Meg answers Molly’s 3 questions!

Molly asked me these 3 questions, and I answered them for her, and wanted to share my answers with you!

1. When you think about ways to spend your time, what do you find yourself most passionate about (might be your occupation, or might not--also could be hobby or leisure activity)?

I am passionate about the big round moon which just peeped out behind the clouds. I am passionate about trees and sunshine and rain and rhythms. In a little moment of free time, I like to dance under my sacred trees in our garden, and in a longer moment I like to hike in the Cascade Mountains, especially in places which feel untouched by human hands.

Another thing I am passionate about is nurturing and caring for people, especially those who are small or powerless. I am passionate about mothering my children. I want to comfort people and make the world around them less threatening. Our family sponsors an 8 year old child named Raha who lives on the West Bank in Israel. When we receive photographs of her I cry, because it is such an honour that we get to provide her with clothes and food and schooling. I worked for a while in Uganda, as a midwife and nurse in a rural community. I am passionate about justice, and sharing power with those who have very little. My ideals and actions don’t always match up here as I would like. Materialism sucks me in.

I am passionate about exploration and discovery. I love going to places I’ve never been, meeting people who are very different from me. I’ve visited 39 countries (and 39 United States, and I’m 39!)

2. What about doing this activity gives you life? Other ways to ask this same question: What do you like about doing this activity? How does it encourage you to be more like you were created to be? What do you find nurturing about it? What about it feels like a little taste of heaven--"everything as it should be?"

Nature is life-giving for me. I feel pure when surrounded by trees, mountains, lakes, sky. I feel a part of creation, created by God, amongst other beautiful things created by God. I love the feeling of water on my skin as I dive into an alpine lake. I love keeping track of the moon’s waxing and waning, and the seasons pattern. Nature nurtures me, satiates me, feeds me. In nature I can see, and feel my part, which is heavenly.

Nurturing enlivens me in that being the strong, loving arms around my children is very peaceful. It reminds me of God’s strong loving arms around me. It feels heavenly to have a little place in giving comfort to another, and making the world happier.

Travelling is exhilarating for me because it awakens my sense of wonder, and fulfills my longing to see and know more.

3. Does this activity play some part in restoring your relationship with God? With others? With the environment around you and/or beyond?

Nature is crucial in restoring my relationship with God. Every month (thanks, dear husband Bens for helping this be possible!) I have a day alone in nature – in summer I hike in the Cascade Mountains, in winter I ski. This time reconnects me with God. The things which are sad and angering for me and in me I can pour out to God. Nature is his purifying, cleansing embrace around me. These monthly sojourns are helpful in my relationships with others, especially those relationships experiencing difficulty. God’s kindness and nurture so evident in his created beauty enable me to be honest and acknowledge my part in these relationship difficulties, and God guides me in what to say and how to say it. Especially my relationships with Bens and Eowyn and Cosette, the three to whom I am closest in all the world.

Nurturing restores the peace and comfort in my girls’ hearts, and others hearts. I like the old definition of religion as being to ‘religamentise’ – to bring healing and putting back together. Playing this role in others’ lives is restorative and hope-inspiring for them and for me. My actions can hurt others, too, and experiencing redemption and forgiveness and grace from others is healing for me.

Travelling restores my relationship with God, because seeing the abundance, the wonder, the diversity, the pain in his creation shows me him, his experiencing our human pain with us, his sorrow, his suffering, his redemption, his glory. I am thankful for him.