Thursday, September 15, 2011

Amy Julia Becker, Interview #151


Name:
  Amy Julia Becker

Where you live:
 Lawrenceville, NJ


What you do as a vocation or avocation?
 
I am a part-time writer of a blog called Thin Places: Faith Family, and Disability and a memoir, A Good and Perfect Gift: Faith, Expectations and a Little Girl Named Penny. But I spend most of my time with our three children, ages 5, 3, and 7 months, who give me endless fodder for writing!
Your two favorite books: Two of my favorite books are Beloved by Toni Morrison and Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith by Kathleen Norris
Your two favorite songs:
 Big Country (instrumental by Edgar Meyer with Bela Flek) and When the Saints by Sara Groves
Why you are interested in spirituality?
 
 Catching glimpses of God's Spirit at work in the world and in individual lives fascinates me because I believe we are all invited to live with God—rich, full, meaningful lives-- starting here and now and continuing on for eternity. 

Your favorite quote:
 

At this moment, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice,” which is often attributed to Martin Luther King, who was quoting 19th century abolitionist and Unitarian minister Theodore Parker

Your favorite web sites:
 

Bloom--Parenting Kids with DisabilitiesHer.meneutics, the Christianity Today Women's Blog, Motherlode, the New York Times Parenting blog
Your hero?
 
 My daughter Penny, who is 5 1/2, has Down syndrome, for her courage, tenacity, and boundless love.
A spiritual lesson you hope to learn?
 
There's a verse in the Bible that says God gives "peace that passes understanding." I have experienced this peace at times in my life, but I would like for it to be a permanent state of being. 
A place in the world where you feel spiritually "connected?"
Some part of my family has spent the summer in Madison, Connecticut, for almost a century. When I sit on the porch there-- in the presence of an expanse of water, with the smell of the salt marsh behind me, and the memories of family gatherings, I call it a "thin place," a place where heaven and earth meet, if only for a moment. 


Amy Julia Becker is author of A Good and Perfect Gift: Faith, Expectations, and a Little Girl Named Penny (Bethany Books, September, 2011)
"Becker . . . knows how to grab a reader’s heartstrings and never let go . . ." (Publisher's Weekly)

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