so, I gave Suzanne a gentle chastisment today for being the only other mommy near me blogging and not writing to her blog just before she told me she wrote yesterday and I haven’t seen it yet.

Oops.

Anyway, so, I’m done with the Anne Lamott book. So lets chat. She is a little half-off but by no means half-assed. Really the correct reaction to the book (Traveling Mercies, by the way, if you’re just catching up) is “wow.” Here is a woman with a past and I mean a PAST and she talks about her encounter with Jesus. And it was an encounter not a coercion (is that spelled right) at Vacation Bible School, or in a dorm room with holy rollers and thier soul counter in hand, but a real life “I’m all alone and getting lonelier”, “If this got any worse I’d be dead” conversion experience.

And you know when she talks about her life before and her life after it doesn’t change much, right away. and you know what she doesn’t let go. She still battles with alchol and bullemia (can’t spell today) and she never once thinks she did the wrong thing, choosing Christ or that her conversion “didn’t take”(like a freakin’ perm or something) or any of the crazy things that I think.

And she never makes any moves toward hiding; herself or Him. Nuts, man. The woman is totally crazy and I love it. I need to mull a little more; there are things there that I haven’t internalized yet that may change my life.

Thoughts?

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HOkay, This is a stinking funny book.

“Ash Wednesday came early this year. It is supposed to be about preparation, about consecration, about moving toward Easter, toward resurrection and renewal. It offers us a chance to break through the distractions that keep us from living the basic Easter message of love, of living in wonder rather than doubt. For some people, it is about fasting, to symbolize both solidarity with the hungry and the hunger for God. . . .So there are many ways to honor the day, but as far as I know, there is nothing in Scripture or tradition setting it aside as the day on which to attack one’s child and then to flagellate oneself while the child climbs a tree and shouts down that he can’t decided whether to hang himself or jump, even after it is pointed out nicely that he is only five feet from the ground.

But I guess every family celebrates in its own unique way.”

OK. Funny. Really bloody funny. I thought only I lived in surreal land like that.

So, I did commit and I’m about halfway done with the Anne Lamott book. Here are today’s quotable quotes:

“A woman I know says, for her morning prayer, ‘whatever,’ and then for the evening, ‘oh, well,’ but has conceded that these prayers are more palatable for people without children.”

Ok, so that is funny. And. . .

(from her son)” ‘. . .I wish I’d been given a mother who liked children.’ ”

Also, very funny.

I’ll keep ya posted.