This Week

We are reading:

• 1 Chronicles 23-29

• 1 Kings 1-11

• 2 Chronicles 1-9

• Psalms 64, 65, 66, 4, 5, 6, 7

Summary

This week we wrap up 1 Chronicles with David in his final days, obsessively organizing everything he couldn’t build himself: the Levites, the priests, the musicians, the gatekeepers, the military, the treasury. The man is dying and he is making lists. Honestly, I get it.

Then Solomon ascends the throne, consolidates power, and does what his father spent a lifetime preparing for — he builds the temple. Seven years of construction. Cedar from Lebanon. Gold everywhere. The ark finally in its permanent home. The presence of God filling the house like smoke.

It is one of the most magnificent moments in the entire Bible.

And then Solomon just throws it all away.

Starting with a foreign wife, a compromise, a high place built for a god that isn’t the God, and then another, and another, until a man who started by asking for wisdom is chasing every idol in the ancient Near East.

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Here is the daily breakdown from our annual plan:

• Day 145 — Monday, 5/25 — 1 Chronicles 23-26, Psalm 64

• Day 146 — Tuesday, 5/26 — 1 Chronicles 27-29, Psalm 65

• Day 147 — Wednesday, 5/27 — 1 Kings 1-4, Psalm 66

• Day 148 — Thursday, 5/28 — 1 Kings 5-8, Psalm 4

• Day 149 — Friday, 5/29 — 1 Kings 9-11, Psalm 5

• Day 150 — Saturday, 5/30 — 2 Chronicles 1-5, Psalm 6

• Day 151 — Sunday, 5/31 — 2 Chronicles 6-9, Psalm 7

Day 145 — Monday, 5/25 — 1 Chronicles 23-26, Psalm 64

• David is old and makes Solomon king.

• The Levites are organized by division and assigned specific roles: overseeing the work of the temple, acting as officers and judges, serving as gatekeepers, leading the music.

• Interestingly, the musicians are named and are treated as a guild of prophets, set apart for “prophesying, accompanied by harps, lyres and cymbals.”

• These chapters cover all the duties and roles related to organizing and worshipping at the temple.

Day 146 — Tuesday, 5/26 — 1 Chronicles 27-29, Psalm 65

• More organization: the military divisions, the tribal leaders, the overseers of the royal storehouses and herds and vineyards and olive groves and camels.

• David assembles all of Israel and gives a speech telling them what God told him: you are a man of war, you have blood on your hands, and you will not build the temple. Your son will.

• He hands Solomon the architectural plans then turns to the assembly and essentially runs a capital campaign. He announces what he personally is giving (massive quantities of gold and silver and bronze beyond the national treasury) and asks, who will give themselves wholeheartedly to the Lord today? The leaders and officials respond with extraordinary generosity, giving hundreds of tons of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and untold numbers of precious stones.

• Solomon is anointed a second time and David dies.

Day 147 — Wednesday, 5/27 — 1 Kings 1-4, Psalm 66

• Jumping back a bit, 1 Kings opens with David very old, and we are back in a more detailed biography of interwoven personal tales that reads very much like\ Game of Thrones.

• Another day, another coup. Adonijah, David’s surviving eldest son, moves to claim the throne. Nathan the prophet and Bathsheba stage an intervention, and David publicly anoints Solomon, undercutting Adonijah’s ploy.

• David dies. Solomon consolidates power. Adonijah makes one more play and Solomon has him executed.

• God appears to Solomon in a dream, and Solomon asks for wisdom — specifically, a discerning heart to govern the people and distinguish right from wrong. God is so pleased with the request that he gives him wealth, honor, fame, and long life on top of it.

• The infamous judgment between two mothers follows immediately after. Two women come before King Solomon, each claiming to be the mother of the same baby. One accuses the other of having rolled over on her own child in the night, suffocating it, and then secretly exchanging the dead infant for the living one. King Solomon proposes an insane solution: the living child should be cut in two, with half given to each woman. One of the women agrees, and the other cries out in protest — proving to King Solomon she is the true mother of the living baby.

Day 148 — Thursday, 5/28 — 1 Kings 5-8, Psalm 4

• The temple building begins. Solomon sends to Hiram king of Tyre — David’s old ally and an icon of Freemasonry — for cedar and cypress timber. The sheer volume of materials, laborers, and logistics described are staggering.

• Four hundred and eighty years after the Exodus (12 x 40 years, just sharing because you know I’m always calculating), in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign, construction starts on the temple.

• It took seven years to build. Then, on a roll, Solomon spent another thirteen years building his own palace complex, also described in detail. The contrast in construction time is noted without comment, so make of that what you will.

• The ark is brought in to the inner sanctuary, placed under the wings of the cherubim. There are parallels to the Garden of Eden, as you will remember the cherubim are guarding the entrance with flaming swords. The cloud of God fills the temple.

Day 149 — Friday, 5/29 — 1 Kings 9-11, Psalm 5

• God appears to Solomon a second time. God is explicit in his communication with Solomon: if you walk before me as your father David walked, your dynasty will endure; if you turn away and serve other gods, this temple I have consecrated will become a heap of rubble. The foreshadowing is as thick as the cloudy presence of God in the temple.

• Solomon’s international reputation reaches its peak and the Queen of Sheba arrives and declares that his wisdom and prosperity exceed even the reports she’d heard. A foreign queen praising Israel’s God is exactly what this faithful kingdom was supposed to accomplish.

• Whoopsie! King Solomon’s riches and fame, and particularly the attention of foreign women, goes to his head. He winds up with seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. The marriages were political alliances, which was common at the time, however the consequence is that these wives turned Solomon towards other gods, just as God warned when he told the Israelites not to marry foreign women.

• Solomon built high places for Chemosh, Molek, and the other gods of all his foreign wives. The man who built the temple built shrines for idols on the hills outside Jerusalem, and he worshipped there. Big yikes.

• God tells him the kingdom will be torn away — but not in his lifetime, for David’s sake. One tribe will remain for David’s sake. The adversaries begin to rise.

Day 150 — Saturday, 5/30 — 2 Chronicles 1-5, Psalm 6

• Fun fact: Today is my birthday! Fittingly, it is also the feast day of Joan of Arc.

• We switch books again. 2 Chronicles begins at the same place as 1 Kings 1-2 ends with Solomon firmly established as king, but again skipping past the palace intrigue.

• The workforce and material quantities for the temple are described again, with some variations in number from Kings.

Day 151 — Sunday, 5/31 — 2 Chronicles 6-9, Psalm 7

• Solomon’s prayer of dedication again, and the cloud of God fills the temple.

