Terry Tempest Williams:
“In Community, Anything Is Possible”
BY B R AD M A R T EL L , Peace and Justice Ministries
Terry Tempest Williams, recipient of this year’s Community of Christ International Peace Award, recently answered questions from Brad A. Martell of Peace and Justice Ministries on the significance of the award, her background, and her hopes.
Q: How do you feel about receiving the Community of Christ International Peace Award?
A: I am deeply humbled by this recognition and to be seen in the context of a peacemaker. I also am moved by the support of Community of Christ and all that binds us together through our shared religious origins.
Q: When did you first make the connection between the brokenness of nature and the brokenness of human beings?
A: I was hunting with my family—my father, my uncle, and brothers. We were in the West Desert of Utah, walking through sage. A rabbit darted in front of us. Someone pulled the trigger and shot the rabbit. The men moved on. I stayed with the rabbit. In a sense, I killed it. And in that glare of the rabbit’s eye, I saw my own brokenness.
| Williams, a visionary author, naturalist, and activist, will receive the 18th Community of Christ International Peace Award on October 21. The event will be open to the public and webcast live at www.CoChrist.org from the Temple in Independence, Missouri. |
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Q: How has your faith/spirituality informed your work?
A: There is a…scripture I carry with me:
The earth rolls upon her wings; and the sun giveth his light by day, and the moon giveth her light by night; and the stars also giveth their light, as they roll upon their wings, in their glory, in the midst of the power of God. Unto what shall I liken these kingdoms, that ye may understand? Behold, all these are kingdoms, and any man who hath seen any or the least of these, hath seen God moving in his majesty and power.”
—Section 85:12a–c in Community of Christ’s Doctrine and Covenants
—Section 88:44–47 in the Mormon Doctrine and Covenants
Q: Tell us a little about your family heritage?
A: My family is Mormon. Six generations. Our history follows the trail of the Handcart Company, coming across the Plains to Salt Lake City from Missouri in 1847, on my father’s side. And on my mother’s side of the family, they fled to Colonia Dublan in Mexico to escape persecution from polygamy.
Q: In your book, Refuge, you focus on the women in your family. What is the greatest wisdom you learned from them?
A: To be present with the moment at hand. The women in my family were great listeners. When you were with them, they were completely present. Awake, alert, and engaged.
Q: What is the greatest wisdom you have learned from life other than human?
A: I trust the process of life, no matter how difficult.
Q: Tell us about your book, Finding Beauty in a Broken World, and how it came to be. How has it changed your life?
A: The book found its genesis September 11, 2001. I was in Washington, D.C. I saw the black plume of smoke rising from the Pentagon. The question, “How do we fi nd beauty in a broken world?” haunted me. Mosaic became my path of inquiry, both as an art form and a metaphor. Finding beauty in a broken world is creating beauty in the world we find. Rwanda changed my life. It has become an open door to the resiliency of the human spirit.
Q: Can you tell us a little about what you are working on now?
A: I am working on a book called When Women Were Birds. It is a series of meditations on voice—how we fi nd it, keep it, use it. The book will be published next spring by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Q: What has been the greatest challenge for you in your work?
A: Balance.
Q: Tell us about a time when you experienced God’s Spirit in nature? How did it impact your life?
A: Birds have always spoken to me. They are mediators between heaven and Earth. They remind us of the presence of Other. We do not exist on this planet alone.
I wrote this prayer as a gratitude to the grace and power of their ongoing voice in the world:
I pray to the birds.
I pray to the birds because I believe they will carry the messages of my heart upward. I pray to them because I believe in their existence, the way their songs begin and end each day—the invocations and benedictions of Earth. I pray to the birds because they remind me of what I love rather than what I fear. And at the end of my prayers, they teach me how to listen.
Q: As Community of Christ seeks to honor the Sacredness of Creation, what words of wisdom would you offer?
A: To honor the Sacredness of Creation, we can be present with beauty. We can participate daily in the vulnerability of life through empathy.
I try to make eye contact each day with another species. I try to appreciate the wonder of the world around us, be it the sweet smell of sage after a rainstorm in the desert or finding a shell on a beach and lifting it to my ear. The secret of light housed inside a painting or an unexpected conversation with a friend is also part of engaging the sacred.
We, too, are part of creation. Joy, for me, is the recognition that peace rises from suffering. It is the humble embrace of hope. We can work for a world, interconnected and interrelated that celebrates the diversity of life, both human and wild—each with our own gifts, each in our own time. Creation is where peace dwells.
Q: Is there anything else you would like to share?
A: I believe in the power of community. In community, anything is possible. Herein, lies my commitment as a writer.