Operating Instructions

I've been reading "Operating Instructions" by Anne Lamott. Everything she writes either inspires me or makes me laugh. If anyone is around me while I'm reading it's all I can do not to read the entire thing out loud to them. matt finds this especially annoying because it usually means I interrupt him constantly! :)

The book is a journal of Anne's first year as a mother. She is amazingly poignant about her shortocmings and fears and triumphs throughout.

I'd pretty much like to quote the entire book here in this blog entry but I will just share a couple of my favorites here and there. For today:

"I have a deep belief that I know what is best for me and by extension, what is best for my son Sam. The fact that I have spent my entire life proving that just the opposite is true does not keep me from acting like a schizophrenic traffic cop with a mission and a bullhorn. There's something sort of ludicrous about it. I heard this prominent doctor speak a few years ago. He said that he'd finally figured out that his profound sense of control, in the world and over his life, is just an addiction and a total illusion. He said that when he sees little kids sitting in the backseat of cars, in those car seats that have steering wheels with grim expressions of concentration on their faces, clearly convinced that their efforts are causing the car to do whatever it is doing, he thinks of himself and his relationship with God: God who drives along silently, gently amused in the real driver's seat." p 113

As I prepare to become a mother I find such comfort in these words...it's really all going to be okay and it's not all up to me even though I might think so sometimes.

You can raead more reviews about this book here.