broken things

dusty1.jpg
dusty peach dahlia, Canon 300D

I just re-read bits of one of my favorite books, Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott. The first thing I opened to was this:

“Carolyn Myss, the medical intuitive who writes and lectures about why people don’t heal, flew to Russia a few years ago to give some lectures. Everything that could go wrong did-flights were cancelled or overbooked, connections missed, her reserved room at the hotel given to someone else. She kept trying to be a good sport, but finally, two mornings later, on the train to her conference on healing, she began to whine at the man sitting beside her about how infuriating her journey had been thus far.

It turned out that this man worked for the Dalai Lama. And he said-gently-that they believe when a lot of things are going wrong all at once, it is to protect something big and lovely that is trying to get itself born-and that this something needs for you to be distracted so that it can be born as perfectly as possible.”

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Hi, I’m Andrea

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28 Comments

  1. Janece

    I knew there was a reason I liked you. 😉 You love Anne!
    Thanks for pulling out that bit – I had forgotten it. I need to pull out my Anne again too!
    By the way, congratulations on your new photo site — you have beautiful work!

  2. Kathreen

    Wooohoooo!!! Congratulations, Andrea!
    I feel like I know you already – care of Jen (Gray)’s site. 🙂
    Keep the glowing works because they are oh, so illuminating.
    Squinting all the way in Toronto,
    Kat

  3. mokistar

    How could you have known that I needed to hear that! The universe speaks…thanks for sharing.

  4. kat

    I was looking back through your old entries yesterday (looking for the one about lists, cos it struck something in me that I needed to remind myself of), and I found another that reflected something similar to this… Exactly what I needed to hear.
    I don’t like it when I allow myself to get caught up in the negative. I don’t like when it gets to that point where the bad things are all I can focus on.
    But perhaps there is a reason…thank you for that reminder!

  5. JC

    It is good to be reminded how broken things can be saving space for wonderful things to bloom.

  6. Anonymous

    hey, I liked your website, it has a lot of light, and i liked to read it.
    A very good friend of mine has sent your adress to me, to show me that such things are possible. Her name is “R?ya”, it means “dream”. Thanks to her.
    I hope with the inspiration from your website and with a bit of power I can manage also to do thigs that i like to do.
    I wish you a lot of fun and luck. you are doing very nice things.
    T?lay

  7. Anonymous

    hey, I liked your website, it has a lot of light, and i liked to read it.
    A very good friend of mine has sent your adress to me, to show me that such things are possible. Her name is “R?ya”, it means “dream”. Thanks to her.
    I hope with the inspiration from your website and with a bit of power I can manage also to do thigs that i like to do.
    I wish you a lot of fun and luck. you are doing very nice things.
    T?lay

  8. Anonymous

    hey, I liked your website, it has a lot of light, and i liked to read it.
    A very good friend of mine has sent your adress to me, to show me that such things are possible. Her name is “R?ya”, it means “dream”. Thanks to her.
    I hope with the inspiration from your website and with a bit of power I can manage also to do thigs that i like to do.
    I wish you a lot of fun and luck. you are doing very nice things.
    T?lay

  9. Anonymous

    hey, I liked your website, it has a lot of light, and i liked to read it.
    A very good friend of mine has sent your adress to me, to show me that such things are possible. Her name is “R?ya”, it means “dream”. Thanks to her.
    I hope with the inspiration from your website and with a bit of power I can manage also to do thigs that i like to do.
    I wish you a lot of fun and luck. you are doing very nice things.
    T?lay

  10. Anonymous

    hey, I liked your website, it has a lot of light, and i liked to read it.
    A very good friend of mine has sent your adress to me, to show me that such things are possible. Her name is “R?ya”, it means “dream”. Thanks to her.
    I hope with the inspiration from your website and with a bit of power I can manage also to do thigs that i like to do.
    I wish you a lot of fun and luck. you are doing very nice things.
    T?lay

  11. Anonymous

    hey, I liked your website, it has a lot of light, and i liked to read it.
    A very good friend of mine has sent your adress to me, to show me that such things are possible. Her name is “R?ya”, it means “dream”. Thanks to her.
    I hope with the inspiration from your website and with a bit of power I can manage also to do thigs that i like to do.
    I wish you a lot of fun and luck. you are doing very nice things.
    T?lay

  12. Anonymous

    hey, I liked your website, it has a lot of light, and i liked to read it.
    A very good friend of mine has sent your adress to me, to show me that such things are possible. Her name is “R?ya”, it means “dream”. Thanks to her.
    I hope with the inspiration from your website and with a bit of power I can manage also to do thigs that i like to do.
    I wish you a lot of fun and luck. you are doing very nice things.
    T?lay

