The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

For some of us, books are as important as almost any­thing else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.

-- Anne Lamott, "Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life" Novelist and non­fiction writer Anne

Lamott can read my mind. She articulates my private, slightly off-center thoughts and feelings that I hesitate to share even with my closest friends. Reading one of her books is one part therapy, one part entertain­ment and one part spiritual revelation.

My friend, Roz Edwards, says that Lamott is " out there" but "grounded" at the same time. She just finished read­ing Lamott's first work of fiction, "Hard Laughter," in which 23-year-old Jennifer and her two brothers ride out the emotional wake of their father's brain tumor diagnosis and treatment. Roz says that the emotions are spot-on, and she is always amazed by Lamott's ability to "write how I think."

I discovered Lamott a couple of years ago when I picked up "Operating In­structions

- A Journal of My Son's First Year." Lamott, a single first-time mother, de­scribes in honest and hilari­ous detail the mental, physi­cal, emotional and spiritual rollercoaster of motherhood. She perfectly captures the love, joy, exhaustion, awe and craziness of that first year. Since her son's father is not in the picture, Lamott relies on an assortment of friends and strangers, like La Leche League volunteers, to help her through months of colic and whacked-out hormones. She wrestles with dark, wild feelings of inadequacy and loathing, yet always finds a way to crawl back into a place of hope. I wish I had read this book when my children were babies.

Operating Instructions was one of the most honest, funny and REAL books I had ever read, so I was eager to pick up another Lamott book. In the books "Travel­ing Mercies" and "Plan B," Lamott opens windows into her faith walk with God. She describes how she was led to "cross over" into the Christian faith and how her faith permeates her everyday life. Lamott's faith is not a static, "by the book" faith. Her writing is both irreverent and reverent, in equal parts which might not set well with every reader. Here's one of my favorite quotes from Plan B:

I have a lot of faith. But I am also afraid a lot, and have no real cer­tainty about anything. I remembered something Father Tom had told me- -that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certain­ty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns.

It takes courage to write with such honesty.

I'm currently reading Lamott's newest book, "Stitches - A Handbook of Meaning, Hope and Repair," a follow-up to her 2012 best­seller, "Help Thanks Wow - The Three Essential Prayers." Lamott ex­plores how we find meaning and peace in a world so obviously broken and hurting - one stitch, one decision, one action at a time.The needle and thread metaphor re­ally resonates with me. The quilts my grandmother made are simply the collection of thousands and thousands tiny stitches used to trans­form scraps into something both useful and beautiful.

Lamott writes about her feelings of despair after the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting and her journey of grief and after her best friend dies of cancer. Her writing is by turn wise, blunt, poi­gnant, thought-provoking and laugh-out-loud funny. It's an odd combination, for sure, but one that works wonderfully for the legions of devoted Lamott fans.