In “Forgiveness,” she shares her attempt to actually forgive someone.
In an essay called, “Mom,” she says that forgiveness is giving up all hope of having had a different past.
In the section titled “Dad,” she talks about the of breaking up with a man she adored and says, “I understood that it was going to have to do once again with having tried to get a man to fill the hole that began in childhood and that my dad’s death widened.” She speaks of her relationships with men. She talks to God all the time and asks God for what she needs. And yet, she has a deep, abiding faith and strong sense of God’s presence in all the parts of her life. Now she talks to God regularly, and in Traveling Mercies she lets us listen in. But the singing from the church drew her in, and eventually she was sitting inside listening to the music and to God. She says it was just the right place to go when recovering from a hangover–the flea market, not the church. Andrew Presbyterian Church, a predominately African American church across the street from her favorite flea market. Her recovery from alcoholism led her to St. Wise and wacky, they often leave me thinking, “Well, if she can survive life, so can I.” No matter how bad things get (and having her father die of cancer, being bulimic and alcoholic, having a baby without a partner, and then having her best friend die of cancer is pretty challenging) she finds hope, humor, wisdom, or compassion. Her essays are like delicious moral tales. This book is the story of finding it again, her life in a church in Marin County, and the link between her recovery from drinking and finding her place with God. As an adult, she let her spirituality go underground.
She tracks her spiritual development from her California childhood in a nonreligious home with a father she adored. Lamott writes about her life, her faith, and her crazy relationships. I just wanted her to keep talking to me.” Reading the book was almost like having her curled up on the sofa next to me drinking a cup of tea and chatting away. Nearly everyone says the same thing about this book, “I didn’t want it to end. Every afternoon for a whole week this fall, I’d say to myself, “Oh goodie, I get to go home and be with Annie tonight.” I was reading Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith, Anne Lamott’s latest collection of essays.
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