Posts from @riverflows

Vale, Lizelle

riverflows — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 23:10:48 GMT

If you've been on Hive for ages, you're probably addicted, and it's very likely part of that reason is because of the people you've connected with here. You might not have ever met them face to face, but you've shared their griefs and losses, their joys, their passions.

And when they disappear, we wonder where they go.

This week we learnt of the passing of @lizelle - being a community leader and a real life friend of some, news travelled fast. Some of us messaged each other via Discord, Whatsapp, Instagram - did you hear, did you hear? - and were left pensive if not devastated, considering our connections with her, realising how lucky we were to know her, because we are human, and sometimes we forget these things.

The blockchain being what it is, her stories are still there for anyone to read: the South African home she loved, her garden, her baking, her beloved Arthur, her adventures in retirement, the cottage she turned into an Airbnb, and eventually, the difficult process of leaving the home where she'd spent so many years and the memories she'd made there.

She was always such an energetic woman and was never ready to retire. She turned the garden cottage on her property into an Airbnb, and she and Arthur decided to give it a try. I think it had belonged to her mother, Lily, and the cottage was named after her. It often featured in Lizelle's Hive Garden posts, too - of course this is how we often connected, via the garden.

Lizelle loved meeting people from all walks of life, so it's no suprise she loved Hive and started the Silver Bloggers community (after I flippantly commented she should start a community for retirees!). She ran an Air BNB in her home in South Africa with her beloved Arthur, who sadly passed away suddenly a few years ago, which was a real shock to her.

I used to love Lizelle's posts about food and baking. They were never just about the finished dish; they carried family history, memories and the pleasures of everyday life.

She also shared her thoughts about South Africa and the possibility of travelling further afield. Even after Arthur died, she still had dreams and a curiosity about life.

These things matter to me because they show, yet again, that Hive is not merely a publishing platform for us. It was — and is — a place where we can find one another, learn from one another and create things that outlast an individual post, even if we disappear, or god forbid, shuffle off this mortal coil.

I wish I could have another conversation with Lizelle about gardens, homes and the changes that come with time, or hear how she was finding joy in the little things despite missing Arthur so much. His death was difficult for her. She had to navigate all the practical matters he'd previously taken care of, while coping with the emotional reality of being without the man who'd shared her everyday world for years.

I can't claim to have known @lizelle as well as many here, but I did treasure those very human moments with her, talking about grief and loss, about gardening, food, travel, health. Her own posts about grief reminded us that laughter can coexist with sadness, a meaningful life walk alongside longing for the past and the one's you've lost.

I remember thinking how brave she was to pack up her home and move into a new chapter of her life, which she, and us too, imagined would last longer than it did.

I imagine her with Arthur now, in a beautiful garden in the sunshine.

Rest easy, Lizelle. We'll miss your presence on Hive.

Garden Update Oct 19

riverflows — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 07:55:00 GMT

Have I told you how much I love to stand on my balcony, elbows on the railing, looking over my garden? I've never had a birds eye view of a garden before, and it's just delightful. One can see the shape of things, notice things as a whole.

This week I got some round concrete pavers to thread through the vegetable patch. Eventually I might mosaic them. In my mind the lower veggie patch (as oppsed to the raised bed section) is divided into three sections, and easier to navigate now rather than accidentally tread on leeks and beetroot. I've started digging out the huge cedar gum stump so jamie can cut it down further and we can backfill the hole with soil and I can extend the pavers into the garden a little more.

HOw gorgeous is this statice? The butterflies seem to love it. Some old school plants you just can't go past.

I emptied out one of the compost I thought might be ready for Christmas, but the warmer weather down here on the coast and in that part of the block means it was ready instead now, early October. I am a bit obsessed with it - I collect coffee grounds and seaweed and cardboard and have been adding excess garden greens and boxes of greens from the local food charity to layer between. The worms come - what a mystery that they do, from dusty sandy soil to the compost bins! Anyway, this dalek of compost was added to the beds and to a compost tea. Another will be ready soon. Worms, worms, worms!

