About Me
Welcome, friends, to my online journal!
My name is Niamh. I am 16, a high school student, a Bible and theology geek, a lover of nature, and a Christian from the Western United States.
If asked, I would describe myself as spiritually curious; a seeker of all things I find to be filled with the Spirit. I have been raised in a beautiful Episcopal Church that has deeply shaped my relationship with community, liturgy, and rhythm.
It can be a struggle to find a form of Christianity directed towards fellow teenagers that isn’t synonymous with the fundamentalist, authoritarian, and polarized right-wing path our country seems to be heading towards. It feels profoundly troublesome to me that, due in part to social media, my generation is presented with the idea that faith requires certainty and correctness. We are increasingly either pushed into Christian extremism or told we don’t have a space in the faith at all. I deeply believe that a more expansive, nuanced, loving, and even doubtful Christianity is possible and profoundly desired by my generation.
I have started this blog with several main goals:
- To document my changing and evolving relationship with God and religion.
- To share random pieces of writing instead of keeping them locked up in my journal. Writing allows me to filter through the frenzied distraction that the world can often be.
- To share my various ramblings on the topics that interest me: the Bible, religion, history, nature.
- To explore my connection to the natural world in an urban environment. It is a way of asking the question of what it means to be a sentient being on the delicate, miraculous, and extraordinary planet we all share.
Now, a little bit about me…
I am interested in topics of language, nature, environmental justice, and the climate crisis. I also enjoy knitting, wandering outside, reading, and studying scripture. I adore history, especially that of the Ancient Near East, the Islamic world, and, more closely, the early United States.
If anyone happens to be reading this, thank you. I am enormously grateful for your time and attention, and for listening to my little ramblings.
~ Peace be with you,
Niamh
FAVOURITE BOOK IN THE BIBLE:
This is an impossible question, but right now I’d have to say either Ruth, Genesis, or Matthew.
FAVOURITE TYPE OF FOOD:
I adore any and all types of Indian food, especially Gujarati cuisine for its amazing flavors and the wide number of vegetarian/vegan options.
DREAM TRAVEL DESTINATIONS:
India, Algeria, Lebanon, or Jordan. It would be an extraordinary experience to be able to visit the Holy Land, practice my very beginner Arabic, and spend time around such beautiful, resilient, faithful people. I also love New Mexico.
FAVOURITE LANGUAGES:
I think Arabic is a deeply rich, almost transcendent at times, language. I also love Gaelic, although I have fallen off the bandwagon of learning it. I desperately want to learn Biblical Hebrew, but there’s not enough room in my brain for that ;)
FAVOURITE PLACE TO FIND GOD:
I live in quite a loud city, but looking upwards to the leaves above my head, the blue sky, the sound of crickets in the summer… Sometimes, I locate a feeling of total oneness. Most simply, this is what I call God.