Dave’s story
I’m a musician and retired social program director. I love to spend many hours in forests and fields, even crawling around vacant lots picking strange and delicious mushrooms. I have a duo purpose for this activity – expanding my understanding of fungi’s role in nature and expanding my waistline. I was always too slow to get many treats in an Easter-egg hunt as a child. Now when I’m in the woods the treats are all mine, because those faster kids don’t even know the treats exist.
About 15 years ago on a walk in the woods with my brother Charlie, I stated with certitude (which may or may not be a Layton trait), “This is where I find God – in nature, especially when I think of the incredible diversity of fungi. “ Charlie replied in a voice that was strangely humble for a Layton, “I need to get out and walk in the woods more.” A little later he said, “I believe that the same God you find in this lovely woods is the one who came to us as Christ.” I replied with incredulity, “So you believe in Christ overcoming death, flying up to Heaven and coming back down to tell all his pals? That’s crazy!”
“Yeah I know it sounds crazy, but it’s not. It’s incredible, but the more I learn the more I believe it’s true. The truth of God’s love is threaded throughout the Bible just as mycelium threads throughout life making life possible. Life’s infrastructure is incredible with dimensions that we’re only starting to understand, but God’s love gives life dimensions that make it so much richer – joy, compassion, aesthetics. Civilization itself is so much better because of the Bible.”
“Well I read through the Bible you gave me and honestly it was creepy. God ordered the Jews to slaughter their neighbors. He turned Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt just for looking back. The book is filled with horrors. Is that loving?”
“You say you see God in nature but really isn’t nature just as cruel? We all turn to dust. Yet beauty is everywhere and so is God’s love. You don’t condemn God for nature’s arbitrary cruelty, but the Bible reflects nature and provides a comfort against cruelty if you read it with a more open mind.”
After some more similar conversation we made an agreement that I would read the Bible with more of an open mind focused on God’s love and wisdom throughout rather than horrors and impossible tales. Likewise Charlie would get outside, and see God more in nature’s beauty.
And so began my faith journey, which I’ll share more of in future posts, along with my wanderings and crawlings through the woods finding fungal Easter-eggs. And, oh yes, I believe we found some Hen-of-the-woods (Grifola frondosa) that day.
See the Grifola Turkey Meatloaf on the Recipe Page