The burgundy strawflower has fully bloomed now - and as suspected, has a yellow centre! Isn't it spectacular? We've had three kinds of butterflies land in the garden, much to Jamie's suprise, since he wasn't listening when I said I had planted for butterflies. :P

I'm not sure what they centre of this strawflower is going to do but ain't it pretty?

The kale is looking healthy, but the cucumber - dammit, half eaten by - hmmm, maybe slaters from the compost, meaning I'll have to put pots around them to prevent that happening. MAny things are going to flower, like the silverbeet and kale, and it's likely because the raised beds dry out faster.

The nigella is nearly blooming now - such a pretty leafed plant! I'm not sure if it's blue or yellow. And the sage is also doing great after a winter of looking like it wasn't planted in the right spot at all. Yay.

Sage, borage, calendula

I also can't remember which poppy I planted. It'll be a suprise when it does!

There's a few dwarf broccoli blooming - the cabbage whites can't even keep 'em back.

Haven't had a lot of luck with the sugarloaf cabbage - perhaps a combination of cabbage white assault, the beds drying out, and being overly shaded by silverbeet. I always find cabbage hit and miss to grow. I often miss picking it before the slugs attack or they flower.

Have had RIDICULOUS amounts of rainbow silverbeet (chard) - it goes in all my winter meals, pretty much! Plus to the chooks, and the neighbours, and the compost.

https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/riverflows/EpGQf3LU4TVzSv3WjDL99fgXp5EuKJsUDXquUc9V2tdui6HQNgKD5nKM7z1FGzkBZPV.jpg

The olive tree is putting on tons of weight since it was mulched and composted. Mum gave me a 'lemon lights' grevillea which will have a really dark yellow flower, but the other yellow one has flowered for the first time (thanks to mulch and native feed) and I'm pretty sure it's grevillea moonlight.

The coriander is going to seed - yay. I lvoe fresh coriander seed.

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How Chimpanzees Reassure Each Other: Ruby Gill For Three Tune Tuesday

riverflows — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 07:00:00 GMT

Sometimes you vaguely hear an artist in the background, maybe on the radio whilst you're tidying up or they perform locally but you don't know who they are, and then one day, you have a proper listen and think, wtf, why did no one force me to sit down and listen to this babe?

We heard an interview with her on local radio station RRR a few weeks ago, and after a song or two we turned to each other and said - hey, she's actually alright! The other day, forced to wear headphones as the neighbours dog was lonely and barking for me over the fence (I shouldn't have been so nice to her) I listened to her last two albums and then her latest release.

Yep, she's good.

Ruby Gill is an Australian singer-songwriter and could be described as indie folk or alt pop I suppose. Her vocals are heartfelt, dreamy, intimate and atmospheric - in fact some of her lyrics are downright poetry. I think she writes poetry as well which makes sense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cR5LsNkz7Q

Think kinda stripped back acoustic folk with rich vocal harmonies that move between tender melancholy and louder layers of sound. Great to listen to loud and the full albums in entirely to get a real sense of her artistry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tnsqp5CZDk&list=RDEMenLpbazCpRAKowWMKFlwJg&index=3

I think this was my favourite but there's a ton of tracks I played a few times over. Thankyou neighbour's dog for being an asshole - you gave me Ruby Gill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwXlVDkGkcU&list=RDXwXlVDkGkcU&start_radio=1

press your palm down
onto my chest
tell me to breathe slower
I'll do my best
under the table
kick off your shoes
wrap your legs round mine
until it bruises
touch me
tell me that I'll be alright
I know you can't fix it
but maybe I'll sleep tonight
if western science asks what all this is for
tell him this is how chimpanzees reassure
each other
don't make me ask you, pull me in close
dig in your fingers, kiss my nose
oh, tell me I'm tired, feed me my lunch
consult the forest, say that you had a hunch
I was bleeding
wrap me in leaves
there's no need for talking
when you are holding me
touch me touch me
tell me that I'll be alright
I know you can't fix it
but maybe I'll sleep tonight
if western science asks what all this is for
tell 'em that this is how chimpanzees reassure
each other

`With Love,`

Sometimes People Can Suprise You

riverflows — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 07:00:00 GMT

This morning, I recieved a text from a woman I know from the beach. I've known her for years - she's the partner of an old kiteboarding mate of my Dads, that we in turn lived with, and I was taught to paddleboard by, and so on. There's connections.

