1.What is your idea of happiness?
Those moments when everything seems lined up, and �all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well� even when they are not. This could be a moment or day long feeling, but when it�s there, it�s there! And it�s all there is; and you meld with it, unbidden. Could be sharing a laugh with a friend; an Oceanside walk; pulling weeds; catching the scent of a Mock Orange shrub; a finch singing outside the window; hearing the scratch-scrabble sound of a squirrel ascending the cedar; a look in the eyes of another; a candle�s flare�.
2.What is your favourite virtue?
Kindness � hands down!! It astonishes me when I am the recipient of a stranger�s kindness. For example, in a grocery store recently, my arms were overfilled with items, and a woman came up to me and said, �I think you need a cart.� She pushed hers towards me, and retrieved another for herself. Sometimes kindness is returned immediately, and also surprising! I was having coffee in a caf�, when a woman in a wheelchair entered. She was buying her elderly mother a coffee, but how would she convey two cups from the caf� counter to the seat where her mother sat? I offered to do so. When they left, the woman in wheelchair pressed a toonie into my hand and said �to pay for your coffee.� She insisted. How will the madness of this world heal if we are not kind to one another � our beloved ones, and the strangers we meet along the way?
3.What is your biggest weakness?
I have so many! Sloth; lack of discipline; procrastination; over-thinking. Writing this, I think they are the flip side of my �strengths�!
4.Who are your favourite poets?
Too many to list! Wendell Berry; Jane Kenyon; Mary Oliver; Jane Hirschfield; Denise Levertov; and Mennonite poets Patrick Friesen, Di Brandt, Sarah Klassen; David Waltner-Toews � because they were the first poems I read that were written by �my people.�
5.Who are your favourite heroes and heroines in history?
From the Bible: The woman at the well, �who was seeking.� Job: because he knew suffering, and abandonment. All those who have a mental illness and those who love them as they are.
6. What do you most dislike?
Self-righteousness. Arrogance. Judgement. One measure for �worth and meaning.�
7. What is your motto?
Listen with all your senses. Be open to astonishment; then write about it.
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