From One Author to Another: An Interview with Meredith Swift
By Donna L Lewis.
DONNA: I noticed you and I have a similar personality trait; you described yourself as an introverted extrovert, tell me more about that.
MEREDITH:I like to be around people,I love people but if I’m around them too much I have to go by myself to recharge. And, I very much like my solitude.
DONNA: Do people sometimes mistake you for being an extrovert?
MEREDITH: Yes, which is really interesting to me,I’m not.I’m more a listener than a talker.Sometimes it takes a lot of explaining to help people understand that I am not an extrovert.
DONNA: Do you find that you can switch on the extrovert when you need to?
MEREDITH: Yes, yes, I can.
DONNA:When do you find yourself switching it on?
MEREDITH: I’m a kindergarten teacher so I have to do lots of talking and silly things.Also, if I give a talk or something like that.I can switch it on,but if there’s too many people and I’m having to give a lot I feel very drained. I know when I have to exit the room and go home.
DONNA: I definitely can relate to that. Something else you and I, again are similar on; I teach music privately.I have a broad range of ages, from little ones like you,the kindergartners all the way up through adults.
MEREDITH: I love music and with kids we use music a lot and we use like a singsong voice.
DONNA: I find it interesting to watch the children how they just like light up as soon as it starts and then when they can actually participate in it … how long have you been a teacher?
MEREDITH: Fourteen years. I was going to be a child psychologist first,but psychology was more scientific,and I didn’t really like it,so I switched to teaching. Also, my girls were growing up then,so I could have Holidays with them,and do something that I enjoyed.
DONNA: That is wonderful!Are you on break right now?
MEREDITH: I had to request leave, because I’m getting my next book ready. I thought, I’ll ask for this week off so I can Just finish off.
DONNA: Oh that’s great! I’m excited to get into your book-your newest book; but I wanted to talk with you a little bit more about the previous books you’ve written.This will be your 4th book, yes?
MEREDITH: Yes.
DONNA: Excellent! What got you into writing?
MEREDITH: Well I’ve always been a writer.When I was 14 my parents gave me a typewriter-that was back in the 70s, and I wrote a little science fiction book for the fun of it.I don’t know where it is now. I journaled – always kept journals most of my life except for a large portion of my marriage. My marriage was quite abusive, so I couldn’t take the chance of my ex reading it. My oldest daughter,who is nonverbal autistic – we had to move from where we were living to access better services for her. That was in2016. I’d started to write the testimony of my life -how I came to faith,but as I was writing, the Lord said to me “now you gotta ’stop writing that book,”and I was really crushed.I really wanted to write it.But then Sarah (Meredith’s autistic daughter) got really,really sick. I talked to Jesus about what was going on with Sarah -I had to. I couldn’t go out or anything, just looking after her and then I actually had some time when our spiteworker came in (to help with relief). I went to see a Christian counselor. When we were in the session the Lord came in and spoke to me about Sarah. At the end of the session the counselor said to me,“I don’t normally say this but I want you to go home and for the next 21 days I want you to talk to Jesus Seven times a day”(he)was very specific Donna, “the way that you talk to him now.” That’s what I started to do. It was pretty amazing! That became the first book.You see! Then He gave it to write the next book,which is my (testimony) and then the next one.
DONNA: If you don’t mind my asking,what was the illness?
MEREDITH: Sarah gets very bad UTI’s which then morphed into something else – but basically, she shut down. She didn’t want to eat, she didn’t want to drink um yeah it was really it was very,very hard.
DONNA: I can relate to when someone we love gets very,very sick. My husband got into a really severe accident three years ago and it’s an extremely hard time. You feel isolated to a degree. You-even though you may have lots of people around,you still feel very isolated.
MEREDITH: Yes!I used to describe it like being in a bubble. Like it would be just me and Sarah and -and the Lord too,but it was-it’s a very strange place to be –I think because it’s so emotional: Doing everything for your loved one. (Meredith asks how my husband is today, if he’s recovered.)
DONNA: Oh yes. He’s recovered miraculously!We were we were riding our motorcycles and a car cut him off. He got thrown from his motorcycle and he crushed everything on his right side and both wrists. But honestly it was an absolute miracle how God worked in that situation. The only thing he’s left with is a limp and it’s usually just when he gets tired.
MEREDITH: Do you think it really changed you as a person?
DONNA: Yes! I would imagine you can relate to this: my eyes were open to what people go through when there’s traumatic-either illness or injury -I never really fully comprehended the magnitude.
MEREDITH: Yes, I understand definitely! That’s-that’s how I am too with it.
DONNA: Describe to me how you’re writing helped you through that time?
MEREDITH: Well, it broadened my faith.The Lord becomes so much more real to me through the action. The writing and the communication from Him would basically (be) one in the same thing.It wasn’t automatic writing. What He would say I would then type, as He would be speaking it to me,so that the two, together were very closely entwined.That action of putting up that first book -it’s opened up a whole new realm in my life.I know that the writing is (a)God given gift and it’s my calling.(Writing) is my way of making sense of my own life and things that happen. It’s a great thing to find why you were created.God gives us all gifts to serve Him, to help others and to spread His love.
