going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over people and circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are.
It is hard to remember that you are a cherished spiritual being when you're burping up apple fritters and Cheetos.
Gorgeous, amazing things come into our lives when we are paying attention: mangoes, grandnieces, Bach, ponds. This happens more often when we have as little expectation as possible. If you say, "Well, that's pretty much what I thought I'd see," you are in trouble. At that point you have to ask yourself why you are even here. [...] Astonishing material and revelation appear in our lives all the time. Let it be. Unto us, so much is given. We just have to be open for business.
...because when people have seen you at their worst, you don't have to put on the mask as much.
The relationship with my people, the Nigerian people, is very good. My relationship with the rulers has always been problematic.
No one can lie, no one can hide anything, when he looks directly into someone's eyes.
Do unto others 20% better than you would expect them to do unto you, to correct for subjective error.
You know how it is when two souls meet in a burst of ecstatic volubility, with hearts tickling to hear and to tell, to know everything, to reveal everything, the shared reverence for the other's otherness, a feeling of solitude radiantly snapped by full *contact* - all that?
I wanted to know what happened when two people felt it. Would it divide the hurt in two, make it lighter to bear, the way feeling someone's joy seemed to double it?
I realized I had been keeping people around even when deep down I knew they were bad for me. I had overridden myself.
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