  13. Anonymous

    hey, I liked your website, it has a lot of light, and i liked to read it.
    A very good friend of mine has sent your adress to me, to show me that such things are possible. Her name is “R?ya”, it means “dream”. Thanks to her.
    I hope with the inspiration from your website and with a bit of power I can manage also to do thigs that i like to do.
    I wish you a lot of fun and luck. you are doing very nice things.
    T?lay

  14. Anonymous

    hey, I liked your website, it has a lot of light, and i liked to read it.
    A very good friend of mine has sent your adress to me, to show me that such things are possible. Her name is “R?ya”, it means “dream”. Thanks to her.
    I hope with the inspiration from your website and with a bit of power I can manage also to do thigs that i like to do.
    I wish you a lot of fun and luck. you are doing very nice things.
    T?lay

  15. Eva

    Great, simple like it is 🙂

  16. christine

    I am reading that book right now! It is gorgeous.

  17. Caroline

    Oh, I’m glad I checked your site today! I haven’t yet read the A. Lamott book but love Caroline Myss and didn’t know that story. I love what he said to her and I’m going to make sure I remember it. Thank you.

  18. Donavan

    Carolyn Myss and Anne Lamott are two of my favorites.
    They both have that real person grit combined with angelic grace.
    Grace and Grit…something to aspire to…and also a heartbreakingly wonderful book by Ken Wilber…another hero of mine.
    At a lecture of Carolyns that I was at, a man in the audience stood up and spoke bravely of his hellish year…lost jobs, lost health, lost loves, lost in translation.
    She said…”Honey, only God can screw up your life that badly”.
    In the times in my life that I have prayed that God would take over, MAJOR shiznit has hit the proverbial fan.
    Now I pray…”God, take over…but please be gentle…I like to go slow”.
    Have a beautiful day flower girl…
    –D

  19. samantha

    i miss our Anne SO MUCH on salon. com. She was the whole reason I started going there in the first place. I love that story, and try to remember that advice when stuff is going crazy around me.
    your new site is gorgeous, andrea! And the ‘pokey flower’ caption made me giggle.

  20. Mary Catherine

    beauty, beauty, so much beauty.
    and the fashion link works like a charm now, thanks! 🙂

  21. ani

    What a lovely thought.

  22. Julia

    How amazing is it,that this story is exactly what I needed to hear today???? My life has been nothing but alot of distractions and frustrations lately….and just today, not an hour ago, I received some news that things may finally be turning a corner for me (in a good way) It must have been fate or karmic destiny for me to read your post today. Thank you for the up-lifing words! 🙂

  23. Meg

    Ohhh… thank you. I’m all teary now. I’ve been horribly ill for 6 weeks, and this is the first time I’ve ever been this sick in my whole life. So, I’m in CA so my parents can help take care of me, and missing my life in New York. I just hit bottom a few minutes ago, and I just felt like I couldn’t take it anymore. So, I said, I’ll check the Superhero Journal. It’s the one thing online that might make me feel better.
    And then you had this post.
    And I LOVED that passage in Traveling Mercies too.
    Sigh. Thanks.
    It is hard to have faith some days, isn’t it?

  24. Bianca

    Ohh! I could not agreed more – what a lovely thought!
    I’m never disappointed – when I visit your corner!
    BBB

  25. natalie

    well, whatever is trying to get itself born better be big and lovely and perfect, because i am hurting, and i am clinging to faith like nothing else. i just read traveling mercies recently and remember stumbling over this passage. thanks for sharing. if you haven’t read it, go run now and get it. peace to all, even if it is hard to feel it some days.

  26. Mabelle

    What a gorgeous entry! You just made my day a cheery one! “The blessing is always at the corner, we just have to hold on”

  27. jenn

    andrea,
    another beautiful picuture… i can’t stop looking at your flower pictures. i love them!
    great story too. i think if we can just sit with things and trust that things are happening the way they are meant to be, we discover so much more. it’s so hard though… quieting the mind long enough, trusting the unknown… taking that leap of faith… especially when it’s during a difficult time. how do we get ourselves to trust in times of hurt? to trust that we are learning, discovering and opening to other things?
    i don’t know about you, but it’s a daily journey for me. sometimes even moment by moment…
    i hear meditation helps a lot, but i can’t seem to quiet the mind….
    any suggestions as to meditation help??
    jenn

  28. Miss E

    I cannot even begin to tell you how much I needed to read this.

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