SOUL FOOD:

She tries on words to describe her spiritual beliefs. “Mother Nature painted that picture.” By picture, Beverly Lowe means every beautiful scene in the wild.

“Recycling is good for Mother Nature,” she also says. Then thinking aloud, she concludes, “Maybe…those are just the words I use for God…”

The idea is posed more as a question than a statement. But one thing is certain; her words help explain why she’s a member of Freecycle Huntington Beach.

Two weeks ago in this column I wrote about this online group and its parent Freecycle Network, whose goal is “to keep it green” by encouraging people to give away useful possessions they no longer need instead of dumping them into landfills.

The local group that serves Huntington Beach and eight adjacent cities is co-owned and moderated by Roman Catholic Monique Theriault and Dianic Wiccan neo-pagan Jennifer “Phish” Ardinger. As with Lowe, their involvement with Freecycle and its sister group RecycleHBcafe is in certain ways an expression of their faith.

I promised I would soon tell you more about the spiritual motives and rewards that lead its members to become evangelists of sorts for the group. This Thursday before Earth Day seems like the right time.

For Theriault, “caring for each other” is “what life’s all about” — that and caring for creation, which she sees as a “gift that God has given us.” She points to a biblical story.

In chapter 2, verses 7 to 19 of the Book of Genesis she recounts, “God created man out of the clay of the ground and blew in his nostrils the breath of life. Then he created a garden and asked man to cultivate and care for it.”

Freecycle and RecycleHBcafe help Theriault to do her part.

A penchant for collecting Lava Lamps led Ardinger to Freecycle. She credits her Earth-based spirituality, though, for prompting her to volunteer as a co-owner and moderator.

“Helping the environment and helping my community are both very important to my spiritual practice,” she says. “There is a beautiful connection with giving and receiving.”

RecycleHBcafe, which is not an entity of the larger Freecycle Network, was created to complement FreecycleHB. It’s a forum for exchanging not things but ideas — ideas about how best to recycle, about how to conserve money, time, energy and other resources.

A welcome letter to members (who must first be members of Freecycle Huntington Beach) explains, “We post positive-only messages…with the goal of helping each other out.”

Since I joined both groups eight months ago, I’ve found the generosity of Freecycle members (4,216 as I write) and the knowledge base of RecycleHBcafe members (as I write, 521) to be nothing short of amazing.

Whatever you need — or need to know — ask. More than likely, you will receive.

A “love your neighbor” and “care for creation” ethic runs through both communities. Few, if any members, though, wear their religious inclinations on their sleeves, if they have them at all.

Still, for many members, things spiritual do play a role. To know just how, I had to pointedly ask.

In an e-mail to me Michelle Loy quoted a passage from Matthew’s Gospel: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Her treasure, she says, is bringing joy, peace and happiness to others.

Through Freecycle, she can “bring pleasure to God by serving others.” Since joining the group, she confesses, “I almost feel addicted.”

She’s constantly looking for things to give away. “I believe God blesses me so that I may be a blessing to others and [Freecycle] has been great for that,” says Loy.

Among other things, she has given away infant clothing and a sign-language kit for infants to a couple with child with autism. The giving becomes “a blessing back to me,” she says.

“[Freecycle] can be addicting, so please stop me if you see me listing my husband,” Anita Coyoli-Cullen, who is Roman Catholic, jokes. But she seriously likes getting rid of things without throwing them away, as well as acquiring something she needs without writing a check.

Carla Aoyagi, who describes herself as spiritual, is philosophical about “journeying toward a life of voluntary simplicity.” Freecycle helps her reassess what she needs and uses while providing a way to redistribute the things she no longer does.

It teaches you a lesson “in simplicity, generosity, recycling and friendship,” Aoyagi says. The first person to answer a message she posted became and remains a close friend.

When Suzanne Abbasi responded to an offer of a Christian bracelet, she also found a friend. “It’s been a wonderful experience,” she says, “getting a friend…who understands me and doesn’t judge me for anything that I do.”

Though the two now live farther apart, they still talk daily. And once a month they meet for dinner and a weekday worship service at a Calvary Chapel.

For Veronica Fraga, who began by saying she “is not a Christian,” Freecycle is a reminder of the “interconnectedness of all things — us to each other and all of us to God.” Her participation, she says, “is an act of faith.”

When she won’t let go of something she no longer needs or when she feels she needs to sell an item for cash instead of giving it away, Fraga sees it as a demonstration not of faith but of fear.

So Freecycle is a place of spiritual practice. It’s a place where she can be both beneficiary and benefactor in God’s process of meeting our needs “in the perfect time and way.”

This process is seen more clearly through Freecycle, Fraga believes, since needs are met without money ever changing hands.

A Christian and mother to four small children, Kristine Stein says the groups have restored her hope for “a caring community.” She recalls how one member once brightened her day by surprising her with a box of her favorite cookies.

The groups have helped Merrie D. Ruleman teach her children to not be wasteful as well as to help others while also caring for the Earth. Raised as a Southern Baptist, she and her husband now prefer non-denominational churches.

“God gave us the Earth to live in harmony,” she says. In “recycling and working together to save the planet,” she sees hope for living on Earth more as God intended.

To join Freecycle Huntington Beach and RecycleHBcafe, visit www.freecycle.org/group/US/ California/OC%20-%20Huntington %20Beach.

MICHÈLE MARR is a freelance writer from Huntington Beach. She can be reached at michele@soulfoodfiles.com.