Nature, jewelry and Grand Manan

PARIS — Born in Massachusetts, Sarah Shepley moved here to go to school. Now she works as an interfaith minister.

She recently took time to tell us about her life.

Q: When were you born and where were you brought up?

A: In 1959, August 4, raised 30 miles north of Boston in a small town called Topsfield. I lived there until I was about 15.

Q: Did you have many siblings?

A: I have three. I'm the youngest of four; my sister is the oldest, Linda, she's 60. My brother Bob is 58 and my brother Roger is 56.

Q: What did your parents do?

A: My father was a construction manager for a firm in Boston. He would leave in the morning and come home in the evening. He wasn't the kind of father that was a workaholic. My mother taught for a couple years at our local church, pre-nursery school, but she was basically a housewife – it was in the '50s and '60s. She volunteered a lot at the museum of science and she was part of the Horticulturist Society and she gardened. So there was a lot that captured her interested.

Q: What was it like growing up?

A: We had an old federal-style farmhouse on about 40 acres. We had a couple of ponds, a couple of fields; at one point we had horses and we had a lot of woods. We lived at the end of this long driveway. We had friends in the extended neighborhood, but I spent a lot of time alone in the woods. I spent a lot of time in nature; it was kind of my solace. We had our share of challenges and I oftentimes would retreat to nature to decompress. We had a lot of relatives around, so had a lot of aunts and uncles and cousins close by that we did a lot with. A lot of them lived on the North Shore, within a half-hour drive. We had an uncle, my father's brother, who was single. He was a very quirky guy. He lived across the field for a while. He played games with us; he built us tree houses and let us ride on his motorcycle. He very fun to a child. He helped out a lot in my family.

Q: Was there anything you wanted to be when you grew up?

A I always knew I wanted to be an artist. There are a lot of artists in my family. Particularly on my fathers side – a lot of architects. So we were always exposed to art and theater. My sister was an artist, and she was seven years older so she would teach me how to draw. She's an amazing renderer. She would show me how to draw different things. I just knew that being creative was something I had a lot of attention for and I could do it for long periods of time.

Q: Where did you go to school?

A I went to the public school until 4^th grade and then I went to a private school in Beverly, MA for a couple years and then I went to Gould Academy. After I graduated I went to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. I went there for two years and then transferred to the Nova Scotia College of Art in Design in Halifax. I ended up getting my degree at what's now MECA; at the time it was Portland School of Art.

Q: Did you get into mischief or play pranks?

A: I don't think as a kid I was really a troublemaker. I definitely liked to play with my brothers, particularly my brother Roger. When I was an adolescent though, my poor mother!

Q: What have you had for jobs?

A: When I was a young teenager, every summer I babysat. I would go and live with families and babysit their kids. As I got older I started waitressing. Then one summer I worked for a couple of potters – my major in school was ceramics – I would help glaze and fire the kilns. There was this woman I worked for in Portland and she had these quilt designs that she would do on the inside of bowls, so I would draw the designs for her.

Q: When and how did you meet your spouse?

A: I met him in 1991. We met at a mutual friend's birthday party. We were both seeing someone at the time, but our eyes locked. A week later I met him again. I used to go to Quaker meetings and one of the guys there, his wife was sick, and he was gathering people to help and there was that man again, Mark. So we kept just running into each other over the summer and then he invited me to his birthday party in the fall and that was the beginning.

Q: What did you do when you got married for work?

A: I started a wholesale/retail jewelry business. I made polymer clay and metal jewelry. I marketed through wholesale shows and I did retail shows. I did that for 10 or 12 years while my kids were young. It was very successful and then I needed a change. I started off at Bangor Theological Seminary because I was looking to get an advanced degree. I was tired of my jewelry; I wanted a career change. I had been really finding myself hungry for more of a spiritual life. I started doing hospice work which lead me onto this other path. I found that being at the Seminary was too Christian for me. I wasn't comfortable and I didn't feel like I was growing spiritually so I stopped and I took a year off. My aunt was ill so I was caring for her. Right before she passed I decided I was going to jump into another stream. So I went to the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine which is an interfaith ordination program; it's a two-year program. I started there in 2009 and it was perfect for me. Through that I started my internship at the center and developed an arts ministry on my own, I used my art to reach out to people going through challenging times. I continued my work with hospice with bereavement care. I was ordained in June. I've done a couple of UU services, a wedding. I hope to teach a parenting class. I feel like part of my ministry is working in very secular settings. Working with people with very grounded here-and-now kind of issues. It's important to afford people the opportunity to be listened to, to develop skills. I think parents are a population of people who are up against a lot of struggles and don't get paid for our job.

Q: Anyone said you look like someone famous?