I also surf with her and have for years. I used to think she hated me - was it jealousy over my friendship with her partner? Something I'd done to offend her? It got to the point it was awkward even paddling out with her. My greetings rejected, I asked others if I'd done anything that made her hate me so. I was told she was lovely, as if it must be my fault, or that's how it felt to me. A friend reminded me that it's hard to know what's going on in someone's head, and it was hard to control what people thought of you, and that being kind, always, was the path forward.

It was good advice, especially for someone who had childhood trauma around being bullied and rejection. It was a mantra I had to repeat to myself over the years, something along the lines of: 'you can't control this, it's not you' and the like.

It's also hard to ignore someone who's there all the time. In the carpark, getting into her wetsuit a car over from you. In the line up. Paddling out.

I knew about the difficulty she'd been having in her relationship with my friend, because he had totally offloaded to me a number of times. I knew all the drama. Perhaps that's why she didn't talk to me - perhaps she thought that I thought ill of her. But she had rejected me way before they had their first break up. I also knew of the stresses she was having at work, facing a lawsuit with a disgruntled employer trying to get what they could out of her franchise. But she spoke to other people - this was hard to ignore. Again, it was that feeling I'd experienced in the school yard, when the girls seemed to have a secret that I could never be party to.

And so the years went by. Sometimes it was harder to deal with than others - when I was feeling down, or stressed, or sad.

Then, one day, shortly after my Dad died (did she feel sorry for me? Realise I was human?) she started talking to me. Gradually, I felt we become friends of sorts, the way surf friendships go - laughs in the carpark, chats between sets.

The other morning, watching the surf, I was suprised to hear her say 'come for a walk?' when she was taking her dogs up the beach. Of course I did. One does not match percieved rejection with some kind of misguided revenge, dismissing invites because of past slights.

We chatted about pilates, which she loves. Being the second time someone had suggested local pilates classes to me, I felt enthused, although a bit nervous about doing it because I didn't know anyone and had never done it before.

This morning came the text that suprised me. It suprised me so much that I had to write about it not two hours later, here, at work.

'Do you want me to come to the beginner's pilates with you this morning'.

I am not sure what the lesson is here, not really. Perhaps it's just being persistant in your dealings with people: be kind, be polite, and one day they'll come around. Perhaps it's just that things change, people change. Perhaps it's to always remember that it's not always you. Perhaps it's that everyone's going through their own shit and you can't second guess why people behave the way they do. Perhaps it's just not to focus so much on what people think of you.

Still, I was chuffed to bits to receive the text, though I had to reject it as I was working today.

Perhaps the message is just this: sometimes, people can suprise you.

`With Love,`

Getting Creative with Root Veg: Beetroot & Swede Rosti

riverflows — Sun, 18 Oct 2026 08:05:48 GMT

I'm a massive fan of seasonal cooking, starting with the produce you have rather than a recipe that requires you to go to the supermarket. With an abudance of beetroot and swede, I had to go past the usual pickled beetroot (I have too many jars!) and roast swede (yum) and decided to make rosti.

Someone asked me the recipe, but I used my intuition - google any 'rosti' or 'kartoffelpuffer' recipe online and use the same proportions as you would potato, except this time sub for grated swede and beetroot. I did have a spare small potato I also used up. Whilst potatoes have more juice, I still tried to squeeze any of out the grated bowl I made. I had about four beetroots to five swedes and a potato, which made me plenty for lunch and dinner as well.

I also had an onion from the garden, and used the tops as well (what a waste to throw them out!) and seasoned with salt and pepper.

I do wish I was better at photos, but this is Hive, right? We should be about real, lived experiences, and less 'perfect' and 'Ai'. What is with Ai food 'photography'? How can we drool over food that doesn't exist?

