The Social Porcupine

  A new year is upon us, and with that the regular desire to make resolutions of personal improvement. But what if we took a year off from fretting over our weight, food choices, and hobbies and turned our eyes to the stagnated atmosphere of our homes, the dusty guestroom, and the next-door neighbor’s whose names we still don’t know although it’s been months since they moved in. What if we took a moment to learn from someone else whose been doing it a lot longer than anyone else, and cultivated the necessary assets a thriving community requires. It doesn’t really require much, except for a little self-denial and a whole lot of focused dedication to stick out something purposeful. I’ve recently read two nonfiction titles that are gloriously refreshing. I plan to keep extra copies around the house to give away, or to provoke further dialogue. I encourage my readers to do the same! Here is a little bit about both: 𝑩𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑶𝒇𝒇 by Eric Brende Something for young couples to consider

 We’d just finished watching the movie Jesus Freaks when Andy asked me to marry him. It was early September… he’d planned to wait until I’d met his family in November, but we were ready to start planning our future. By all legalist appearances, we might seem unequally yoked. I was raised in a niche of an already obscure messianic movement, and he, born in and again recently returned to the church, was a traditional catholic. And yet those who know the two of us well and are able to see past the doctrines of man into the mystical hearts of God and His children, saw the inevitability of our union. Never is the material yoke naturally equalized between the two called to work together, not initially. It takes some sort of supernatural strength to put oneself with another, and in that acceptance is harmony cultivated. Our spiritual experiences, though stemmed out of drastically varying circumstances, have bloomed toward the same aesthetical values. But such matters are not easily seen if on

Do you ever feel you have dozens of dreams begging you to bring them all to life? And you would, if only they might co-operate and become one vision . This is what the Living Room Academy was for me: a culmination of a lifetime of thoughts and ideals. It started out as a flippant invitation that a woman I worked for said, "But why wouldn't you do this?"  Besides seeming initially impossible to undertake, I didn't want to commit to such a project as opening my home up to other young women for a summer... I love my summers and couldn't imagine forsaking all the things I would normally do to teach summer classes to strangers.   I won't go into why I decided to do this as I've already written on this in depth, but I do want to reiterate that I'm glad I didn't choose the convenient, lackluster path of complacency.  I hosted two courses this summer 2023. Six girls came to live with me, although only four of them were able to stay for the endurance of th