DONNA: You’ve got four books out;I’m curious to find out how you’ve seen your writing develop, or change in any way -between the first book and your latest book?
MEREDITH:The latest book is very different to the first book because it’s interviews with parents of special needs children. All of my books are about some aspect of my life and this book I write(about)Sarah.It was just a bit emotional for me. This book is a collection of voices, all with that common thing of having a child who has pronounced special needs: Autism,cerebral palsy, Prader-Willi Syndrome,sensory issues,deafness,lots of different things.
DONNA: Would you describe your writing process?
MEREDITH: All my books are directed by the Lord-It’s like you go through a passageway which has lots of doors and you don’t know what’s behind each door.You can get to the 4th floor and you see,“OK here’s the first book”. It’s like my books are progressed,in that I go deeper with the Lord each time.I trust the process.I always just kept pushing forward. When we got the Lord,you know we can do it in His strength right?I could sum it up is that I just I trust the Lord that this is the book that He wants me to write in this current time and that He will reveal to me the next book and the next one.So that process(is)always (to) ask the Lord to give me the words -what does He want me to write: that’s the most important thing for me you know and the scripture, “be still and know I’m God,”that’s the one that leads me.
DONNA: I really appreciate that – yes definitely! So, it sounds to me like rather than holding yourself to some kind of a strict format or formula, you really go by a Spirit lead, um, inspiration and direction.That’s what I noticed-that in your writing -when I was reading the one that you did most recently, “A Heart for Women.”
MEREDITH: Yeah!
DONNA: You’re writing reminded me of one of my favorite devotional’s, I’m not sure if you’re familiar with it, it’s from way,way back: it’s called “God Calling”.
MEREDITH: Is that Sarah young?
DONNA: Uh,no. I think she was probably inspired by these two-these were actually two women.I want to say (it was) sometime like post -just post World War Two.They devoted themselves to simply listening and then writing what they heard.
MEREDITH: The Holy Spirit talks to us.We’ve all got that Holy Spirit inside us. I’ve learned not to interrupt-like not to get caught up in what’s actually being said,if that makes any sense,just let it come out.You just wanna’ have it to be God honoring and Scriptural based you know.
DONNA: So, it would seem to follow that your personal time in the word of God becomes extremely important.
MEREDITH: Yes. Yes, it does definitely!
DONNA: How does that ground you?
MEREDITH: Ah,enormously! One of the things I want to do every-day,is put God first,so He gets the first portion of my day, so (this morning) I took my daughter to work and then it was about maybe 8:00 o’clock and I came back and that’s when I got into my Bible for the day.Before that I had been feeling numb-fragmented, aimless, distracted;as soon as I started reading the word,it’s just like taking a big,deep sigh of relief! And thinking,“this is real, this is real”! (To) not have the world, with all the distractions and things you gotta’ do,places you gotta’ be, and you know, reading that Word is just so grounding. It’s just really important to me to develop my relationship with the Lord by being in His Word and putting my focus on Him that way and praying you know.
DONNA:Oh gosh!I could spend a long time talking with you because I just keep thinking one thing comes after another as I listened to you! How does this experience that you have now in your relationship with God and in the Word of God compare to the experience you had in the new age?
MEREDITH: Well, it’s just polar opposites really!The “New Age”, is all about striving to be realized so everything that I did was this quest to be perfect, realized and wise.Always driving, striving,always quite relentless –“this therapy-that teaching”. It’s all such a broad umbrella of teaching,philosophies. They have 7 master healers in the New Age, and Jesus is put in there with this group of ascended masters and healers.When I came to know Jesus-the real Jesus of the Bible you know, (I understood) that the New Age depicts Jesus is just so minimizing. That’s exactly what I found to be the goal of New Age -it’s deceptiveness!It’s to lull people into thinking it’s all love and life but the end result is being separated from God. You only get to the Father through Jesus. The New Age lulls you into this sense of everything is peaceful and light and if the world could just be full of peace and light -it’s got no real substance, because the end result is eternal separation from God.
DONNA: How did you get introduced to the authentic Jesus?