For extra pizazz, I fried grated halloumi and parmesan with capers, though I think it might have been more interesting to have them inside the rosti itself. STill, it was a fun experiment and delicious. I wished I had an onion chutney, and didn't have anything to have with it at all so I made a yoghurt sauce with mint and parsley which was nice enough.

The true success of a recipe is would you make them again? In this case absolutely I would! Definitely a keeper.

Have you experimented with different rosti before? What's your favourite beetroot recipe?

`With Love,`

Fencing off the Lower Veggie Patch

riverflows — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 19:21:21 GMT

Whilst I have loved looking after Amy, the german wire haired pointer that belongs to the neighbours, I have realised that whenever we have a guest dog, they don't obey the boundaries of a veggie patch. In fact, they love to do midnight chases of possums or zoomies right through the fennel and garlic. One can't be mad at a dog. They are such delights.

However, I thought I'd do a fence - one I could see through, and thus less intrusive in the small garden, which I can view from the deck. I thought it'd also ad some interest, creating a visual demarcation between 'rest of garden' and the mid section where the sun hits the ground all year long. It'd have the added benefit of hosting climbing peas or beans, though only short, and even cucumbers or perhaps tomatoes to espalier along.

I'm sure some of you are thinking - damn, that's not going to keep out deers and squirrels, but I don't need to do that, and if the possum gets in it's welcome to a few and it's a major issue I'll net inside the area. This is really jsut to keep dogs out.

I did really like the rusty steel reo mesh which I find architectually pleasing, and the rusty orange blends into the background rather than the glint of a galvanised dog mesh. However, to get enough panels would cost me around $250, and Jamie would still have to cut the tops off as otherwise they'd be too high, but not high enough to cut in half.

I was pleased to find a roll of 600 high mesh that was 5 metres long - I bought two rolls, and they were $50 each. I had about seven metres to do, leaving me some for another purpose, perhaps ringing a fruit tree.

note here you can see the raised beds in the higher garden

I also had some chunky hard wood stakes, and given the torrential rain that soaked the place the day before, the ground was soft enough to bash in the stake with a mallet, and secure with the wire used to bind the roll.

The 'gate' is a bit of reo mesh left over from another project, which most of the time will be left set aside, lest there be a dog doing zoomies.

Next week I'll be putting some round pavers through - but that's for another post, so I won't bore you with the idea now. It's pretty awesome having an aerial view of the garden from the deck where I spend a lot of time contemplating what it looks like from above!

Clearly, I have lots to do, but it's all happening organically as ideas come to us. We have decided to let the path naturally fill up with grass so that it keeps the heat down in the height of summer. WE bought an electric whipper snipper so it's super quick and easy to keep it 'mown'.

`With Love,`

Have You Heard of the Hunt 1000?

riverflows — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 10:16:30 GMT

Hey cyclists! I only pop in this community from time to time because I'm not really a cyclist, unless you count going up the shops on my e-bike and the very occasional longer ride through the bush. I get the appeal but I'm not a serious cyclist like I know some of you are. I"m a surfer - that's my jam - and whilst I'm doing that, it's my husband who builds and rides his own bikes. He grew up in London where bikes gave him freedom, and being a tinkerer, he loves building things too.

His latest obsesion is building a bikepacking bike because he had this mad idea to do the Hunt 1000. Have you heard of it?

https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/riverflows/23wgDcFxf6PjVyeyvt2PjimTetgK55Sgb7H1wmThPjdXidWTS4wuskT62FjJiin3QMqbs.jpg

Developed for the inaugural Hunt Bikes Snowy Mountains 1000 event in November 2016, the objective of the route is to link two of Australia’s major cities, Canberra and Melbourne, and traverse some of Australia’s most beautiful high country in a tough but achievable seven days. The route links some amazing campsites and historic alpine huts, provides a limited number of resupply points, and mixes in some challenging hike-a-bike sections, as well as river and creek crossings.