• God appears to Solomon a third time in Chronicles.

• The Queen of Sheba again.

• In Chronicles, Solomon builds the temple and it is glorious and then he dies and his son reigns in his place. There are no foreign wives, no idols, no distraction from the core story: Solomon built the temple.

Whew, we’re almost halfway through the Bible, and working our way through the origin story of the secret societies! What came up for you this week?

This week we’re talking about Neeza Powers and catching up with our side yard project and new greenhouse.

Plus, another one of my favorite health hacks.

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This Week

We are reading:

• 2 Samuel 22-24

• 1 Chronicles 1-22

• Psalms 30, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 62

Summary

This week we finish 2 Samuel and begin 1 Chronicles.

We finish David’s story not with a bang but with a whimper — but we end up at the foundation of Solomon’s Temple.

Then we begin 1 Chronicles, which starts us back at the beginning with a retelling of our origin family and how we got from Adam to Noah to David, before diving back into David’s story.

1 Chronicles was written after the Babylonian exile, for a people returning home. It’s a lot of genealogy, yet again, but remember the books in the Bible were all separate scrolls of information, and this one was tying a somewhat nomadic people to a solid family thread so they could remember who they were.

David’s story is retold with very little scandal. Is this the boring Bible I keep hearing about? Because honestly these stories are anything but. In hindsight, we can see that David prepared everything for the temple, securing the kingdom so his son could build what he couldn’t. Moses vibes here — it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

A reminder this week: It’s ok to skim! This week is very same same, but different — it’s a lot of ground we have already covered, just from another angle. If you zone out, just come back tomorrow. It’ll still be here.

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Here is the daily breakdown from our annual plan:

• Day 138 — Monday, 5/18 — 2 Samuel 22-24, Psalm 30

• Day 139 — Tuesday, 5/19 — 1 Chronicles 1-4, Psalm 39

• Day 140 — Wednesday, 5/20 — 1 Chronicles 5-8, Psalm 40

• Day 141 — Thursday, 5/21 — 1 Chronicles 9-12, Psalm 41

• Day 142 — Friday, 5/22 — 1 Chronicles 13-16, Psalm 42

• Day 143 — Saturday, 5/23 — 1 Chronicles 17-19, Psalm 43

• Day 144 — Sunday, 5/24 — 1 Chronicles 20-22, Psalm 62

Day 138 — Monday, 5/18 — 2 Samuel 22-24, Psalm 30

• 2 Samuel 22 is David’s great song of deliverance and is nearly identical to Psalm 18, which we read back in Week 19.

• We then read David’s last words, including a catalog of his mighty men, followed by a census — so yet another list of men.

• David’s census taking is decidedly sinful (pride, perhaps?) and God lets him choose his punishment from three options: famine, 3 months as a fugitive, or 3 days of plague. David chooses the plague, and seventy thousand people die. David builds an altar and offers a sacrifice at the place where the angel of the Lord stops the famine — which becomes the place where Solomon will build the permanent temple.

Day 139 — Tuesday, 5/19 — 1 Chronicles 1-4, Psalm 39

• Chronicles starts from the beginning — Adam, Noah, his three sons, and their descendants. A piano teacher once told me that you’ll always know the beginning of a piece of music the best because you keep going over it every time you restart when you’re practicing. That’s what this feels like, tbh.

• Since we’re reading the Bible in chronological order, it’s interesting to go back and review from another angle everything we’ve read so far — a single unbroken line of a million stories that have brought us to this point.

Day 140 — Wednesday, 5/20 — 1 Chronicles 5-8, Psalm 40

• The genealogies continue. The Levites get the most specific lineage traced in detail because of their role in the temple.

Day 141 — Thursday, 5/21 — 1 Chronicles 9-12, Psalm 41

• Chapter 9 lists those who returned to Jerusalem after the exile, which is the whole point of all the genealogy.

• Saul dies, David becomes king. The sordid history is summarized into it’s final point — Israel is united under God’s appointed leader.

Day 142 — Friday, 5/22 — 1 Chronicles 13-16, Psalm 42

• David’s first attempt to bring the ark to Jerusalem goes exactly as it does in 2 Samuel — the ark slips and Uzzah steadies it and is immediately struck dead. But Chronicles adds a detail Samuel left out: when David tries to move the ark again, he makes a point of doing it correctly, with the Levites carrying the ark on their shoulders with poles, as the law prescribes.

• Chronicles is an accurate name because the details this author includes about the party post-ark arrival — the singers the instruments — vs what the author leaves out about Bathsheba, Tamar, Absalom etc is certainly a choice.

Day 143 — Saturday, 5/23 — 1 Chronicles 17-19, Psalm 43

• The Davidic Covenant again — God’s promise that David’s son will build the temple, that his line will endure, that discipline will come but love will not be removed.

• We are provided with a summary of the wars, but the Chronicler conspicuously skips over Bathsheba.

Day 144 — Sunday, 5/24 — 1 Chronicles 20-22, Psalm 62

• More Philistine battles. More giants are killed. The kingdom is secured.

• Then the census — but again, we get a different level of detail: in Samuel, it is God who incites David to take it. In Chronicles, it is Satan who does so. Honestly, this makes more sense to me.

• Whereas Samuel implies the future temple location, Chronicles outright declares it.

• In chapter 22 we have a story entirely unique to Chronicles: David gathering enormous quantities of gold, silver, bronze, iron, timber, stone for the temple and calling Solomon and charging him with the task.

What do you think of the differences between Chronicles and Samuel? Does the shift in perspective change how you see David or anything else? Share in the comments and the chat!

Nor COMT, or DAO, and they’ve probably never even heard of RCCX Theory.

The truth is they probably don’t know about these. Or they at least don’t know enough to tell you about them. Because the medical system was not built to help you understand how your specific body works; it was built to treat symptoms.

I used to “randomly” pass out in odd places. On the bus in San Francisco, while working at a cafe in the UK, on a subway platform in New York (while wearing a silk pencil skirt!). I’d go to the ER, they wouldn’t be able to find anything wrong with me, and they’d send me on my way. I barely saw any doctors in my 20s — with the exception of these periodic ER visits — but when I mentioned this to any primary care physicians they’d basically just shrug their shoulders and say, “You’re young and relatively fit, it’s probably nothing.”

After years of being told my symptoms were nothing, or anxiety, or “but you look fine,” I eventually landed on a cluster of diagnoses that explained nearly everything: Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), Small Fiber Neuropathy, and more. Each diagnoses a new thread. All of them interconnected. And underneath all of it, a genetic architecture that mainstream medicine refuses to acknowledge.