MEREDITH:Well it was quite a process.When I was in the New Age. I met my ex-husband and we had an alternative healing business together.The marriage was very fallen and I (got) to a point where I couldn’t keep positive.I couldn’t affirm to myself that “I am powerful”,stuff I used to do in the New Age,because I was broken,alone,hurting. I started work at the kindergarten. One of my friends was a Born-Again Christian.She used to say to me, “you know Meredith it’s not about religion it’s about a relationship”.It (the New Age) really had lost its appeal for me because I thought, “it’s not real I’m in this place of absolute pain”. So,my friend was witnessing to me and my mom was very sick with cancer and passed away.I went to her funeral and the priest that conducted the funeral-I thought, “if I had a priest like that I’d go to church.” I remember thinking that really clearly.Anyway, my friend kept witnessing to me, also a pastor and his wife,who were just the loveliest young couple,like very down to earth.I started really thinking,“well the common thing here is Jesus. Who is Jesus?”And then, “I just want to know who He is–I wanna’ know Him!”So then my friend said,“well you know if you want to say this prayer with me.”And I was really scared Donna, so fearful. I thought, “I can’t be a Christian I’ve done all these terrible things in my life,”’cause I had done lots of stuff-like being with lots of men and different sorts of things.She(Meredith’s friend) would talk to me about being forgiven, but I was very scared at the thought of what it meant to be a Christian. But I thought,“well I want to know Jesus.”So,I said the prayer. It was a process of first realizing the New Age was not helping me in any way,because I was in this terrible dark place of abuse -then my mom passing away.Then,being in contact with people who were Born-Again Believers.(I had)never had that in my life. I’ve been to church when I was little, but I didn’t ever really think about who Jesus was -He was the game changer.I came out of the New Age fully; never went back to it at all.
DONNA:That’s a pretty dramatic step for you at that point in your life!How old were you when you came to know the Lord?
MEREDITH: Um, I was 50 coming into my 50th year.
DONNA: Oh that is awesome!You know that 50 seems to be a transformative age for people.When I turned 50,I made some very dramatic changes in my life as well. It was pivotal.And that’s when you came to know -Oh my-you can’t get more pivotal than that! You became completely new at 50!
MEREDITH :Yeah, I really did! I did become brand new.
DONNA: That is awesome and that is such encouragement.That is such encouragement,because so many people would say “well it’s impossible to change you know once you’re into your middle age, you’re just too ground in, too set in your ways,”but honestly,it’s not! It can be completely transformative.Your latter years can truly be better than your former years.
MEREDITH: (Being Born-Again) It’s like going from black and white to Technicolor. My life has just changed in so many amazing ways since I started working with Jesus really, everything’s changed! He’s worked on me from the inside out.I love walking with Jesus.
DONNA: I have one last question that I’m eager to ask you before we wrap up and that is,you and I have both written to women that have gone through abuse. What were the three most challenging elements for you in healing from the abuse?
MEREDITH: I think in some way,I’m still healing from the abuse and that is very much tied with having an identity in Christ and seeing Him, seeing myself how He sees me,as His beloved daughter.I think that you don’t just start to heal from the abuse when you come out of the marriage. There was a point when I lost hope of ever being free from this man.Because I left,and (then) gone back-it always tracked me down.The first most challenging element is when you think you’re done with hope on a human level, to believe that you deserve better.The second is too to realize that the abuse and the pain are not your birthright. They’re not the truth of who you are. We are put on this earth for a purpose we all have a purpose.God has a plan for all of our lives.The third is to swallow your pride.Just swallow that pride to want the “happy ever after,”and to,make that marriage work despite people around you saying, “well you know it’s not OK. It’s not OK to be in that abuse. ”In the past, I realized that I was,in many ways,my own worst enemy and I needed to follow through.I need to do whatever it takes to not have any contact with this man anymore.I was part of the trouble-wanting the marriage to work, minimizing the abuse and how bad it was-you know all those things.I left him probably half a dozen times over 20 years and it wasn’t until-and your book was very good in this too-but I started realizing about narcissism;people who are narcissistic think they’re entitled-healthy love-just incapable of it.
DONNA: If we could imagine them looking through one of those kaleidoscopes that just shifted everything upside down: That’s the way they view the world.They’re not looking at anything through the same prism that you and I look through.We think,If I just help them understand how they’re hurting me they’ll stop hurting me-they’re only hurting me because they don’t understand they’re hurting me.”
MEREDITH: Yes!
DONNA: What we don’t understand is that they do understand, and they want to hurt us.We can’t fathom that, but that’s the upside-down world they live in.
MEREDITH: God does not want us in an abusive marriage.
DONNA: I’m so grateful that you wrote the book you did. Religion has really distorted what marriage is,and what divorce is for.They’ve tried to preserve marriage at the expense of the people within the marriage.
MEREDITH:Marriage is union there is no union in domestic violence.Living with an abuser-they are committed to disunity. Yes,they are truly committed to dividing.
LINKS FOR MEREDITH SWIFT’S BOOKS AND SOCIAL MEDIA
•“Hearing His Voice: Meeting Jesus in the Garden of Promise: A Devotional Journey of Encouragement” is available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B075HHRNPG
•“From New Age to New Creation: Set Free” is available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L7JV151
•“Heart For Women: A 40-Day Devotional of Comfort, Hope and Healing for Women Breaking Free of the Shackles of Domestic Violence” is available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZTCXQBH
•My latest book is available on pre-order and is due to be published on August 8. “How Do I Do This? The Real and Raw Truth About Raising A Child With Special Needs –Interviews with Parents”is available on pre-order for 99c at http://www.amazon.com/dp/BO8D76W4H5
WEBSITE: www.meredithswiftauthor.com
INSTAGRAM: @merryfree2015
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/GardenofPromise
