My coming to faith did not start with a leap but rather a series of staggers from what seemed like one safe place to another. Like lily pads, round and green, these places summoned and then held me while I grew. Each prepared me for the next leaf on which I would land, and in this way I moved across the swamp of doubt and fear.
When I look back at some of those resting places - the boisterous home of the Catholics, the soft armchair of the Christian Science mom, adoption by ardent Jews - I can see how flimsy and indirect a path they made. Yet each step brought me closer to the verdant path of faith on which I somehow stay afloat today.
Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
Anne writes that she has now moved -- past tense -- across the swamp of doubt and fear to the verdant path of faith. I should have thought jumping from lily-pad to lily-pad is pretty much how it continues to be right through to the end.
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