Life with most teenagers was like having a low-grade bladder infection. It hurts, but you had to tough it out.
Anne LamottRead
...[T]here should be a real sense of your imagination and your memories walking and woolgathering, tramping the hills, romping all over the place. Trust them. Don't look at your feet to see if you are doing it right. Just dance.
Interpretation
Embrace your creativity and experiences without self-doubt to fully enjoy life.
Anne Lamott encourages us to trust our imagination and memories as we navigate through life, suggesting that we should not be overly concerned with doing things 'correctly.' Instead, she advocates for a carefree approach to creativity, likening it to dancing, where the act of expression is more important than adhering to rigid standards or expectations.
In practice
A motivational speech about the importance of following your creative passions.
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.
No one else can feel it for you_x000D_ Only you can let it in_x000D_ No one else, no one else_x000D_ Can speak the words on your lips_x000D_ Drench yourself in words unspoken_x000D_ Live your life with arms wide open_x000D_ Today is where your book begins_x000D_ The rest is still unwritten.
Everyone shines, given the right lighting.
Don't hide yourself in regret, _x000D_ Just love yourself and you're set _x000D_ I'm on the right track, baby _x000D_ I was born this way
Sometimes I heard voices muttering in my head, and a lot of the time the world seemed to smolder around its edges. but I was in a little better physical shape every day, I was getting my looks back, and my spirits were rising, and this was all in all a happy time for me. All these weirdos, and me getting a little better right in the midst of them. I had never known, never even imagined for a heartbeat, that there might be a place for people like us.
I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences.
Just strengthening that theme that America is a place of opportunity and hoping to inspire people to fulfill those opportunities, and to want more, and to want better, and to see the places we can go. So many people identify with me because of the place that I come from.
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