You've been the keeper of your extended family's archives. How did
this come about?
My maternal grandmother, Naya, was a great hero in my childhood.
She was full of wonderful tales about her own forebearers, cousins, aunts
and some uncles. She kept me spellbound by her stories and photographs,
and that's when the seed was planted. As the years have gone by, other
members of my family, my contemporaries, knowing what I do, simply sent to
me their diaries, letters and other memorabilia.
Tell me about when you first realized that you had a strong
connection to your ancestors, a connection that penetrates the veil between
life and death?
Before I did any conjuring up of Naya, I imagined her reaction
to things I was seeing, and I could picture how she felt about certain
subjects. So in that way, I began. In Greece, people would go to the
graves of their ancestors, talk to them and imagine how they would reply.
I thought about my grandmother a lot in this way. When I started to write
Eyes of the Heart, I wrote it sitting in "the Magic Kingdom," the
room where I do my work. I looked around and stared at objects that
reminded me of her. I thought, 'Why don't I just bring her here?' It
wasn't anything spooky. It was really an interesting experience because I
had a strong sense of what she would say, not what I would like her to say.
It almost was like having a conversation with her when I started writing
about her. And at one point I think I asked her, 'Look, am I putting all
these words in your mouth?' But she said, 'Well, you might just say I'm
putting these words in your mouth.' And that's true.
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Most of the time, God is saying something to me through something that
has happened, something I've seen.
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Is divine guidance all around us and available to us if we're open
to the possibility?
Most of the time, God is saying something to me through
something that has happened, something I've seen. It is a word of
reassurance and affirmation that gives me a sense there is a right path,
and maybe I've stumbled upon it, not always, but often enough. This
guidance doesn't always take the form of coincidence. For years I was
alienated from the church. I felt irritated, unnourished, and guilty for
feeling that way. I almost stopped going. I can only say by grace, I
found my way to a church which has nourished and touched me. Where again
and again, I find tears in my eyes, not necessarily because of anything
that's been said, but because of the presence of God.
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Everything I've written could be summed up with the phrase 'Listen to
your life, pay attention to what happens to you.'
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If more of us spoke openly about our direct experiences of God would
we realize they're not all that uncommon?
I hope that by writing about things I do, I will help people open
up to the possibility of finding their own lives. Everything I've written
could be summed up with the phrase 'Listen to your life, pay attention to
what happens to you.' Into your life, God speaks. An awful lot of people
live their lives on automatic pilot, they don't pay much attention to
what's going on in their lives. They don't look to the news of their day
because they're busy looking at the news of the world's day on television.
Pay attention to what happens to you. God is speaking to you.
Why are people so reticent to talk about their own experience of
God? Is it because people don't slow down enough to even have those
experiences?
If they slow down enough to experience God, they don't pay
attention and don't spend much time looking back or looking inward. On the
other hand, if they do have those experiences, they're taking a chance if
they talk about them. They're exposing a very sensitive part of who they
are. People might laugh, people might be bored, people might walk away.
And yet don't you think people are hungry for that kind of sharing?
Oh, I do indeed. Most of the letters that I get from readers
--and I get a lot--say, 'Thank you very much for opening up your life
because you've helped us so much to open our lives.'
You talk about 'Underneath are the everlasting arms...'
Right. Terrible things may well happen, and terrible things do
happen to all of us. Hearts are broken, lives shattered, but, ultimately,
underneath it all, nothing can separate us from the love of God. All will
be well. All will be well.
Can you talk about another direct experience that you've had of God,
for example, when you were on the plane during severe turbulence?
That's where I thought of the phrase from Deuteronomy,
'Underneath the everlasting arms.' I hate flying, and this plane was going
through all sorts of wild gyrations, bouncing around, and I thought, 'Oh my
God!' And other things came into my mind, a vivid image that said that
even if the plane tumbles from the sky and crashed, beneath that crash
would be the everlasting arms. All would be all right. And once that
occurred to me, the terror went and became almost kind of wild and scary,
but a joyous adventure.
How would you describe grace?
Grace is an unmerited gift from God of himself. It's "on the
house." It comes free and it comes whether or not you know you need it.
Does the receiving of grace have to be a conscious act?
No, grace is a wonderful thing that happens suddenly. Some act
of love, some act of compassion, a sign of forgiveness comes and transforms
a person in an instant whether or not that person consciously accepts it.
Can we sharpen our vision to see more clearly through the 'Eyes of
the Heart?
Yes, I think so. I mean almost literally, keep your eyes open.
We can train ourselves to see what happens around us. In particular, pay
attention to the moment when tears come to your eyes for unexpected
reasons. This is the time we are touched by the mystery, by holiness. At
the end of your day, look at your victories, your defeats, the hungers fed,
old wars fought. Keep your eyes open.
