“The structure of routine comforts us, and the specialness of ritual vitalizes us,” explains Maria Popova. “A full life calls for both — too much control, and we become mummified; too little excitement and pleasurable discombobulation, and we become numb. After all, to be overly bobulated is to be dead inside — to doom oneself to a life devoid of the glorious and ennobling messiness of the human experience.”

She rejoices over a book by Anne Lamott on organizing our chaos with hope.