Life with most teenagers was like having a low-grade bladder infection. It hurts, but you had to tough it out.
Anne LamottRead
My gratitude for good writing is unbounded; I’m grateful for it the way I’m grateful for the ocean.
Interpretation
Gratitude for good writing is limitless and profound, akin to the deep appreciation one feels for the ocean.
In this quote, Anne Lamott expresses a profound appreciation for good writing, suggesting that it holds immense value in her life, similar to the boundless beauty and depth of the ocean. She emphasizes the idea that just as one can be awed and thankful for the vastness and richness of the ocean, so too can one feel an overwhelming gratitude for the written word, which can inspire, connect, and enrich our lives.
In practice
In a speech at a literary event, one might share this quote to express the importance of writing.
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.
You may think it was a very little thing, and in these days it seems to me like a trifle, but it was a most important incident in my life. I could scarcely credit that I, the poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day; that by honest work, I had earned a dollar. I was a more hopeful and thoughtful boy from that time.
Alice: This is impossible. The Mad Hatter: Only if you believe it is.
Whatever posessions and objects of its desires the lower self may obtain, it hangs on to them, refusing to let them go out of greed for more, or out of fear of poverty and need.
Simplicity is power. The power to do less of what doesn't matter and more of what does.
Everything you touch touches you.
Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power.
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