“Prayer is …communication from the heart to that which surpasses understanding…the force that is beyond our comprehension but that in our pain or supplication or relief we don’t need to define or have proof of any established contact.”

“Nothing could matter less than what we call this force.”

“the Really Real”

“the great mystery, or Goodness…the animating energy of love we are sometimes bold enough to believe in; something unimaginably big and not us.”

“Not me”

“I don’t know much about God and prayer, but I have come to believe, over the past twenty-five years, that there’s something to be said about keeping prayer simple.”

Part One – HELP

“But you know what?  When …I have run out of good ideas to fix the unfixable, when we finally stop trying to heal our own sick, stressed minds with our sick, stressed minds, when we are truly at the end of our rope and just done, we say the same prayer.

We say, “Help”.

We say, Help, this is really all too much, …or I can’t do this, or I can’t stop doing this, or I can’t feel anything”

“ Dear Some Something, I don’t know what I’m doing.  I can’t see where I’m going. I’m getting more lost, more afraid, more clenched. Help.”

“The response probably won’t be from God, in the sense of hearing a deep grandfatherly voice, or via skywriting, or in the form of an LED-lit airplane aisle at your feet.  But the mail will come, or an email, or the phone will ring; unfortunately, it may not be later today, ideally right after lunch, but you will hear back. You will come to know.”

  —-  Anne Lamott

Anne Lamott is an American novelist and non-fiction writer. She is also a progressive political activist, public speaker, and writing teacher. Her nonfiction works are largely autobiographical.  Marked by their self-deprecating humor and openness, Lamott’s writings cover such subjects as spirituality, addiction, motherhood, mental illness and religion.