This is actually how I found the research on RCCX theory — I started searching for the connection between all these supposedly disconnected diagnoses, as well as the connection between highly intelligent, high-achieving, Type-A mostly woman who had developed some sort of chronic illness.

If you’ve been following along with Capitalism & Glitter here on Substack or on Instagram, you already know about RCCX theory — the gene cluster on chromosome 6 that many doctors and health researchers believe links EDS, MCAS, POTS, and a constellation of related conditions in a single, heritable genetic predisposition. If you aren’t familiar, you can read more in our article here:

That piece of the puzzle explains why these conditions cluster together the way they do, and why you might be more sensitive and prone to certain conditions than 80% of the population. But it doesn’t explain everything about how your body operates on a day-to-day level. Why you’re more reactive to histamine than other people even with suspected RCCX genes, why stress absolutely wrecks you in ways that seem disproportionate, why certain supplements help everyone else and make you feel like you’re on fire.

That’s where epigenetics comes in.

Epigenetics

Epigenetics is the study of how behaviors and environmental factors switch genes “on” or “off.” Without changing the underlying genetic code, your body changes how it reads your genes and whether it expresses symptoms of those genes or not.

While you can’t change your genetic code, you can change how strongly that gene expresses — through things like diet, exercise, and managing stress.

Dr. Ben Lynch, a naturopathic physician, national bestseller, and founder of Seeking Health, wrote a book in 2018 called Dirty Genes that was instrumental in helping me figure out how to support my health. This gave me a framework for understanding seven specific genetic variants that have an outsized impact on how your body handles methylation, detoxification, mood, histamine, hormones, and cardiovascular function.

If you have a chronic illness that mainstream medicine has consistently failed to explain, this is a rabbit hole worth going down.

Before We Talk Genes, We Need to Talk Mindset

Genetics are not everything. They are a blueprint for your body that is influenced heavily by environment. Many people have a very restrictive mindset around genetics — “I have X so I can’t do Y.” But your genes are not a death sentence, and they are something you can work with, influence, and in some cases, change the expression of with epigenetics.

There is a line of thinking that says talking about healing, optimizing, or changing the expression of genetically influenced conditions like EDS is ableist. That it implies sick people are doing something wrong. That it puts the burden back on the patient.

I get it. I completely understand where that comes from. Years of medical gaslighting will do that. When doctors have told you for decades that your suffering is a personal failing — that you just need to exercise more, stress less, think positive — the idea of more self-optimization can feel like another flavor of the same thing.

But there’s a difference between your structural architecture and your biochemical terrain. And this line of thinking can lock you into a victim mentality in which you never try to improve your symptoms (and, in my experience, these people are most likely to lash out at others who do find improvement).

EDS doesn’t go away because you fixed your methylation. Your connective tissue is your connective tissue. What you can change is the inflammatory load on top of it, the histamine bucket you’re carrying, the stress response that’s been stuck in overdrive since childhood — all of which weaken already fragile tissues.

Your detox pathways that are running at 40% capacity while your environment demands 100%. Supporting your body to operate at its version of 100% is a critical component of maintaining health.

This is why many people have EDS or MTHFR mutations with no “negative” symptoms. This is how Michael Phelps has won gold medals while pretty obviously having the genes for Marfan Syndrome. We over-focus on the negative connotation of various genetics, but very rarely do we talk about the benefits of these mutations — gifting some of us higher intelligence, or increased swimming speed, or the flexibility required to be a ballerina or elite gymnast.

You can have a chronic illness and still understand how you operate. You can have a genetic mutation and not have chronic illness. You can be a person with real, heritable, structural differences and be someone who has agency over how those differences express themselves. Understanding your genes and healing chronic symptoms you aren’t destined to have isn’t ableist. It’s empowering.

Now. Let’s talk about the genes.

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This Week

We are reading:

• 2 Samuel 1-21

• Psalms 18, 89, 60, 51, 3, 37, 38

Summary

We made it. David is king.

What could go wrong?!

A lot, actually.

This week we read most of 2 Samuel and watch David go from the highest highs — dancing in the streets with total abandon for the Lord, giving his wife the ultimate ick — to the lowest lows — a near-refugee fleeing his own son in a coup and trying to keep the kingdom together.

The Psalms are again ever relevant, including David’s song of deliverance (Psalm 18) and the tale of him fleeing his own son (Psalm 3).

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Here is the daily breakdown from our annual plan:

• Day 131 — Monday, 5/11 — 2 Samuel 1-3, Psalm 18

• Day 132 — Tuesday, 5/12 — 2 Samuel 4-6, Psalm 89

• Day 133 — Wednesday, 5/13 — 2 Samuel 7-9, Psalm 60

• Day 134 — Thursday, 5/14 — 2 Samuel 10-12, Psalm 51

• Day 135 — Friday, 5/15 — 2 Samuel 13-15, Psalm 3

• Day 136 — Saturday, 5/16 — 2 Samuel 16-18, Psalm 37

• Day 137 — Sunday, 5/17 — 2 Samuel 19-21, Psalm 38

Day 131 — Monday, 5/11 — 2 Samuel 1-3, Psalm 18

• News of Saul’s death reaches David via an Amalekite messenger who claims to have dealt the final blow himself because he is expecting a reward. Instead, David has him executed. Whoops! Shouldn’t have bragged about killing God’s anointed one.

• David is anointed king over Judah first, not all Israel. Saul’s surviving son Ishbosheth is proclaimed as the King of Israel, a rival — and civil war breaks out.

Day 132 — Tuesday, 5/12 — 2 Samuel 4-6, Psalm 89

• Ishbosheth is assassinated in his bed by two of his own men, who bring his head to David expecting praise. Again, David has them executed.

• David is anointed the king of Israel and captures Jerusalem, making it the capital and naming it the City of David — a culmination of the Exodus effort to flee Egypt and settle in the Promised Land

• David wants to move the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem but on the way Uzzah accidentally touches it and is struck dead on the spot. David is afraid and doesn’t try again for three months. When the procession resumes and the ark finally enters Jerusalem, David dances before the Lord with everything he has — and his wife Michal watches from a window, gets the ick, and never has children with him.

Day 133 — Wednesday, 5/13 — 2 Samuel 7-9, Psalm 60

• David, living in his cedar palace, doesn’t like that the ark is still in a tent. He wants to build God a house — but God says no, your son will build me the temple. This results in the Davidic Covenant — the promise that David’s line will result in an unconditional, eternal kingdom, culminating in the arrival of the Messiah

• For Jonathan’s sake, and as an act of covenant loyalty, David restores all of Saul’s land to his grandson, Mephibosheth, and insists he eat at the king’s table for the rest of his life.

