Paige Blair, Interview #39

Name: Paige Blair

Where you live: York Harbor, Maine

What you do as a vocation or avocation? I am an Episcopal priest, an iconographer, dog lover and Ashtanga yoga student
Your two favorite books: Only two?
Your two favorite songs: Where the Streets Have No Name
Why you are interested in spirituality? Living into the truth that we are spiritual beings is a crucial part of our human journey

Your favorite quote: "In the Global Village, distance no longer decides who is your neighbor, and 'Love thy neighbor' is not advice, it's a command."--Bono
Your favorite web sites: http://www.e4gr.org/
Your hero? Only one? Ghandi, Beatrix Potter, Martin Luther King Jr, Oscar Romero, Nelson Mandela, the Rt. Rev. Barbara Harris
A spiritual lesson you hope to learn? Surrender
A place in the world where you feel spiritually "connected?" Alaska
Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation www.e4gr.org
Feel the Power of what One can do!

(editor's addition, Paige's very cool blog is http://www.transformationiconography.blogspot.com/

Pat Loughery, Interview #38

Name: Pat Loughery
Where you live: North Bend, Washington (a commuter town of Seattle)
What you do as a vocation or avocation?
I manage software testing projects for a living. I also am a Doctor of Ministry student at Bakke Graduate University, and I enjoy my family and being outdoors, photography, riding motorcycles and bicycles, playing music, traveling and exploring new restaurants.
Your two favorite books:
Well, that's an impossible question, limiting me to just two. I'm not going to do the lame Christian thing and say "The Bible" (though I would pick Psalms and Matthew). How about A Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris, and Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I could live with those two books forever and not grow tired.
Your two favorite cd's:
This is at least as hard. Two that come to mind are Stevie Ray Vaughan - The Sky is Crying and Eric Clapton - Unplugged. Both are deeply spiritual to me.
Why you are interested in spirituality?
We are spiritual beings, and our deepest desires, hopes and fears are spiritual. We long for connection with something greater than us. Our pursuit of love, joy, hope, beauty, all are spiritual journeys. And we're always being spiritually formed, whether we're doing it intentionally or not. I'm interested in intentional spiritual formation, especially as it happens in relationship with others.
Your favorite quote:
"In the evening of life, we will be judged on love alone."-- John of the Cross

"Hope is passion for what is possible."-- Soren Kierkegaard

"You pay God a great compliment by asking great things of Him."-- Teresa of Avila

"Music can change the world because it can change people."-- Bono

"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens."-- Jimi Hendrix

"The way of Jesus is always local and ordinary."-- Eugene Peterson
Your favorite web sites:
I blog at http://patloughery.com/.

For sites I visit all the time:http://pandora.com/ - Streaming music that tailors playlists based on what you like.

http://google.com/reader - Google Reader. I've got lots of stuff in my RSS feeds, and I love being able to share items I like with my friends

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/ - Heartbreaking, funny, deeply troubling and deeply powerful.

http://www.northumbriacommunity.org/PraytheOffice/index.html - Celtic Daily Prayer on the web

http://www.flickr.com/photos/patl/ - I love flickr as a photo community. There's my photostream link.
Your hero?
St. Patrick of Ireland, St. Aidan of Lindisfarne, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
A spiritual lesson you hope to learn?
Right now? What does it mean to live simply, while in an upper middle class neighborhood.
A place in the world where you feel spiritually "connected?"
Lindisfarne and Iona. Actually, mountains and undeveloped waterfront pretty much anywhere.

Stephen McKinney-Whitaker, Interview #37

Name: Stephen McKinney-Whitaker
Where you live: Delavan, Illinois at the moment
What you do as a vocation or avocation? Presbyterian Minister of Word and Sacrament
Your two favorite books: I'm horrible at picking "favorites" so I'll mention 2 that have meant something to me recently-

"Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller

and "Letters to a Young Doubter" by William Sloane Coffin. I also have to add I love any sort of Mythopoetic work like George MacDonald.
Your two favorite cd's: I'm in the generation where we stopped using cd's and just buy individual mp3's. But two complete albums I've been listening to a lot lately are "Jesus Christ Superstar" by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice and "Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long blog" by Joss Whedon.
Why you are interested in spirituality? I believe there is something beyond what we can experience with our senses. I suppose I do favor the romantics and their love and appreciation for the imagination. Within the difficult struggle of every day empirically driven life, those few numinous experiences can give me the strength to carry on and the hope that "all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well."
Your favorite quote: I keep a notebook of quotes that I come across that impact me in some way. I opened to a random page and pointed and this is what was there-
"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will find them gradually, without noticing it, and live along some distant day into the answer." --Rainer Maria Rilke
Your favorite web sites: I love YouTube, Facebook, ESPN.Com (all very spiritual right) and to show off my true nerd colors, I go to http://www.gallifreyone.com/
for my Doctor Who news and information. I also visit a lot of my friends' blogs.
Your hero? Fred Craddock, he brought out my love of preaching and taught me sermons don't have to be 20 minutes of useless boredom I can never get back. He always makes me think and look at Scripture, the world, God, and myself in new and challenging ways.
A spiritual lesson you hope to learn? To actually be patient with all that is unresolved in my heart.
A place in the world where you feel spiritually "connected?" Princeton Theological Seminary and anywhere that is just wonderfully untamed and raw the way God made it.