Encompassing the Kosciuszko, Alpine and Namadgi National Parks, the Hunt 1000 takes you into the heart of these remote and uniquely Australian alpine wilderness areas. The Australian Alps have a geological history dating back 160 million years and are unlike regions commonly associated with the term alpine, such as the Andes or the Himalayas. Rather, the Australian alpine region is essentially an uplifted plain made up of grand plateaus surrounded by eroded steep valleys. This unique geology becomes apparent as you climb out of Brindabella Valley to Long Plain or when you scramble 1100m up Billy Goat Bluff Track to the plateau above. The nature of the landscape means you will spend hundreds of km’s on top of the world. But, what goes up must come down and you’ll work hard for those high trail views

From Bikepacking.com

They say that since the course started, only fifty percent of people make it. It's hard work! You certainly can't take an ebike. There's a lot of the route where you have to be entirely self sufficient, and a lot of pushing your bike up hills and across rivers!

So for months and months, Jamie's been ~~torturing me~~ talking about the intricacies of building a bike for this route, and all the kit he needs to go with it, from dehydrated food to what bags he's taking and how much it all weighs. I'm starting to be more interested now he's only a month or so away from leaving. It was just that constant thought process spoken out loud that was driving me nuts. Sometimes I had to say 'please babe, I just got home, don't talk to me about bikes'.

He recently did the Otway Rip to test everything out, and found it pretty hard work, but also realised he'd have to keep the weight down, so we worked pretty hard on weighing everything and figuring out what he doesn't need. One big problem is his phone running out of charge so he bought a Garmin GPS off Marketplace which should do the trick.

The Otway Rip is a three-day gravel route designed to take in some of the best bits of beach and bush in South West Victoria. This route was created to capture the best parts of the Shipwreck Coast and Otway Region, an area of South West Victoria that attracts millions visitors a year. Easily accessible from the big smoke, it’s a ripper way to spend a long summer weekend! Originally created in 2020, The Otway Rip was refreshed in July 2025. The latest version avoids a few more busy roads , adds more dirt, and finishes in Colac to make train travel from the eastern end even easier.

From Bikepacking.com

Whilst he can't afford a $15k bike, he's still spending a few pennies getting it all together. The entry alone is $500 and we haven't even got the flights to Canberra yet.

https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/riverflows/Ep7t8g2qz1DBE6XoAfKnrd6Ea3XD3h4EGRgTprgmePPsnX1iVVDAvLkHzBrwJta8fRf.jpg

I'm pretty proud of him for all his preparation and training. I think he's got a very strong mind and a lot of determination, so I do think he'll be part of the fifty percent that does make it. I hope so anyway, as it'll be a very long drive to come and pick him up!

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Homesteading & Mental Health

clareartista — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 15:59:36 GMT

I wrote a longer post on this subject, which you can read over on our Goed Life Patreon pages here and wanted to riff here also, as our decentralised and our truly alternative communities have additional hurdles that must be overcome, in respect to shall we say 'conventional' homesteaders.

Our values often run deeper, for example, as in our beliefs may err on the side of dissolving all systems and structures, before recreating them in a much more Nature And God Aligned manner. Our previous lives might have taken us further to the edges of society than most - and isolated us extremely, even before we decide to explore wilderness gardening. Taking the logical 'final step' into homesteading might look quite different to a more conventionally-minded person who has retained a wide network online or has a more steady ongoing income through working online.

For those of us more hardcore nature-lovers, who wish to live in closer proximity to our own wild nature and autonomy, there are usually great challenges in finding the necessary resources to begin with. E.g. Hive and Bitcoin certainly were invaluable in moving @vincentnijman and I towards this homestead.

At the same time, the road here was paved by doubts and panic, and once here, the deepest fears held sway over our first year and a half (yes: we are still in the first year and a half!) - it wasn't enough to just have the land, the casetta, the know-how and the enthusiasm; we also had to wade through a shedload of almost-debilitating dark thoughts and impulses.

