Founder, Deborah Forhan Rimmler

I was inspired to start this blog to create a place for people to share their personal stories and experiences of the Divine, mainly because I have found that I feel closer to God when other people share their “truth” and muse about how they create Grace in their ordinary and extraordinary lives.

I’m the kind of girl to whom the scriptures never spoke directly. The Bible of my childhood didn’t deeply inspire me or connect me to the universe. Yet a minister or friend’s personal faith would bring God to life. My beloved writer Anne Lamott’s love of Jesus and intimate sharing of her funny and brutally honest relationship with her Savior genuinely connects me to Him. The same goes for other prophets. When my brother was in a coma and we didn’t know if he would live another day, my Buddhist sister-in-law and her monk friends created a beautiful shrine in the hospital waiting room and kept a near constant vigil of chanting and prayers. While I don’t understand Vietnamese or study Buddhism, sharing these rituals brought me closer to God. When I was engaged to a Pakistani man and considering a life celebrating Muslim holidays and family traditions in Karachi, I saw this as a way to simply walk a different path on the same trail—the one to God through love of family and friends here on Earth. Although we didn’t end up getting married, I cherish those experiences.

God seems to talk to me in other ways. I feel at peace with the world when I’m riding my bike on a beautiful mountain road—humming at one with the trees speeding by. When I’m laughing with my sons and husband or snuggling them all in peaceful slumber, there are moments of eternal joy. Or a great meal with my family or friends, sharing the earth’s bounty of delicious food and wine, always creates enormous gratitude in my heart to the God that conceived us all. The kindness or bravery of my fellow earthlings similarly kicks my thoughts upwards. And then there is the pure beauty, both natural and created by us, that can’t help but take me out of myself for a moment with a spark of appreciation for whatever created this world.

After the birth of my first son, I experienced terrible postpartum OCD and anxiety. Even though I was lucky to get great professional help, I was sure I would never really be happy again or be joyful as mother because this terrible experience haunted me. Then I met an angel here on Earth—Katherine Stone, who founded the blog Postpartum Progress. Katherine has no special wings—she’s just a very brave mother who had dared to share her story with the world about how she, too, had suffered greatly from maternal mental illness. And she inspired other women to share their stories. Every story was just as beautiful and brave as the one before. In these stories of how other mothers experienced and survived postpartum depression and other maternal mental illnesses, there was a Divine truth that healed my draining soul. Katherine’s honesty has led a revolution of truth around maternal mental illness that is saving lives every day. This taught me that when people are intimate and honest, their “truth’ changes the world.

Having experienced firsthand the Divine power of shared stories and experiences, I’m founding FarmDivine as a way for me to create a place for Grace—a respite in the often noisy world-wide-web where people can share their personal experiences of God, whether grounded in a particular religion or, like me, in a more personal journey. And maybe we all may grow closer to living with our hearts open to the love and bounty of this life.

In addition to being a fledgling blogger, I’m married with two young sons and live in Western Massachusetts. I adore all three of the men in my life and creating this family is one of my primary ways of worshiping all the good Lord has bestowed upon me. To help support us in this material plane, I work as a corporate attorney. Hard work with good people is another way I find community with Spirit.

Please see the Contribute page if you have a story of your spiritual journey to share.

♥ Love, Deborah