As we often tell newcomers at our meetings, give it a try—and if, after a month or so, you are not feeling happier and more peaceful, we will gladly refund your misery. And if you do give the path described in this book a try, buckle up, because Brother Rohr may just take you to places you've both avoided and longed for, to truth, union, joy, laughter, and, greatest of all, to your own precious self, here on earth with us, child of God. —Anne Lamott

Your heart needs to be broken—and broken open—at least once to discover what your heart means and to have a heart for others.

Your most effective ministry will come out of your deepest hurts.

Even as a child I had a strong relationship with yearning and desire. And loss. Those things spoke to me.

The good die first, and they whose hearts are dry as summer dust, burn to the socket.

She died, and left to me This heath, this calm and quiet scene, The memory of what has been, And never more will be.

I think your heart needs to be broken, and broken open, at least once to have a heart at all or to have a heart for others.

Since the death of his daughter, a consumptive, he had not thrashed a woman; he lived alone.

Since my father's death, nothing mattered to me anymore.

You have entered an abnormal, lonely, and unwelcome new world where you are nothing but an island of sadness.

Grief is a powerful force that settles in the heart like a dark, heavy fog. It was familiar territory to me.

All great spirituality is about what we do with our pain.