Daniel Walker, Interview #153

Name: Daniel Walker

Where you live: New Zealand

What you do as a vocation or avocation? Detective and Author

What are your two favorite books? The Bible and A Wolf Story by Jes Byron Huggins

Your two favorite songs: "The Power of Love" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood and "I want to know what love is" by Foreigner.

Why you are interested in spirituality? Because I have found it to be the essence of who I am as a human being and as a man.  It has allowed me to "suck the marrow" out of life without it passing me by. 

Your favorite quote:  "All men die one day. Not all men truly live." 

Your favorite web sites:  www.hagarinternational.org and www.compassion.com

Your hero? Jesus is my hero, because he seems to me to be the most "unreligious" person who ever lived and was yet the most fully alive human being who ever lived.   I love it that it was the "religious" people he upset the most and who ultimately wanted him dead. 

A spiritual lesson you hope to learn?  I hope to learn how to love more fully and become more fully alive, even as my body ages and decays. 

A place in the world where you feel spiritually "connected?"  New Zealand has so many beautiful places where I have felt "connected" and for that we are very spoilt.

Karen Skalitzky, Interview #152

Name: Karen Skalitzky
 
Where you live: Chicago, IL
 
What you do as a vocation or avocation?

I am a writer, speaker, and spiritual director. My book, A Recipe for Hope: Stories of Transformation by People Struggling with Homelessness, was inspired by the men and women I met volunteering at Inspiration Café. www.arecipeforhope.com

I also have my own business as an educational consultant and am in the process of becoming an adoptive mom.
 
Your two favorite books:

Ah, there are so many! Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, recently captured my heart, and An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith, by Barbara Brown Taylor, is one I return to again and again.  
 
Your two favorite songs:

Bring on the Wonder – Sara McLachlan

Amazing Grace – as performed by Liz Wright

Why you are interested in spirituality?

To me, the spiritual path is a way of bringing us home to ourselves, to the wisdom that is already in us, to the wholeness that God is calling forth from us. Being on that journey and companioning others is an amazing gift.  
 
Your favorite quote:

This is from Isabelle Allende, best known for her book The House of Spirits. She was asked in an interview about the death of her daughter.

“Many years have gone by, but the feeling of loss is still there and there’s some sadness. I don’t want to get rid of that sadness; it’s part of who I am today. I feel like it’s a fertile soil at the bottom of my heart where everything wonderful grows – creativity, compassion, love, and even joy.”

Your favorite web sites:

I’m always inspired by simple ideas that generate immense goodness in the world. Here are two: www.storycorp.org and www.donorschoose.org.
 
Your hero?

Rachel Naomi Remen, author of Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal, for reminding us of the healing power of our own stories. Remen is a physician who sits with people during times of great medical crisis.
 
A spiritual lesson you hope to learn?

Letting go into, as my friend likes to say, and trusting.
 
A place in the world where you feel spiritually "connected?"

This place changes for me. As of late, I feel most spiritually connected in the quiet of the early morning when I’m working in the flower garden I planted. The city is still asleep, and I get to witness the beauty of creation all around me.
 

Karen's book: A Recipe for Hope: Stories of Transformation by People Struggling with Homelessness

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 Disabilities, Her.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)

www.amyjuliabecker.com
http://www.patheos.com/community/thinplaces/

"Becker . . . knows how to grab a reader’s heartstrings and never let go . . ." (Publisher's Weekly)

Graham Farmelo, Interview #150

Name: Graham Farmelo

Where you live: London, UK

What you do as a vocation or avocation?  Vocation – writer, avocation – physicist, but wish it were the reverse

Your two favorite books:                            Middlemarch by George Eliot, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Your two favorite songs: ‘Bewitched, bothered and  bewildered’ by Rodgers & Hart, ‘I am the Walrus’ by Lennon & McCartney

Why you are interested in spirituality? Because it exemplifies how something can arise from nothing

Your favorite quote: ‘Only our surfaces are important; deep down, we’re all the same’ – Oscar Wilde

Your favorite web sites: www.bbc.co.uk

Your hero? The author of the plays of Shakespeare, even if it wasn’t Shakespeare

A spiritual lesson you hope to learn? I can never articulate things I don’t know

A place in the world where you feel spiritually "connected?" Everywhere – no single point in space or instant in time is privileged: a fundamental lesson of physics


  

Diana Charabin, Interview #149

Name: Diana Charabin

Where you live: Canada, California, and everywhere else West Coast.

