I read Anne Lamott’s newest book, Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair, back in October of last year. The book hit shelves the end of October. My reading was prior to its release date thanks to Penguin’s First to Read program.

Do you know how to sew? Do you care? What happens when something needs mending? When a new garment is too long?

I’m not one for looking for an analogy in everything. In my world, life is pretty straight forward. Until it’s not. Until it’s a sharp right-hand turn.

Anne Lamott’s newest book – Stitches – has me seeing life in a new light. I know we are all broken, hopefully still mostly whole, but broken nonetheless. I’ve never once given a thought to mending that brokenness as opposed to just living with it.

As with Lamott, it is probably the perfectionist in me  – if anyone who has raised six children can have an ounce of perfectionism left in them – who makes me think we live with the brokenness in people. We don’t try to fix it as then the perfection is gone. That is just so wrong.

When things are mended, a new perfect appears. When a sock is darned a new heel appears because, after all, it is nearly always the heel that gives out.

Lamott’s Stitches will have you looking for the fabric that can anchor a thread and stitch your reality together.