An Interview

Scott had an interview on his blog and suggested that if anyone else wanted to be interview that he would do the same. Never having done that before I decided to go for it. So here's the format:
1. leave me a comment saying "interview me"
2. I will respond by asking you five questions, that I have picked.
3. you will update your weblog with the answers to the questions.
4. you will include this explanation and offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. when others comment asking to be interviewed you will ask them 5 questions.

So here are my questions from Scott:

1. Your writing is full of such great imagery. Who or what would you consider to be the biggest influence on your writing?
My answer has both who and what. The "who" is an author by the name of W. Phillip Keller. He was a traveller, photographer, writer, agronomist and a shepherd. His writings were the first spiritual writings I ever read that vividly brought God alive for me. He not only had a passion for the outdoors but saw the Creator visibly in nature. I could "see" God, "feel" God and began to know God when I read his books. It started my personal journey of finding intimacy with the Almighty when I went off alone into the mountains when I lived in Alberta. I had always been told that intimacy with God was only really experienced in a corporate setting - yet I never felt it. Being alone with Abba outdoors was the only place I felt whole.
The "what" of my writing is the wind. The wind always speaks to me and to feel it on my body, or to watch it affecting the trees and the sea. I used to go to the park in Calgary on my lunch hour, with paper and pen in hand and wait to feel the wind and then begin to write what I observed and felt. For me the wind is Ruach, it is the Spirit moving, whispering or even shouting, but it powerfully affects my senses when I write.

How do you think you've changed as a result of your trip to the Ukraine?
I sure hope I have changed! What happened was the first week I saw Hope through the eyes of legalism and I saw my life up until 4 years ago. The next week I saw Hope through the eyes of freedom, which is my life now. I believe this has released some bitterness. Telling my story, publically for the first time, of childhood abuse, has in a most unusual way allowed me to actually feel lighter. It gave me the opporunity to connect with another and see her tell her story and find freedom. I feel as if the coat of shame, and control, that has been my life story was removed. Also I more clearly see how we walk beside others in their pain but we are not there to fix them - only to walk along with them, daily learning to celebrate the increasing freedom that comes as we use our voice to share the redeeming in our story.

You're watching TV and something makes you jump off the couch and say "YES". What was it?
A program that tells the truth of what is really in our food today and how toxic our diets have become, and they are willing to stand up against the pharmaceutical companies and huge food conglomerates that are hiding the destructive truth from the public.

If you could spend an hour with one person from any time in history, who would it be?
Today, it would be Maya Angelou. She is a Renaissance woman who has blended the art of cooking and the art of writing in a new book. I'd love to sit in her kitchen and hear her talk about her book Hallelujah, THe Welcome Table. I'd love to write a book about life and food, so perhaps I would catch the scent of it by spending some time sitting at her kitchen table.

What is your favorite thing about blogging?
Blogging has given me a wider audience for my snippets and etchings of life moments. It has been an amazing place to literarily put my thoughts and gain the courage to verbalize them face to face with others. I love how visiting other blogs is like a "library of periodicals" which enlarges my circumference of thinking. The blogging world has infused learning, growing, challenge, and viewpoints of life from different angles with the ability to dialogue on them with the writer.

Thanks Scott for the opportunity and the fun of doing this.