A: Yes! They say Jane Fonda and Carly Simon.

Q: Did you do much traveling?

A: I love to travel! I've gone to Europe: Scotland and France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland. I've been to China with my daughter. I've been to Mexico many times. I lived there as an exchange student when I went to Gould. My junior year I lived in Mexico City for part of the year. I've traveled to different parts of the Caribbean. Canada, all different islands.

Q: Which place was the most fascinating and why?

A: My soul's home is this island in New Brunswick called Grand Manan. Of all the places I've traveled it's one of the closer ones. We went there on our honeymoon and we go back – not every year, but almost. It's cliffside camping in a tent. You can see the seals and the whales. It's so beautiful. It's really peaceful and very cheap to go there. We literally had $300 to go there on our honeymoon and we had it all figured out. Enough for the ferry and to go out to eat just once. It's safe to say that it's one of my favorite places on the planet.

Q: Did anyone influence you to the point of changing your direction in life?

A: I think the challenges I've had in my life and the decision to show up for those challenges have brought me into my work as a minister, as a chaplain. I think it's because of the more challenging experience that I've lead myself there. Otherwise I think I'd just be an artist.

Q: Do you collect anything or have a hobby?

A: Probably just books. I love books. Poetry books and books on spirituality. My favorite poet is Mark Nepo. I love Rilke. I love reading the mystics and people who have lived deeply spiritual lives. I find that a real source of inspiration for me.

Q: Organizations?

A: I volunteer at the Center for Wisdom's Women in Lewiston; it's a drop-in center for disadvantaged women. I'm a spiritual companion. And companions are just there to listen and be a presence. It's the understanding that we all walk this walk together. We all have challenges. I sit with the women; I'm one of them; we just sit and talk I don't ask them questions. I'm just accompanying them on their journey. I've been a hospice volunteer through Androscoggin Home care and Hospice. Maine Crafts Association, I'm a member of, and the Commons Art Collective in Norway. I'm very connected to the place that I was ordained, the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine, in terms of teaching and collaborating with them and taking workshops.

Q: What is the last book you read?

A: I have like five books going at a time, but in Spain recently I was reading Little Bee. I basically read it in two days. I couldn't put it down. It's a very intense story about an African girl. The general concept involves a civil war that happened and how women and children are impacted.

Q: What subject do you wish you knew more about?

A: I think geology, because I have a very strong connection to the Earth. It ties back to when I was little. There were all these different habitats where I grew up from fields to woods to ponds. Nature was a source of solace for me. So I find when things are complicated and dramatic and crazy I just want to go in the garden or walk around the pond because nature is so simple and complex at the same time. That would be the desire to study geology.

Q: What is the one thing you could not give up?

A: Beauty. I can't live without beauty. Beauty is what lubricates the soul. For me it's essential. It's a source of nourishment for my spirit. The ability to do my art every day. I could not give that up and that is about creating beauty. It's creating beauty outside but feels like it creates spaciousness inside and connects me to who I am and what my needs are.

Q: What is the one thing you would happily do over again?

A: The first thing that came to me is having children. There's something amazing about the process of birth. So that, giving birth.

Q: Do you have any children?

A: I have three kids. Beryl who is 18 and Hannah who is 23 and Brady who is 24. Brady is working at a restaurant in a Rumford and is looking forward to skiing this winter. He loves golf and is a very talented guitar player. Hannah is working at a restaurant in Portland. Beryl is about to embark on a three-month backpacking journey out in the Southwest in a leadership program where she'll get college credit and learn wilderness first aid. It's backpacking, rock climbing and canoeing.

Q: What was the best memory that this interview brought back?

A: I think having my sister teach me how to draw. It really stayed with me. It's how we bonded.

Q: What would you like people to know about you?

A: I love to listen. I love to hear people's stories. I think in that way I have a lot to offer people and the community, my ability and willingness to listen with my heart.

Q: Last day on earth; what would you do and who with?

A: I would go to the ocean with my family, my husband and my children. Popham Beach is my favorite. There's a tidal river that comes in and it changes the shape of the beach over time and there's a little island you can walk to but only at low tide. It's a beach where you're on your toes because you can wonder and explore but you have to really be mindful of where the tide is. There's a lot of beauty and excitement.

Q: If anyone could walk in right now, who would you most want to see?

A: My aunt who passed away a couple years ago, definitely. We were very close. She didn't have children and I felt like she was my mother in a lot of ways. She was that adult female who wasn't judgmental of me. She loved me deeply. I miss her a lot. I wear her ring that she had. She didn't give it to me but before she died, she opened her drawer and under her sweaters and in this box there was this ring and she asked to make sure no one threw it away. My mother and my other aunt thought that I should have it. Her aunt gave it to her though she never wore it.