dusk with palm trees by ocean

This one is for me and everyone out there going through major life struggles right now.

I have featured Anne Lamott on this blog before, and I’m doing it again. I’ll probably do it again and again. In a blog about seeking wisdom from books, how could I do otherwise? She is the queen of wisdom writing. Unsurpassed, unsurpassable.

Anne Lamott is a former alcoholic who became sober. She has walked through the fire, so to speak. Here is what she writes, in her most recent book, Dusk, Night, Dawn, about her struggle to get sober:

“I thought that I was beyond redemption, but I became friends with a few wild sober women, who insisted that my mind was not always to be trusted: half the time it was for entertainment purposes only. My mind was not who I was. I thought I was nuts and pathetic. The sober women said we all were. They said my soul was fine inside the rubble. They would help me clear it away, and when my cup had begun to fill again, I would pay it forward.”

God, so much wisdom packed into six beautiful and heartfelt sentences. I especially love the part about “for entertainment purposes only.” I especially love the part about her mind not being her, but her soul being nonetheless intact. And I especially love the part about paying it forward.

I especially love all of it!

What, then, are the essential wisdoms from this passage?

  1. You are not beyond redemption.
  2. Friends are essential.
  3. Making new friends is essential.
  4. Your thoughts are not you.
  5. You are just fine.
  6. You will get through this and be able to help others.

All of these things are true.

Are you beyond redemption?