Day 134 — Thursday, 5/14 — 2 Samuel 10-12, Psalm 51

• David starts slipping. He has an affair with Bathsheba (because remember, his wife has the permanent ick) and gets her pregnant. David calls her husband, Uriah, back from battle tries to get them to sleep together to cover it up, but Uriah refuses because his men are at war. David sends him back to the front and puts him in harms way so he dies, and David marries Bathsheba.

• Nathan the prophet comes to David and tells him a parable of a rich man who takes a poor man’s only beloved lamb rather than slaughter one of his own. David is furious at the man in the story. Then Nathan tells him “You are the man.”

• David’s child with Bathsheba dies, but they have another and name him Solomon.

Day 135 — Friday, 5/15 — 2 Samuel 13-15, Psalm 3

• David’s family falls into dissaray. His firstborn son Amnon rapes his half-sister Tamar, she flees to her brother Absalom’s house, who waits two years then has Amnon killed before fleeing. The estrangement between Absalom and David festers into a full blown political coup.

• Absalom begins systematically stealing the hearts of Israel. He sits at the city gate, intercepts anyone coming to the king for justice, tells them “if only I were made judge.” Finally, he launches his rebellion from Hebron and David flees Jerusalem with his household, barefoot and weeping up the Mount of Olives.

Day 136 — Saturday, 5/16 — 2 Samuel 16-18, Psalm 37

• As David flees, a man named Shimei — from Saul’s clan — follows along hurling curses and throwing stones. David’s men want to cut his head off. David says no. “Leave him alone; let him curse, for the Lord has told him to.” The humility of it is remarkable. He receives the cursing as discipline.

• Absalom enters Jerusalem and, on Ahithophel’s counsel, very publicly has sex with David’s concubines on the palace rooftop.

• Ahithophel advises Absalom to pursue David, but he listens to Hushai instead. While Ahitophel has a better plan, God’s plan is ultimately to thwart Absalom. Hushai then warns David to escape.

• David’s army wins in the battle in the forest of Ephraim, and Absalom, riding a mule through the forest, gets his famous hair caught in a tree — and hangs there. Joab drives three javelins through him despite David’s explicit orders that Absalom be kept alive. David is devastated when he learns his son has died.

Day 137 — Sunday, 5/17 — 2 Samuel 19-21, Psalm 38

• Joab confronts David and tells him his grief is demoralizing the army. David pulls himself together and resumes his kingship. The return to Jerusalem is complicated.

• A new rebellion rises almost immediately, followed by a famine resulting from a treaty Saul violated decades earlier.

• This week’s readings end with yet another battle between the Israelites and giants — and these ones explicitly have 6 fingers and 6 toes.

Whew. A lot going on this week. What are your thoughts? Share below and in the chat.

I didn’t know a single other person (besides my husband and daughter) who had Covid at that time. It was the weirdest illness I had ever experienced, and there was little to no information about other people’s experiences with the illness, let alone the aftermath.

What followed was 16 months, 13 doctors (most of whom I eventually fired), more than 100 tests, and a rotating cast of syndrome diagnoses — each one consisting of several symptoms I had on a small scale pre-Covid, and feeling like a consolation prize from a medical system that couldn’t figure out what was actually wrong with me.

Then, finally, a supposed root cause:

Lyme disease.

But I had never had a tick bite. I had no memory of exposure, no telltale bullseye rash — just a diagnosis that arrived like a missing puzzle piece, and immediately generated a hundred more missing pieces.

How did I get it? Unclear.

How long have I had it? Unknown — possibly my whole life, since it can be passed along congenitally from mother to baby.

Which means the question isn’t just when I got it. It’s how far back this line actually goes.

Symptoms I’d carried for decades, things I’d been told were just me — genetic quirks, familial anomalies like cherry angiomas, the same ones my mom has — suddenly reframed as possible Lyme co-infection (Babesia) markers that no one had ever thought to connect.

And when I started pulling that thread — where did Lyme come from? — I ended up somewhere I wasn’t expecting. Somewhere involving a tick biology researcher who spent his career sitting on a secret, a remote island with a classified history, and a pathogen that doesn’t officially exist in the United States.

The Fastest-Growing Infectious Disease You’re Probably Misunderstanding

The mainstream story on Lyme is tidy, woefully incomplete at best, and harmfully incorrect at its worst.

A tick bite, which can only transmit Lyme after 24 hours (false), only indicates Lyme if it results in a bullseye rash (also false), which can easily be cleared up with two to four weeks of doxycycline (false, false, false).

The CDC still does not recognize Chronic Lyme disease as a disabling diagnosis — despite the fact that a significant percentage of treated patients continue to experience debilitating symptoms long after antibiotics are complete. The medical establishment has a name for this that manages to acknowledge the experience while simultaneously dismissing it: Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome, or PTLDS. It’s a diagnostic category that essentially means we believe you had Lyme, we believe you’re still sick, and we have nothing more to offer you.

What the tidy story doesn’t address is the symptom range. Lyme disease can cause, or mimic, nearly every condition in the medical textbook — autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, every psychiatric diagnosis in the DSM, neurological symptoms from facial palsy to seizures, and cardiac complications including sudden death. Researchers have linked it to everything from anorexia, to suicide, to Parkinson’s-like presentation.

It also does something very unusual for a bacterial pathogen: it uses manganese instead of iron for its metabolism. Most bacteria survive on iron, and one of the body’s primary immune defenses is to sequester iron out of your blood and into your tissues precisely to starve out infection. Borrelia burgdorferi sidesteps that entirely. It’s a bacterium that has somehow, inexplicitly, evolved to defeat one of your oldest immune strategies before your body even knows it’s there.

Intergenerational Pathology

My mom was born in Massachusetts and grew up traipsing through the marshy wooded areas — specifically in the region just above Cape Cod, at the center of what the CDC’s own maps show as one of the darkest endemic clusters of both Lyme disease and Babesiosis, a co-infection that travels alongside Lyme and is caused by a malaria-like parasite transmitted by the same black-legged tick.

I grew up in Northern California. Which certainly has ticks, and there are claims that the CDC doesn’t count all the cases in the South and the West on their map. But, given that I never had a tick bite, the most likely origin of this pathogen for me is congenital Lyme transmission from mother to child during pregnancy. The research is contested (as most Lyme research is), but the mechanism is biologically plausible: Borrelia has shown it can cross the placental barrier. Stillbirths, miscarriages, and neonatal complications have been linked to maternal Lyme infection. Lyme Literate Medical Doctors are well aware of this, and they do not contest this possibility as they see it so often.

