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I had a dream that three demons visited me. They were trying to take my things. And I acted like I was asleep so they would leave me alone. They kept talking about me. I can’t remember much else, but I know they weren’t friendly, and I know they weren’t welcome in my room. I woke up with a sore throat.

Here’s my story

I once thought I’d run for office, probably as an atheist liberal, and now I want to learn more about Orthodox Christianity, and I think it would be nice to be a stay-at-home mom who writes as a profession.

As a basically self-identified atheist, I was a menace. Vices we’re like an afternoon snack. I almost found myself in a sex cult. I was working in crypto (which isn’t inherently bad), but it is an unethical place for weird people with a technology that is being misused, and that does something to you. Being in that day in and day out is just hard on the psyche, especially when, even if you want things to change, they refuse to and keep going in the wrong direction.

I think if you’re anything like me, working in any institution is too hard too. It’s like you see everything that’s wrong and can be changed, and then if you say something, you’re the bad guy. I don’t do well in institutions, and that’s fine. My genius is supposed to sit outside of it. I’m not built to be attached to the thing. I’m built to help you change it, and I need to exercise a pretty significant amount of freedom to do that.

Fast forward to my life today, and I am exploring Orthodox Christianity for the first time. I have a partner I love and that God gave me. I am writing here, to you, blessed reader, and I am leaning into a life of low stress and high purpose (though that graph is more like an inverted U-curve, if I had to guess).

The Orthodox Church is what I would call the mystical church.

It’s not about secret, esoteric knowledge but about real, lived experience with God, and by experiencing the revealed God through Scripture and Tradition.