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.
They had discovered one could grow as hungry for light as for food.
People often remark that I'm pretty lucky. Luck is only important in so far as getting the chance to sell yourself at the right moment. After that, you've got to have talent and know how to use it.
There is a great line of women stretching out behind you into the past, and you have to seek them out and find them in yourself and be conscious of them.
I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that every-thing will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more.
Such a man as instinctively feeds on pure ambrosia and leaves alone the indigestible in things.
Stressful energy arises when you think some future moment is more important than the present moment, and the doing becomes only a means to an end.
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