Almost Everything: Notes on Hope

by Anne Lamott

he had several excellent rules: Don’t be an asshole, and try to remember people’s names, especially those people with no power or cachet, and seek beauty through binoculars, books, records.

We can change. People say we can’t, but we do when the stakes or the pain is high enough. And when we do, life can change.

We cannot arrange lasting safety or happiness for our most beloved people. They have to find their own ways, their own answers.

If it is someone else’s problem, you probably don’t have the solution.

Help is the sunny side of control.