The Social Porcupine

Written 9/11  2022 A great place to meet someone you've only talked to online is at church... theirs, or some new place for both of you! Today I met up with a Twitter mutual at her Orthodox church. This is now the 4th Orthodox church I've visited. Each has been slightly different (this one had pews and no rugs and stained-glass windows), but what I've loved about the services has remained true and steadfast. I really do love the Orthodoxy churches, especially the A Cappella singing and long scripture readings. I've been having a hard time sitting down to focus on scripture reading these days. I just can't. A thought struck the other day: most people didn't use to read the Bible, but had it read to them. We modern Christians have been taught that we need much alone time to read and study. And I'm not necessarily against this. It just isn't working for me these days...  And yet I could sit and listen to just about anyone read passages to me for...

Have you ever passed a church building and wondered, "What am I missing?"  Not that you're searching. You just want to know what is inside. There are people inside calling this building their home... the same with the one around the corner, and the other corner, and the last. Sometimes two side by side. 2020 I visited over twenty churches.  There were many reasons I did this, all of them true, none of them dependently the whole truth. To the majority of people I said, "I'm visiting churches in our district to spread word of my dad's campaign!"  Deep down, I'd always liked the idea of visiting all the churches near us. The idea was scary, though. Besides. I really liked the church I had been attending.  Germany frazzled my heart, though. And I didn't feel very welcomed in the States when I returned. The church I'd been attending for the last few years felt like a distant part of my past, one I'd grown away from. I had stumbled upon a littl...

Hello.  I've been wearing lots of yellow since I stopped blogging. There are dried wildflower bouquets all over my car. I've shaved maybe three times in the last couple years. I've worn shoes only a handful of times. I applied to a school for the first time ever in my young life this week. . . but I've been teaching embroidery classes at a couple different Montessori schools all summer.  I'm cheerier, and older, and quieter. I'm not wiser, yet. I've started writing again, last month, working every day on my novel, just a few sentences. I'm writing about a happy character named Eden, and so for at least five minutes every day, I too am happy.  Been learning French for four months. I might be smart, but I can't master English. Friends and family constantly remind me of this. But soon I shall be saying to everyone, " Pardon, your French  ain't spelled quite right."  Where have  I been?  I...