We often have had interactions that simultaneously bring out the 'worst' in both of us, and this creates a low vibration that gets in the way of quickly resolving our massive list of competing priorities: we spiral energetically, and struggle to find that beautiful harmonious space that we know we're supposed to be cocreating. Times like these we're okay-ish at turning the vibe around, but sometimes it takes longer - or 'too long' - and the neuroses to be transformed seem to pile up and up and up....

It's always the mind which is at fault, though, and this guarantee helps us to tidy up any mess that we make: a mind askew always requires a reconnection to be made - and this invariably is between breath, body and mind. Any time the mind goes awry, it signals a missing link, or isolation, or something needing to be smoothed back together with something else. It can be depression or anger or frustration or disgust - projected or directed inwards - minor or major discord. Every time, breathing more deeply, longer, slower whilst observing thoughts and/ or feelings in a calm, rooted, embodied way - this brings us back to wholeness, and we can rationally continue with the cocreation of our Vision.

The breath builds synapses and new muscle memories. It reconnects all that was pulled apart. It brings calm to the boiling sea of the internal waters. Returning to the breath is returning to the Whole, and to Oneness, together. It reminds to expand rather than retreating, and to know that all is in movement, at all times. It is metaphor for everything! And it is the equivalent of being embraced, reassured and protected by the other, by the collective, even by the Divine. Through the sureness of one breath following another, I get pulled back into the tides and cycles of the Cosmos. I'm reminded of my place in the Universe: precisely here, precisely right now. And I find my Truth in that presence; presence of mind, of body, of spirit, in the Great Presence. Which is here, now - as it is everywhere, always and in all ways.

That is all that I can say just now, about it! We had a rough moment an hour ago, when a sudden, rather violent rainstorm whipped the house up and down. Water streaming down the stove pipe, curtains flapping water into the glass-less windows and under loose doors. The floors gathering large puddles, and my shoes and books being compromised. We rubbed each other up the wrong way, in the minor panic ensuing - and as my mind rushed forward to wilder, more destructive premonitions of winter weather to come.

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Everyday life along the roads of Tanzania

friendlymoose — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 13:56:00 GMT

We've had an amazing holiday in Tanzania last summer. We travelled many kilometers through the country in between the places we stayed. We always say; the journey is also part of the holiday. And especially in Africa, travelling turns out to be an experience by itself.

If you come from Europe like us, a lot of things are very well organized (maybe too organized). When we arrived in Arusha, we've experienced very busy roads and chaotic situations. At least, for us, because the locals don't seem to feel it that way.
There were a lot of motorbikes, some carrying the most unexpected loads, which seemingly didn't have any rules that applied to them. Also alongside the roads a lot is happening. There are a lot of people alongside the streets as well as road side shops selling all sorts of things.
Everywhere is the smell small fires for cooking food.
In this blog I will try to give you an impression of the everyday life on and alongside the roads in Tanzania with some of the pictures we took during traveling.

Big loads

Agriculture is one of the main incomes of Tanzania. Everywhere you see people riding around with crops. When we were picked up from Arusha airport, we noticed a motorcycle coming towards us. At first we didn't notice it was a motorcycle because it was quite big. But when it came closer we saw it was carrying a huge pile of dried maize stalks. The load must have been three or four meters wide. You can see the driver isn't even able to sit. For us this was such a funny sight. We also wondered how it is legal to drive around like that. But our driver said it was quite normal in Tanzania.
And we found out it is, because we saw a lot of other people driving around with huge loads later on.

You could find almost anything being transported on a motorcycle. This driver travelled around with a huge pile of bananas on the back. I do wonder how these guys even get on and off their motorcycles with these loads.

Women carrying goods

One thing that also caught our attention were women carrying things on their heads. For us as Europeans this is quite a remarkable sight. It is something we associate with Africa (at least, I do). Buckets, bags or other goods, are all caried on top of their heads. It looks extremely hard to balance, but a lot of women do it with ease, so it seems.

It seems quite useful to have your hands free while carrying stuff. Sometimes the women even carried a child too. It's very interesting to see.