So if my mom grew up in the highest-endemic region in the country, and congenital transmission is real, the question isn’t just do I have Lyme disease? It’s: does she? Did her mother, who also struggled with health issues and dabbled in holistic medicine? How many generations back does this go? How many symptoms got explained away as just how we are — the fatigue, the joint pain, the neurological flares, the anxiety — when the actual answer was a spirochete that traveled down the family line?

As if that wasn’t enough, here’s what actually stopped me in my tracks mid-research and made me sit straight up in my bedridden state of existence.

Look at a map of Lyme and Babesiosis endemic zones in the United States. There’s a dense, dark cluster on the Eastern Seaboard — concentrated around southern New England, coastal Connecticut, Long Island, the Jersey Shore. The center of that cluster — the bullseye of the bullseye, if you will — sits directly around the eastern tip of Long Island.

Where, at the very end of that island, sits Plum Island.

The Island Nobody Wants to Talk About

Plum Island Animal Disease Center is a federal government research facility. It sits roughly two miles off the coast of Orient Point, New York — in the Long Island sound just off the coast of Connecticut, accessible only by ferry, historically classified, and officially dedicated to studying “foreign animal diseases” that might threaten American livestock.

That’s the official version.

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This Week

We are reading:

• 1 Samuel 11-31

• Psalms 54, 57, 59, 142, 63, 56, 34

Summary

This is a crazy week of readings — we get to witness a high-octane game of cat and mouse as we finish 1 Samuel, and we finally catch up to the primary author of the Psalms.

Saul becomes Israel’s first king, chosen by God, anointed and tall and promising — and he is exactly the kind of king the Israelites deserve, tbh. He starts out with genuine victories and potential, but pride and fear chip away at him until there’s almost nothing left of who he was supposed to be.

And running alongside this disintegration is the redemptive story of the rise of David as he navigates evolving identities — shepherd, musician, giant-killer, fugitive. He is impossible not to root for, and at this point in the Bible, we really need and deserve a hero.

The Psalms woven into this week’s readings are on point, traditionally attributed to David during the very events we’re reading about. You can feel David’s simultaneous fear and trust in the Lord palpably through these Psalms.

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Here is the daily breakdown from our annual plan:

• Day 124 — Monday, 5/4 — 1 Samuel 11-13, Psalm 54

• Day 125 — Tuesday, 5/5 — 1 Samuel 14-16, Psalm 57

• Day 126 — Wednesday, 5/6 — 1 Samuel 17-19, Psalm 59

• Day 127 — Thursday, 5/7 — 1 Samuel 20-22, Psalm 142

• Day 128 — Friday, 5/8 — 1 Samuel 23-25, Psalm 63

• Day 129 — Saturday, 5/9 — 1 Samuel 26-28, Psalm 56

• Day 130 — Sunday, 5/10 — 1 Samuel 29-31, Psalm 34

Day 124 — Monday, 5/4 — 1 Samuel 11-13, Psalm 54

• Saul rallies Israel to rescue the city of Jabesh-Gilead from the Ammonite king Nahash — a genuine military victory that consolidates his kingship. At this point, he is functioning exactly as God intended. Will it last?!

• Samuel gives his farewell address as judge, directly reminding and warning the people that wanting a king was a rejection of God’s direct leadership. Uh oh.

• The cracks begin to show: Saul grows impatient waiting for Samuel before battle and offers the burnt sacrifice himself — something he had no authority to do. Samuel arrives moments later. “What have you done?”

• Samuel tells Saul his kingdom will not endure.

Day 125 — Tuesday, 5/5 — 1 Samuel 14-16, Psalm 57

• Saul’s son, Jonathan, pulls off a solo attack on the Philistines that routes the whole enemy army. He didn’t ask his father’s permission, but God honored the faith.

• Saul, meanwhile, makes a rash oath that no one should eat until evening, nearly getting Jonathan executed for eating honey he didn’t know was off-limits, and is only stopped by the people intervening.

• Once again the Israelites refuse to honor God’s commands to destroy everyone/everything when Saul wins the battle against the Amekalites but spares the king Agag and keeps the best livestock. When confronted, Sau insists he was going to sacrifice them.

• God rejects Saul as the King of Israel and Samuel anoints David as the next king of Israel. David plays the harp to soothe Saul as a tormenting spirit overcomes him.

• We don’t talk about the daily Psalms/Proverbs readings enough, but all of this week’s Psalms are likely written by David. Psalm 57 is attributed to David as he’s hiding in a cave — an event we’re getting to a little later this week.

Day 126 — Wednesday, 5/6 — 1 Samuel 17-19, Psalm 59

• Ah, the Goliath story. David beats Goliath, a giant, and it’s one of the most famous Bible stories, and maybe the umpteenth time giants are mentioned, and people still think giants are mythological.

• Saul elevates David in the aftermath, he becomes friends with his son, Jonathan, and his status as a rising Israelite celebrity pushes Saul’s affection into jealousy and then rage.

• 1 Samuel 18 reads like a twisted fairy tale. Saul, seeing an opportunity to put David in harm’s way, offers to marry him off to his daughter for the price of 100 Philistine foreskins. Much to his chagrin, David returns unscathed with 200 foreskins.

• Saul tries to kill David and his son, Jonathan, warns him, and he escapes. He tries to kill him again and his daughter, David’s wife, Michal, helps David escape again.

• The Psalms we are reading this week are written by David mostly in exile, as he flees the growing rage of Saul

Day 127 — Thursday, 5/7 — 1 Samuel 20-22, Psalm 142

• Jonathan learns that Saul does, indeed, intent to kill David

• David, now a fugitive, shows up in Nob and lies to the priest Ahimelech about his mission, gets the consecrated showbread and Goliath’s sword.

• David gathers a ragtag band of men and becomes their leader. The Saul/David story continues to sound like a Fractured Fairy Tale.

• Psalm 142 is David in a cave, with no one left.

Day 128 — Friday, 5/8 — 1 Samuel 23-25, Psalm 63

• David keeps fighting the Philistines even while fleeing Saul, protecting Israelite cities while he’s technically a wanted man simply because he is a man of God and it’s the right thing to do.

• Saul pursues David relentlessly through the wilderness, and one day, he even retreats into a cave that David and his men are already in, further back. David’s men whisper that God has delivered Saul into his hands, but David refuses to harm him because he has been anointed by the Lord.

• Nabal (a name that means fool) insults David’s men and David is ready to kill him, when Nabal’s wife, Abigail, rides out to intercept him with food. She basically talks him down from a massacre and reminds him of who he is and who he’s going to be.

• Nabal dies shortly after of a stroke, and David marries Abigail.

Day 129 — Saturday, 5/9 — 1 Samuel 26-28, Psalm 56

• David again has an opportunity to kill Saul and doesn’t take it.

• Running out of options and safety in Israelite territory, David defects to the Philistines, raiding enemy towns while pretending to raid Israelite ones.

• Saul, desperate before a battle he already knows he’s going to lose, visits the Witch of Endor and asks her to conjure Samuel’s spirit. This does not bode well for Saul.

Day 130 — Sunday, 5/10 — 1 Samuel 29-31, Psalm 34

• The Philistine commanders don’t trust David marching with them into battle against Israel and send him back. David and his men return to Ziklag to find it burned and their families taken captive by the Amalekites. His own men speak of stoning him.

• David asks the Lord if he should pursue the Amalekites and get the wives, children, and stuff back, God says yes, and David and his men pursue and get everything back.

• Meanwhile, in battle: the Philistines are closing in and, rather than die at the hands of “these pagan Philistines,” Saul falls on his own sword and dies.

• Psalm 34 is David’s song of deliverance, ending the week on a sweet note.

Don’t forget to share your thoughts on the week’s readings below and in the weekly chat!

For new subscribers — The Edit is a periodic newsletter covering my quick thoughts on topics related to both Capitalism & Glitter — everything from politics to conspiracy theories, to travel ideas, fashion trends, and home design projects.

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Plus, my #1 favorite health hack.

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This Week

We are reading:

• Judges 13-21

• Ruth

• 1 Samuel 1-10

• Psalms 32, 35, 14, 15, 36, 86, 52

Summary

This week we continue reading Judges and learn the story of Samson.

A complicated figure, Samson is set apart at birth to ultimately deliver the Israelites from the Philistines. He is easily distracted, however — breaking his Nazarite vows by touching a dead body (the lion), possibly ingesting grapes or wine (partaking in feasts), and ultimately meeting his downfall when he tells Delilah his strength would be lost by cutting his hair.

Then we pivot into Ruth, one of the most beautiful stories in the Bible, before embarking upon the beginning of Israel’s kingship with Samuel.

The question that comes up over and over again this week is: are we following God, or are we all just doing what seems right in our own eyes?

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Here is the daily breakdown from our annual plan:

• Day 117 — Monday, 4/27 — Judges 13-15, Psalm 32

• Day 118 — Tuesday, 4/28 — Judges 16-18, Psalm 35

• Day 119 — Wednesday, 4/29 — Judges 19-21, Psalm 14

• Day 120 — Thursday, 4/30 — Ruth 1-4, Psalm 15

• Day 121 — Friday, 5/1 — 1 Samuel 1-3, Psalm 36

• Day 122 — Saturday, 5/2 — 1 Samuel 4-7, Psalm 86

• Day 123 — Sunday, 5/3 — 1 Samuel 8-10, Psalm 52

Day 117 — Monday, 4/27 — Judges 13-15, Psalm 32

• An angel appears to a couple and tell them they are going to have a son who will be a Nazirite and deliver the Israelites from the Philistines. They name him Samson.

• Samson kills a lion and later eats honey from its carcass — breaking the Nazirite vow never to touch a dead body.

Day 118 — Tuesday, 4/28 — Judges 16-18, Psalm 35

• Samson becomes blinded with infatuation with Delilah, who keeps trying to figure out the source of his power to sell him out to the Philistines

• After three false starts, Samson finally tells Delilah the source of his power is in his hair — she proceeds to cut it all off and turn him over to the Philistines

• Samson gets the final word, as his hair begins to grow back and God blesses him with one last feat of strength that takes out the Philistine leaders

• Israel continues to slide further into idolatry and confusion

Day 119 — Wednesday, 4/29 — Judges 19-21, Psalm 14

• The Israelites have descended into utter depravity. The story of the Levite’s concubine is heartbreaking.

• These chapters are marked by violence, civil war, and moral collapse, illustrating just what happens as humanity intermingles with the demonic offspring and drifts away from God.

Day 120 — Thursday, 4/30 — Ruth 1-4, Psalm 15

• The story of Ruth’s faithfulness and loyalty to her mother-in-law — and her dedication to fulfilling her late husband’s family line — results in Ruth ending up in the lineage of King David (and eventually Jesus).

Day 121 — Friday, 5/1 — 1 Samuel 1-3, Psalm 36

• Hannah, unable to have children, prays earnestly at the tabernacle and promises to dedicate her son to God. God answers her prayer, and she gives birth to Samuel.

• She fulfills her vow by bringing him to serve under the priest Eli, whose sons are corrupt and abuse their priestly role.

• Samuel hears God calling him at night. With Eli’s guidance, he responds, and God reveals a shocking judgment against Eli’s household.

Day 122 — Saturday, 5/2 — 1 Samuel 4-7, Psalm 86

• The Philistines capture the Ark of the Covenant and treat it like a lucky charm, which backfires on them — destroying their Dagon idol, killing their townfolk — so they return it.

• Eli’s sons die, and Eli himself dies upon hearing the news.

• Samuel calls Israel to repentance. The people turn back to God, and Israel defeats the Philistines. Samuel becomes a recognized leader and judge.

Day 123 — Sunday, 5/3 — 1 Samuel 8-10, Psalm 52

• As Samuel grows old, he appoints his sons as the judges of Israel, but they become corrupt.

• The elders of Israel demand a king “like other nations.” God tells Samuel to grant their request but warns that a king will take advantage of them (taxes, labor, control).

• Saul is identified by God as Israel’s first king

And next week we begin Israel’s transition into the Kingdom period — stay tuned!

Every single human being alive on Earth today can trace their maternal lineage through an unbroken chain of mothers back to one woman.

One.

Her mitochondrial DNA (the genetic material that lives outside the cell nucleus and passes only from mother to child) survived in an unbroken chain to you, to me, to all eight billion of us.

On the paternal side, the story mirrors itself.

One man is the common ancestor of every living man’s Y chromosome, passed down from father to son for millennia.

“Mitochondrial Eve” and “Y-chromosomal Adam”

The story according to mainstream science is that Mitochondrial Eve lived somewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, roughly 150,000 to 200,000 years ago. She wasn’t the only woman alive. She wasn’t alone in a garden. They are very careful to say that. But she is the most recent common ancestor of every human maternal line, meaning every other woman’s matrilineal lineage eventually died out, and hers didn’t.

Y-chromosomal Adam is estimated to have lived somewhere between 200,000 and 340,000 years ago. Not at the same time as Mitochondrial Eve, but likely in the exact same region of Africa.

These dates are calculated using something called the molecular clock, which is an assumed mutation rate that tells researchers how far back a lineage branches. Under the standard model, these two figures represent not a literal Adam and Eve who existed as a couple and populated the world, but as the oldest known genetic roots of the entire human family tree.

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The Clock We Built Ourselves

But the molecular clock has a major problem. The dates given for Mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosomal Adam are not measured, they are calculated using an assumed mutation rate. Change the assumption, and the dates move. Dramatically, in some cases. But that’s not even the biggest issue.

There are two clocks, and they disagree by a degree of 2x.

The pedigree rate is the mutation rate actually observed in living parents and children across multiple generations. It runs roughly twice as fast as the phylogenetic rate which is used to calibrate deep-time dates. Scientists calibrate the slower phylogenetic clock against fossil dates. But fossil dates are themselves derived from radiometric methods with their own potentially faulty assumptions.

The entire system is self-reinforcing: fossils date the molecular clock; the molecular clock dates the fossils. A skeptic is entirely justified in asking whether this house of mirrors could be systematically off.

And if you plug the faster pedigree rate into the genetic models, Mitochondrial Eve’s date compresses dramatically, potentially to within the range of recorded human history. The genetic “Adam” and “Eve” could both fall within 5,000–15,000 years ago, not hundreds of thousands.

This aligns with the biblical timeline, and also puts both “Mitochondrial Eve” and “Y-chromosomal Adam” into the same general time frame — in the same general location.

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The Genetics of the Great Flood

Both “Mitochondrial Eve” and “Y-chromosomal Adam” each have 3 distinct subgroups. That means that genetically, everyone comes from 3 male lines, and 3 female lines, a split which appears a bit later on in the genetic lineage.

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This Week

We are reading:

• Joshua 16-24

• Judges 1-12

• Psalm 13, 24-28, 31

Summary

We are finishing Joshua this week, and we see that God’s promises are being fulfilled as the Promised Land is divided amongst the tribes. Unfortunately, Israel does not hold up their end of the bargain, doesn’t wipe out the existing cities, and chaos ensues pretty quickly.

God told the Israelites to eradicate the people of that land for a reason. And, listen, I get it. It is hard to understand this kind of warfare. But we’ve read the Book of Enoch! We know what kind of genetic corruption exists in the bloodlines of giants, and unfortunately, they are at odds with humanity as originally designed by God.

And whew if these people dragging their feet about taking possession of what God already gave them isn’t relatable. Stop being a mirror, Bible!

And then we start the Book of Judges.

Judges details the leaders of the Israelites after Joshua, but before Israel had kings.

This week we also have a couple feminist icons — Deborah, the only female Judge and leader of the Israelites, and Jael, an iconic assassin.

This Bible study is free for everyone, made possible by the support of our paid subscribers.

If you’d like to support us, please consider a paid subscription. Paid subscribers receive:

• Full-length weekly cultural and Biblical deep dives

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Here is the daily breakdown from our annual plan:

• Day 110 — Monday, 4/20 — Joshua 16-18, Psalm 13

• Day 111 — Tuesday, 4/21 — Joshua 19-21, Psalm 24

• Day 112 — Wednesday, 4/22 — Joshua 22-24, Psalm 25

• Day 113 — Thursday, 4/23 — Judges 1-3, Psalm 26

• Day 114 — Friday, 4/24 — Judges 4-6, Psalm 27

• Day 115 — Saturday, 4/25 — Judges 7-9, Psalm 28

• Day 116 — Sunday, 4/26 — Judges 10-12, Psalm 31

Day 110 — Monday, 4/20 — Joshua 16-18, Psalm 13

• The land is distributed according to God’s promise — but the Israelites are not fully driving out the inhabitants as required.

Day 111 — Tuesday, 4/21 — Joshua 19-21, Psalm 24

• More land assignments, more promises fulfilled

Day 112 — Wednesday, 4/22 — Joshua 22-24, Psalm 25

• The eastern tribes build an altar, which the tribes on the other side of the Jordan assume is yet another rebellion against the Lord, nearly plunging the Israelites into civil war. The eastern tribes explain it is an altar of unity, a reminder that all tribes have a right to worship the one true God.

• Joshua dies and is buried, after reiterating to the Israelites that they must burn their idols and worship God alone.

Day 113 — Thursday, 4/23 — Judges 1-3, Psalm 26

• We get a bit of a retelling of the end of Joshua, with Israel declining to fully remove the Canaanites and living amongst them and intermarrying, in direct disobedience to God’s commands.

• God reiterates that this will have consequences — cut to the Israelites becoming oppressed by King Eglon of Moab.

• We get a story worthy of inclusion in The Princess Bride when Ehud saves the Israelites from the Moabites by assassinating their king.

Day 114 — Friday, 4/24 — Judges 4-6, Psalm 27

• Deborah is especially interesting — a prophet AND leader in a time of total instability and oppression by the Canaanite King Jabin.

• But Jael’s story is the best. When Sisera, commander of King Jabin’s army, has his whole army wiped out in a battle with the Israelites, he retreats to hide in Jael’s tent. He falls asleep, and she drives a tent peg through his head.

• The pattern of “the Israelites did evil in the Lords sight — the Lord handed them over to _____” continues

Day 115 — Saturday, 4/25 — Judges 7-9, Psalm 28

• Gideon is chosen by God to deliver the Israelites from the Midianites. God intentionally reduces his army through a weird test of how they drink water from a spring. At any rate, with the size of the army greatly reduced, the victory is clearly divine.

• But afterward, Gideon takes all the Ishmaelites gold earrings and creates an idol that leads people astray.

• Abimelech, Gideon’s son, decides to name himself King and kills all of his half-brothers — except for one. After three years, the city rebels against him and, long story short, Abimelech is killed by a woman dropping a stone on his head from the top of a tower.

Day 116 — Sunday, 4/26 — Judges 10-12, Psalm 31

• Jephthah makes a tragic, rash vow that costs him his daughter. It’s interesting to note that God never asked him to do this, and Jephthah is mixing pagan ideas of sacrifice (particularly child sacrifice) with faith.

• By now, leadership is unstable, morality is slipping, and everyone is improvising spiritually as Israel falls further away from their orthodox faith.

What came up for you this week? How are you feeling about the Bible study? Share your thoughts below!

I’m at the park, and I overhear two moms talking about what they’re going to do about our town’s less than stellar public school options.

“I mean, my husband and I are more than qualified,” she continues. “We both have masters degrees in engineering.”