Check out http://pgrgoodnews.blogspot.com/

Meher Sarkari, Interview #36

Name: Meher Sarkari
Where you live: England
What you do as a vocation or avocation?
Economic Development Officer for Leicester City Council and Chair of FATIMA Women’s Network
Your two favorite books:
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley,
Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse
Your two favorite cd's:
Songs by K.L. Saigal,
Hank Williams Country & Western songs
Why you are interested in spirituality?
Spirituality to me is a profound, powerful. and an inexplicable non- material element in humans. A disembodied intelligence and conciousness existing apart from matter and yet pervading all matter. I am fascinated and amazed to hear incidents of how it comes into focus and is sharpened in times of great physical and emotional stress, illness bereavement and death and lifts the oppressed human spirit often against all odds and empowers them to overcome the often insurmountable obstacles.
Spirituality links the deeply personal with the universal. The universality of spirituality extends across the cultures and creeds of the world and yet feels as unique to each and every one of us.
Your favorite quote:
"A smile enriches those who receive it without impoverishing those who give it."
Your favorite web sites:
http://www.astronomy.com/

http://www.nasa.com/

http://www.e-bay.com/

http://www.fatima-network.com/
A spiritual lesson you hope to learn?
Teachings of Prophet Zoroaster says: Manashni, Gavashni, Kunashni meaning "Think Good Thoughts, Speak good Words, Do Good Deeds."
I always endeavour to live by this and therefore hope to learn to be more tolerant towards everyone.
A place in the world where you feel spiritually "connected?"
I feel spiritually connected when surrounded by nature. I often visit Swithland Woods in Leicester it is a beautiful old wood it gives me the solitude and spiritual energy to recharge and feel spiritually connected.

Christopher Naze, Interview #35

Name: Christopher Naze
Where you live: Sunnyside Neighborhood; Portland, Oregon, USA
What you do as a vocation or avocation? vocation - fifth grade teacher (love it!)
avocation - ballroom dancing (love it!), occasional poet, web author
Your two favorite books:
The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Aubrey/Maturin Series by Patrick O'Brian
Your two favorite cd's:
Head on the Door - The Cure
Cowgirl's Prayer - Emmylou Harris
Why you are interested in spirituality? We have to look inside as well as outside.
Your favorite quote:
"They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel." Carl W. Buehner
"May you never be more active than when you are doing nothing." Cato
"When the student is ready, the teacher appears." Lao Tzu
Your favorite web sites:
days of naze http://naze.net/
treppenwitz http://bogieworks.blogs.com/treppenwitz/
life student http://www.lifestudent.com/hub/
Your hero? John P. Hayden, my high school Honors English teacher http://naze.net/1998/981122.htm
Mr. Rogers
Rod Serling
A spiritual lesson you hope to learn? I'm willing to accept and be grateful for lessons as they come.
A place in the world where you feel spiritually "connected?" My front porch steps on a summer's twilight. At the edge of the reflecting pond at Portland's Japanese Gardens. After a bike ride to the summit of Mount Tabor (Portland).

Sven Nieder, Interview # 34

Name: Sven Nieder
Where you live (vague as you wanna be): Bielefeld / Germany
What you do as a vocation or avocation? photographer
Your two favorite books:
Siddharta / Hesse
Der leere Spiegel / Janwillem van de Wetering
Your two favorite cd's:
The Man Comes Around / Cash
Nevermind / Nirvana
Why you are interested in spirituality?
Because it is life.
Your favorite quote:"No one has ever reached Santiago by sitting in a bar." (unknown)
A spiritual lesson you hope to learn?Patience.
A place in the world where you feel spiritually "connected?"
When I walk on my feet and feel the earth.
http://www.sven-nieder.de/
Portfolio Update: www.freelens.com/sven-nieder
Santiago

Mehmet Basci, Interview #33

Name: Mehmet Basci
Where you live: Basel, Switzerland
What you do as a vocation or avocation? Living peace and remind people of their humanity
Your two favorite books:
World leaders Favourite Poems ;-)
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Your two favorite cd's: Lorena McKennit
Why you are interested in spirituality? Spirituality is essential for humanity. And I believe it is important to have mutual respect with each other and live what we believe in our daily life – a world in peace.
Your favorite quote: Who really wants will achieve (free translation from a sentence from Goethe)
Your favorite web sites:
http://www.unesco.org/
Your hero? Dalai Lama
A spiritual lesson you hope to learn? Humility
A place in the world where you feel spiritually "connected?" my heart

http://www.parthianbooks.co.uk/WLFP.htm World Leaders' Favourite Poems: A Book of Peace - Compiled by Mehmet is a collection of international poetry featuring world famous names; Jorge Luis Borges, Rudyard Kipling, Rainer Maria Rilke, William Wordsworth, Kahil Gibran and Pär Lagerkvist. The poems have all been chosen by national leaders, prime-ministers and presidents including Tony Blair, Ariel Sharon and Gerhard Schröder. There are also personal contributions from some of these influential world leaders themselves such as AJP Abdul Kalam and Ludwig Scotty with a foreword written by Swiss president, Micheline Calmy-Rey.