Anne Lamott’s praise-and-amazement prayer

A few years ago, I added the praise-and-amazement prayer, Wow. It’s the prayer of remembering to step outside when we are in monkey mind, or in bondage to self, or on the rat exercise wheel. The willingness to change or seek healing almost always comes from the pain, of (in my case) obsesssing or blaming. My default response to almost any irritation or discomfort is to try to figure out who to blame–whose fault my bad feelings are, and how can I change that person’s behavior or opinion. But if I pray for help, often the answer is to step outside and look at the wildflowers, or birds, and the night sky, and I’m almost always restored to wonder, and humiluty, which is to say, Peace. And my mouth drops open: Wow.

~Anne Lamott, Facebook post, 7/27/2012