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Product Details
Hardcover: 112 pages
Publisher: Riverhead Books; First Edition edition (October 29, 2013)
"Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair" is the perfect follow-up to Anne Lamott's wonderful "Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers."
In "Stitches," Lamott explores how we can piece our lives back together and keep going when life hands us--both as individuals and society--difficult or tragic circumstances. "You have to keep taking the next necessary stitch, and the next one, and the next. Without stitches, you just have rags. And we are not rags," Lamott writes."We live stitch by stitch, when we're lucky. If you fixate on the whole shebang, you miss the stitching."
As is her trademark, Lamott's outlook on life ("Beauty is a miracle of things going together imperfectly") and her sense of humor ("I love ritual and repetition. Without them I would be a balloon with a slow leak) are incredibly refreshing in "Stitches." Her familiar themes of hope, faith, grace, and spirituality run throughout the book, and I love that.
"Help, Thanks, Wow" helped get me through a difficult time in my life (my son's addiction). As "Stitches" arrives, I am going through another challenge involving the loss of my job and a possible career change. I think maybe Anne Lamott knows when I need a new book to help guide me through life. I am so happy "Stitches" has come when it has. This quote in particular resonated with me: "This is who I want to be in the world. This is who I think we are supposed to be, people who help call forth human beings from deep inside hopelessness."
I hope I can be that person. Thank you again, Anne Lamott. Your books are my owner's manuals for life.
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39 of 44 people found the following review helpful
If you like an approach to spirituality that is big-hearted, nonjudgmental, fun, joyous, smart, active, non-priggish and inclusive, welcome to Anne Lamott's books. You may wish she were your Sunday School teacher. I once thought that it's hard to get smart, spiritual and funny in a combination. Lamott serves it up.
This slim handbook of 98 pages on meaning, hope and repair is a follow-up to Lamott's previous book HELP, THANKS, WOW: The Three Essential Prayers. This book opens with the concept that "life holds beauty, magic and anguish". It tells you what you can do during the anguish. When our life is on track - having love, family, work - it's easier to cope with the anguish Lamott tells us.
But what do we do when our lives are off track, and we stumble upon evil, sadness, illness or death? What do you do on the really bad days during an extended rough time? Lamott sketches out some simple and deep concepts that have worked for her and those she has known. One concept inspired the title of this book and that's to keep stitching, take those next small steps which keep you going. They may be daily rituals like a walk around the neighborhood or a meal with a friend who listens well.
Some of Lamott's writing in this book which jumped off the pages for me - you will enjoy finding your own inspiration:
* "Oh, honey, buckle up, it gets worse."
* "We live stitch by stitch, when we're lucky."
* "My brothers and I were not encouraged to search for God, the obvious source of solace, but we three kids were led to the world of books, which to us was just as good. We found in books the divine plop, the joy of settling down deeply into something, worlds and realities greater than our own troubled minds.Read more ›
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67 of 75 people found the following review helpful
I urge you to read this wonderful book, filled with Anne Lamott's wisdom and advice on "collecting the ripped shreds of our emotional and spiritual fabric" and how to "sew them back together, one stitch at a time." While there are indeed descriptions of sewing and quilting woven throughout the book, there is also so much more. She even shares her perspective on the horror of the Newtown shootings.
Lamott doesn't gloss over hard truths. She acknowledges that life can sometimes be so painful that it seems unbearable. It can be incredibly difficult to search for even a tiny shred of meaning in the midst of emotional and physical chaos. I admire such honesty, the kind that pulls no punches but also sheds light on ways to survive even the hardest times, finding ways back to joy.
I also savored the details about how she - and some of those she knew- struggled to hold the "fabric" of their lives together amid great challenges. Sometimes comfort comes from special possessions. Lamott clings to the shirt of a beloved friend who died, even as it becomes worn and threadbare, afraid that losing the shirt will threaten her memories of their friendship. A friend helps her find an unorthodox way to salvage cherished curtains torn by her dog, leading to new insights about the beauty of imperfection, both in the patched curtains and in life.
I was deeply moved by her description of a couple, married for forty years, being torn apart "like a strip of old cloth" in the wake of the husband's faltering mind. Lamott doesn't shy away from the pain of such moments but also shares moments of hope, comfort, and humor. Her previous book focused primarily on prayer, faith, and gratitude. This time around she has written one which is "intended to be useful on the bad days." For me, it is that and more, with a depth and power that has me convinced I'll be revisiting this one for years to come.
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This item: Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair
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