Ben Kohns

“You pay twenty-five dollars to hear one of my heroes, Thich Nhat Hanh, say: “When you walk, just walk.” You think: I paid good money for this? Notice your feet as they connect to the earth? Left foot, right foot, breathe? Crazy.”
― Anne Lamott, Dusk, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage

“She told me not long ago, “I’m not suicidal, but sometimes I wish I was dead.” This is the point beyond exhaustion, when you can’t see how you’ll ever fill up again. And then she does, through what she calls lunch-money faith: nothing dramatic, and just enough.”
― Anne Lamott, Dusk, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage

“Ever so gradually over time our understanding of ourselves gets shaped by what we do and what we’ve done. We cling, we grasp, we hold tightly to these identities. And then we find ourselves without them. Sometimes because we chose to leave them behind, other times they’re taken away without our consent. I felt so exposed. So vulnerable. I remember my friend Chris telling me that people were asking him, What happened to Rob? As in Where’d he go? as in Is he doing anything? I remember feeling this low-level dread when he told me that. Like a cold shudder. One harmless comment from a friend, and my imagination ran wild with endless ruminations on how to set the record straight and let those people know that I was still in the game. That’s the thing about liminal space: You’re really tender. Raw. Susceptible to those old forces and fears. I didn’t have regret, I was flirting with something far more powerful: fear. Fear that it appeared like I didn’t have any idea what I was doing. Fear that it looked like I couldn’t hack it, so I left. Fear that people thought I was somebody, and then I’d thrown it away. And here’s the killer one: Fear that I appeared to be done.”
― Rob Bell, Everything Is Spiritual: Finding Your Way in a Turbulent World

“Boy, the young are angry at us. Good. This is what usually changes the world, although it’s a new experience to be the us the young are mad at.”
― Anne Lamott, Dusk, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage