Other Thing

Driving home 40 minutes in the dark, in the soft rain, with street reflections shining and Christmas music playing.

Also, an addition: they are selling limited edition coconut M&Ms at Wal-Mart. And oh my gosh, they are so good.


A few word of wisdom from Anne Lamott, the best writer ever, author of (among many other truly great things) Traveling Mercies. 

"Olivia [a two year old with cystic fibrosis] always got sicker than other babies; she caught colds that wouldn't leave, which led to coughs that sounded like those of an obese alcoholic smoker...now she and I sit together in her room and eat chocolate, and I tell her that in a very long time when we both go to heaven, we should try to get chairs next to each other, close to the dessert table."

"I started to feel like a tired, wired little kid at a birthday party who has had way too much sugar, who is in all ways on overload, but still finds herself blindfolded and spun around for a game of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, and then pushed more or less in the direction of the wall with the donkey on it. But I was so turned around, so lost and overwhelmed and stressed the I couldn't even remember where the wall with the donkey was--or even in what direction it might be found. So I couldn't take one step forward without there being a chance that I was actually walking farther away from it. And it took me a while to remember that for me, the wall with the donkey on it is Jesus."

"When they were done [taking blood to test Sam for Leukemia], I took Sam off to the bathroom because I had to pee and that was when I first discovered that God is in the ladies' room."

"...After a while I got up and took Sam's hand and we went and got some smoothies. You really do have to eat, anything at all that you can bear. So we had smoothies, with bananas, which I believe to be the only known cure for existential dread."