Last night.  Last night I met her.  Her.  I am still weepy over it all this morning.

It was spring break my first year of seminary when I was introduced to her.  I was on a train headed to see a friend in Boston and brought along "Traveling Mercies" for the journey.  As I sat  by myself on that train of strangers I laughed out loud and cried without restraint.  Her words did that for me.  It was her honesty--she said things that were so true that I had no choice but to respond in kind.  How did she do that?  She just said the truth and it was both refreshing and foreign to me.  I loved it and couldn't comprehend it and wanted it--craved it.  And who knows if this incident on the train was the chicken or the egg--but it is a good enough place to call a beginning (or at least a significant marker) on my own personal road of revelation and truth telling.  Anne Lamott's words were a beacon telling me that I could go there--I could make my way to the shadows and still survive.  Every book of hers that I have since read has reaffirmed this message and provided inspiration to continue on my way.  Her words have become part of my inner chatter and so often I borrow her insight to make my way through the muck.

A couple of weeks ago I walked out a different door after church and happened to pass by a table.  Even though the lights had already been turned off her printed face on a postcard jumped out to me.  She was coming to lecture in two weeks!  I flew from the sanctuary to Bill shoving the postcard in his face saying "my birthday!  my birthday!".  And then I stared at her picture the whole way home and proceeded to daydream about the event everyday afterward.

She did not disappoint.  She speaks exactly as she writes--humorously, honestly, passionately.  The room was so crowded that even though I had come w/ friends I had to sit by myself.  And just like on the train--surrounded by strangers--I laughed out loud and cried without restraint.  She spoke from the pulpit (of course she did!) and it was holy.  It was church.