Anne Gordon de Barrigón

It became clear to me very quickly that the main lesson of Portraits in Faith was gratitude. I came to see that gratitude is faith! This was made clear to me by the story of Anne Gordon de Barrigón.

Anne’s story is really larger than life. She was a trainer and keeper of wild animals for the film industry on her property near Seattle until the day one of her tigers attacked a volunteer who did not follow the guidelines for its care. While the volunteer survived, it was a spiritual wake-up call for Anne. She sold her animals and land. Then a call came to work as an animal keeper for a film being shot in Panama, a job she could not have taken if she still had her own operation.

There she met and fell in love with an indigenous man who was part of the village in which they were shooting the film. Their marriage was a fairytale-come-true until the day a woman called Anne and said she was her husband’s girlfriend. The story checked out and thus began a journey Anne never knew she would have to take. Anne and her husband were able to save their marriage and are together to this day, but it took hard work on Anne’s part to process the anger and despair.

When Anne realized she was happy after seeing the whales and dolphins, and that she would be happy no matter what happened with her husband, it was for me, the very essence of faith—to be happy and grateful no matter what happens in our lives.

I do not take this to mean that we should be Pollyanna-ish in our affect all the time. I take this to mean that faith is a stance one chooses; to be grateful for all of life, even when the only thing to be grateful for is a feeling of loss and sadness.

One of my favorite writers is the Jesuit monk, Anthony De Mello. From his book, Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality: “All mystics...no matter what their religion...are unanimous on one thing. That all is well. Even though everything is a mess, all is well.”

It reminds me to ask, “Have I made the choice today to live in a grateful space or a wanting/diminished space?” and, “Am I a fully feeling and experiencing member of the human race and God’s world today?”

Today Anne and her husband split their time between his native village, Embera Puru, and Panama City. They have brought a thriving tourism business to the village for people wanting to experience the jungle and nature as lived by indigenous peoples.