Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Jennifer Grant, Interview #123

Name: Jennifer Grant

Where you live: suburban Chicago

What you do as a vocation or avocation? I’m a writer.

Your two favorite books: 
(Oooh, hard to choose, of course, so I went with first two that came to mind.) 
Call it Sleep by Henry Roth
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Your two favorite songs: 
Into the Mystic by Van Morrison
One Day by Matisyahu

Why you are interested in spirituality?
I am a grateful believer in Christ, have been a member of the Episcopal church for most of my life, and have been blessed to have had a few brushes with the Divine - inescapable, unmistakable ones - over the years.
  
Your favorite quote:
"So you see, imagination needs moodling - long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering." - Brenda Ueland

 Or,

from a song lyric in Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods” (the song is “I Know Things Now” which is full of good quotes):

“Nice is different than good.”

Your favorite web sites: 
I like salon.combbc.com, and Wikipedia.org

Your hero?
American abolitionist and suffragist Lucy Stone.

A spiritual lesson you hope to learn?
I am working on “being still” (and knowing that God is God - Psalm 46:10).  Giving attention to my four children, my marriage, my community and my writing work fills my days to the brim. I am careful about to whom and to what I give my time, but too often fall into the traps of multitasking and “busy-ness.”  I have been at work in a deliberate way since last fall to see God in the people and events around me.  To watch, listen, and wait more carefully for God.

A place in the world where you feel spiritually "connected?"
Last year I had the privilege of visiting Botswana and spending a few days in the Okavango Delta and I still catch my breath to remember its beauty and the sense of sheer wonder in God’s creation I experienced there. Sometimes I almost say, “It’s a magical place,” but then I correct myself.  It’s a spiritual place, overflowing with signs of God’s creativity and love.

 Jennifer's websites:

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