Anne Lamott: 12 truths I learned from life and writing
With disarming familiarity, Anne Lamott tackles what most don’t like to consider. Her honest writing helps us make sense of life’s chaos. Full bio
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sleeps just down the hall from me,
the best day ever."
in the middle of the night,
and most of the people I know,
of happy anticipation
before my 61st birthday,
of everything I know for sure.
in the popular culture,
of myself as being.
with something really wrong with him.
of time and space,
that I was born in 1954.
of time and space.
and so are you,
mentioning as an aside
if I hadn't followed
as much sun as possible
of a tinfoil reflector shield.
to face the truth
in the last throes of middle age,
every single true thing I know.
and overwhelmed these days,
I'm almost positive about
operating instructions
really overwhelmed or beleaguered.
is that all truth is a paradox.
unfathomably beautiful gift,
on the incarnational side of things.
extremely sensitive.
that we sometimes wonder
with heartbreaking sweetness and beauty,
everything will work again
nothing outside of you
serenity and peace of mind.
and I so resent it.
or lasting improvement
your grown children
on their hero's journey.
the answer, anyway.
all over everybody.
broken, clingy and scared,
to have it most together.
than you would believe,
to other people's outsides.
than you already are.
or rescue any of them
and sober 30 years ago
of my behavior and thinking.
is the "gift of desperation,"
than I could lower my standards.
and trying to rescue is futile,
into the atmosphere
"Well, isn't she full of herself,"
for one's goofy, self-centered,
is not actually a food.
to be considered an edible.
really terrible first drafts,
between you and them.
with themselves.
due the next day,
with an Audubon book,
a little less young and remember brads --
in your own voice.
about writing are: bird by bird
that happened to you is yours,
more warmly about them,
if you wake up someday
of your heart:
visions and songs --
creative successes
and evil people I've ever known
huge best sellers.
that all truth is paradox,
to get your work published,
gently of the fantasy
holes inside of you.
or a bluegrass band.
murals or birding
that no one else will.
and astonishing they may also be.
feel homicidal or suicidal --
specifically, were conceived and born.
start at the dinner table.
in comfortable pants.
an intimate part of this,
for your cute little life.
Henry Kissinger and Vladimir Putin
loves your new grandchild.
is what changes us, heals us
and then buckle up.
where it found you.
like Casper the Friendly Ghost,
or the mail will come
about yourself back.
in life and each other.
animating intelligence,
from the great "Deteriorata,"
the happiest person on Earth
the lessons of worship.
on the bottom of mason jars without lids
bumping into the glass walls.
you cannot live without die.
and no matter what the culture says,
as a major change of address,
will live again fully in your heart
"There are cracks in everything,
our people again fully alive.
you laugh out loud
nightmare of homesickness for you.
will heal you to some extent.
and hydrate and moisturize you
that God says to Moses?
all evidence to the contrary.
but it's the truest thing I know.
like my tiny personal self,
is as sacred as birth.
is easy and gentle
to whatever awaits us.
each other home."
faith and writing
and I said I'd love to.
that happened to you is yours
and feel really doomed
get their sense of humor about it
or friendly action,
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Anne Lamott - Novelist, essayistWith disarming familiarity, Anne Lamott tackles what most don’t like to consider. Her honest writing helps us make sense of life’s chaos.
Why you should listen
Anne Lamott hooks into our common experience and guides us to an understanding infused with openness. An activist, former alcoholic and Sunday School teacher, Lamott uses humor to weave through loss, parenthood, faith and the cancer diagnosis given to her best friend, in beloved books like Bird by Bird and Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers. She says, "Hope begins in the dark ... if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up."
Her next book, Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy, was released in April 2017.
Anne Lamott | Speaker | TED.com