Food stands

Tanzania has very fertile soil. Due to the surrounding volcanoes, the water pours down from them and the many hours of sun, they can grow almost anything. I was told Tanzania even has two growing seasons a year. Vegetables, fruits and coffee are the things they grow and export a lot.
But they also sell fruit and other food along the roads. They add a bit of color to the dusty sides of the road. They mostly sell their goods to locals.

They also sell popcorn, sugarcane and meat products. When you drive past these little markets there is a constant smell of fire.
They also sell a lot of bananas. I heard there are quite a few species of bananas they sell. Some for cooking, some for soup and they even make beer from it (tried it, not my cup of tea 😂).
It's interesting to see all these improvised stands alongside the road where you can buy fruits that are coming fresh from the trees.

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Doing Difficult Things - Step One

ericvancewalton — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 15:37:21 GMT

![Going Come Back GIF by La Guarimba Film Festival.gif](https://images.hive.blog/DQmV3A3wnAJyGHhgXoVCAtFcBjuxFcXBnvW43TpLot7nkAZ/Going%20Come%20Back%20GIF%20by%20La%20Guarimba%20Film%20Festival.gif)

Attempting to do difficult things is undoubtedly good for the soul. Even if we don’t accomplish what we originally set out to achieve we end up stretching beyond previously conceived limits, evolving, and growing in ways we might have never imagined.

Over the past week I decided to attempt something difficult—a new novel. This one has been stewing for quite some time but I've been hesitant to jump into the project. With winter on our doorstep I decided finally to take those first few steps.

The plot sketch was started over the weekend and I can tell you this will be unlike anything I’ve written in the past. This story will require building an entire world. In its purest sense this story will be about establishing boundaries, conscious evolution, and realizing in nearly every situation it's imperative to remember that we have choices.

The working title of this new book is, "Portraits of the Hearthhold." Without revealing too much, the plot will center around a movement: communities of people around the world who decide they wish to separate themselves and their communities from the influence of artificial intelligence, algorithms, and the assistance of humanoid robots.

“Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” Lao Tzu

A little about the not-so-distant world the Hearthhold was born into:
In the near future, humanoid robots and embedded AI will handle most labor, logistics, education, healthcare, and even much of creative content production. Cities are clean, efficient, and increasingly optional. A small but growing number of people make the decision to opt out, forming scattered off-grid communities known as hearthholds.

Hearthholds aren’t religious enclaves. These are groups of people who have simply made the decision to refuse to outsource the mundane, imperfect, embodied parts of life: growing food by hand, cooking together, making music without generative tools, telling their stories face-to-face, repairing things, and raising their children without AI tutors or algorithms. Above all they vow to preserve the knowledge and self-sufficiency of these old ways. They keep libraries of paper books, analog instruments, handwritten letters, and seasonal festivals. Technology is used sparingly and deliberately, never as a mediator of daily human contact. The name “hearthhold” comes from the shared fire or stove that remains the center of each settlement.

While working on the plot sketch I decided a good way to flesh out the mission of the Hearthhold communities would be to draft their constitution. Following is the preamble, the rest of the constitution is a work in progress:

PREAMBLE
We form hearthholds to keep certain human capacities alive by practicing them together. We choose to grow, make, cook, repair, teach, remember, become more in harmony with the environment, and decide by hand and in person. We do this not from hatred of technology and machines or of those who live among them, but from the conviction that some forms of skill, attention, and relationship diminish when they are no longer required. This constitution sets the terms by which we try to live that conviction without turning it into a new orthodoxy.

I’m giving myself eight months to finish the draft of Portraits of the Hearthhold. Hopefully it’ll be done before my birthday in June of next year. As a result of this you’ll, likely, be seeing less of me around here for a while. Just to be clear this isn't goodbye. I'll still try to log in to use my voting power and comment as much as I can despite the frequency (or infrequency) of my future blog posting.

It's so important to remember that we have choices. Everything in life begins with a decision. There's an expansive and wonderful world out there that is ripe with opportunities for those who are willing to take that first step.

Take care of yourselves and I wish you all a wonderful week.

All for now. Make this a wonderful day.

(Gif sourced from Giphy.com)

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