Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year

by Anne Lamott

Jesus paid a debt he

didn’t owe because we had a debt we couldn’t pay?

“Jesus has no arms but ours to do his work and to

show his love,”

Life has got to be bigger

than death, and love has got to be bigger than fear or this is all a total bust and we are all just going tourist class.

I heard someone say once that forgiveness is having given up all hope of having had a better past. And

It’s so easy to have religious awe when you’re outside at night. It’s even easier when you’re in the mountains, especially during a thunderstorm.

But instead, via my friends and my church and my shabby faith, I can just hold onto her fingers underneath the door. It isn’t enough, and it is.

It is so profoundly, comforting and beautiful, the minuet of old friendships.