What you do as a vocation or avocation? I have created an inspiring company called Tiny Devotions ww.tinydevotions.com that spreads the awareness about mala beads and setting intentions.

Your two favorite books: Shantaram and The Monk Who Sold his Ferrari 


Your two favorite songs: Anything by Bon Ivor or Angus and Julia Stone


Why you are interested in spirituality? This goes along with my favourite quote.... "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience but rather spiritual beings having a human experience." Our spirit IS why we are here.


Your favorite quote: see above 


 Your favorite web sites:  www.ted.com   www.crazysexylife.com - www.whitehottruth.com - 
        www.essenceofliving.com.au -


Your hero? Anyone authentic living their truth.

A spiritual lesson you hope to learn? How to be in the flow no matter where you are.

A place in the world where you feel spiritually "connected?" Gold Coast, Australia.

        See Diana's work at www.tinydevotions.com

P. V. Vaidyanathan, Interview #148

Name: Dr. P. V. Vaidyanathan

Where you live: Mumbai, India 

What you do as a vocation or avocation? I am a practicing Pediatrician

Your two favorite books:

A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

Quantum Healing by Deepak Chopra

Your two favorite songs:

None

Why you are interested in spirituality?

To be able to understand life and its apparent contradictions and complexities

Your favorite quote:

"Give to others, not because you have, but because you know what it is not to have"

Your favorite web sites:
www.speakingtree.in

www.rediff.com

Your hero?

Swami Vivekananda, India

A spiritual lesson you hope to learn?

How to be in relationship with others with only love, nothing else

A place in the world where you feel spiritually "connected?"

Anywhere and everywhere

Bob Bennett, Interview #147

Name: Bob Bennett

 
Where you live:  Costa Mesa, CA (behind the OC Curtain)

 
What you do as a vocation or avocation?: Singer-Songwriter-Recording Artist

 
Your two favorite books:

Sailing Alone Around the Room (collected poems of Billy Collins)

His audio CD "The Best Cigarette" is a free download HERE.

Book of Common Prayer (1928 edition with incomparable English)

 
Your two favorite songs:

Gloria in Excelsis (text from the BCP, musical setting by Healy Willan)

"Birth of a Song" by Steve Bell (Canadian, criminally unknown here in U.S.)

(Sh-h-h: Here's a LINK to the whole song!) 

Why you are interested in spirituality?

I'm most interested in an approach to  spirituality that integrates with and

affirms the necessity and blessing of physical, human existence. In other

words, not ascending somewhere beyond to get away from the here-and-

now. In my Christian faith tradition, the Incarnation of Jesus is the Big

Indicator that truth-in-theory is of little use until you hang your life,

conduct, and choices on it … until truth is, in the old parlance, "made flesh".

 
Your favorite quote:

"The artistic temperament is a disease that afflicts amateurs." -- G.K. Chesterton

"I prefer clarity over agreement."  -- Dennis Prager

 
Your favorite web sites:

www.archive.org -- Never take "no" for an answer on a "missing" web page.

www.imdb.com -- Movie trivia is my favorite part of any listing.

www.en.wikipedia.org -- Almost everything with variable accuracy!
 
Your hero?

I'm a "Jesus Guy", so as expected … Him!
 
A spiritual lesson you hope to learn?

How to be a better human and a better Christian while driving.

To better lose my life so I can truly find it. (Matthew 10:39)

Contrary to _everything_ our culture proclaims, it really is NOT all about me.
 
A place in the world where you feel spiritually "connected?"

St. Matthew's Anglican Catholic Church (Newport Beach, CA)

Blue Rock Artist and Ranch Studio (Wimberley, TX)

Wherever great music is being made and really listened to!

Editor's Note: Bob's web site is www.bob-bennett.com

Blog readers can be directed to one of Bob's songs for listening and/or download: "Altar in the Field"

www.bob-bennett.com/bob-bennett-altar-in-the-field.mp3

Or check out Bob's songs on YouTube

and/or  Small Graces