As if a higher education degree in a specialized field is what qualifies one to homeschool their children.

In mainstream circles (especially those that are more progressive or liberal), homeschooling is often spoken of with derision and skepticism. There is a persistent belief that homeschooling lacks academic rigor, and that without certified teachers, standardized curricula, and institutional oversight, children simply “don’t learn enough” — despite a plethora of research indicating that homeschooled children frequently perform better academically and socially than their public school peers.

Many critics argue that homeschooling should be more tightly regulated or even outlawed, with some even assuming that families who educate their children at home are hiding something, such as neglect or abuse. These concerns are often amplified by anecdotal cases that receive disproportionate attention from the media, creating a narrative where homeschooling is seen not just as an alternative path to public education but as a potential sinister risk to a child’s development and well-being.

Why Do People Homeschool?

Before 2020, the classic homeschooled child stereotype was that of a white, conservative Christian, living in a rural area with a large family, where one parent (usually the mother) stays home to teach children who are isolated and socially awkward.

But the pandemic blew that stereotype out of the water.

Suddenly, everyone was homeschooling, whether they wanted to or not. Left or right, Christian or atheist, rural or urban — with in-person instruction shut down across the country, and online instruction taking its place, millions of American parents suddenly found themselves educating their children at home.

And, when schools opened back up, many families found they had adapted to and preferred homeschooling to sending their kids away each day. Some of the reasons homeschooling continues to grow in popularity include safety concerns (bullying, school shootings), academic concerns, disagreement with school policies (pandemic response, medical requirements, etc), and simply wanting to be with their children more during a period of family life that is ever-fleeting.

Homeschooling today spans a wide spectrum of approaches: from highly structured, academically rigorous programs to more flexible, child-led learning environments, to fully loosey goosey situations lacking any structure at all. Reducing it to either neglect or indoctrination misses the diversity of families and motivations involved, and overlooks the growing body of evidence that, when done thoughtfully, homeschooling can produce well-educated, socially capable, and independent thinkers — with a much higher success rate than the public school system.

Dumbing Us Down

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention social media’s contribution to the shift in the perception and increasing rate of homeschooling.

With everyone locked down and glued to their phones, anyone questioning anything was served a plethora of content questioning the status quo.

There is one particularly interesting viral clip of Aaron Russo detailing a member of the Rockefeller family telling him that the women’s liberation movement was funded by the ruling class to tax the other half of the population, destroy the nuclear family, and indoctrinate children, with the government taking the place of the trusted parent:

@americafirstct3 @americafirstct3 ♬ original sound - KarenM

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And then there’s Dumbing Us Down, a book by former teacher John Gatto that has become increasingly popular in libertarian, conspiracy, and anti-government circles, especially those that trend towards homeschooling. Gatto argues that the public school system does not truly educate students, but intentionally produces passive, dependent, and conformist individuals rather than independent thinkers.

Gatto explains that public school confuses the students by presenting an incoherent ensemble of information to be memorized, teaches them to accept their class affiliation, and makes them indifferent, emotionally and intellectually dependent. Compulsory schooling, he argues, instills in children a kind of self-confidence that requires constant confirmation by experts — and makes it clear that they cannot hide, because they are always supervised.

Gatto’s book was published in 1992, but it wasn’t the first book to criticize the modern institution of American education. Back in 1901, Edward Ross, a sociologist and journalist identified education as a specialized institution for maintaining social order, increasingly replacing the family and church in modern society.

And in 1923, Upton Sinclair wrote The Goose Step: A Study of American Education arguing that higher education is controlled by wealthy capitalists and serves as a tool for propaganda rather than genuine intellectual growth. Sinclair used the "goose-step" metaphor to describe the blind obedience and militaristic values he saw in the system, influenced by the post-WWI era. Obviously, a book entitled The Goose Step fell out of common discussion after 1945.

Criticism of education is a place where the far right and far left leaning communities meet, with even the more moderate left-leaning groups acknowledging the school-to-prison pipeline — the modern trend of at-risk, impoverished, and particularly black and brown youth being funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal legal systems, reflecting a system that prioritizes incarceration over education.

It’s no wonder that homeschooling rates in America have doubled since 2020, with families of all walks of life turning to schooling their children at home.

What Exactly Is Homeschooling?

“Homeschooling” is not just one method of educating children: it is an umbrella term that covers all approaches to educating children outside of the traditional public or private institution settings. Most parents/guardians are their child’s main teachers, most families follow one or a few styles, and some methods are more popular than others.

Some of the most common approaches to homeschooling include:

• Traditional — “School-at-home” closest to a typical regular classroom, with a structured schedule, textbooks, tests, grades, and often using full curriculum packages

• Classical — Based on the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, and logic) education system rooted in ancient Greece and Rome; heavy focus on language, history, philosophy with memorization early on, critical thinking later; includes Latin

• Unschooling — The least structured approach, with no formal curriculum or schedule, where learning follows the child’s interests

• Unit Studies — Immersive, project-based learning that revolves around one theme at a time and integrates multiple subjects into one topic

• Eclectic — The most common approach today wherein parents mix different methods depending on what works best for each child (e.g., math curriculum + unschooling for art + classical reading)

And then there are the schooling methods that grew from one figurehead, including:

• Charlotte Mason — Focus is on “living books” (engaging with quality literature rather than textbooks), nature study, journaling, art, and music

• Waldorf — Developed by Rudolph Steiner, emphasizes imagination, rhythm, and holistic development through art, storytelling, and experiential learning

• Montessori — Developed by Maria Montessori, a child-led hands-on learning approach focused on practical skills and independence

And outside of the home learning opportunities including:

• Online/Virtual — Can be self-paced or led by a teacher, includes video lessons

• Hybrid/Co-Op — Kids attend classes part-time (co-ops, micro-schools), parents share teaching responsibilities with other families

Most families don’t stick strictly to one method. Over time, they tend to blend styles based on what actually works for their child. A rigid commitment to a single philosophy can backfire if the child’s learning style doesn’t match it.

And a word of warning:

Anything can become a cult if you want it to be.

Critics sometimes associate homeschooling with cult-like behavior.

And in some cases, they aren’t wrong.

Any belief system can take on the characteristics of a “cult” depending on the adherents behavior. Humans by nature are designed to worship, and often misplace said worship. Humans are prone to becoming rigidly attached to various ideologies, defending it at all costs and filtering out anything that challenges it.

Education is no exception.

I would argue that the cult of public school is the worst offender. There exists a cultural orthodoxy that permeates mainstream society perpetuating the belief that public school isn’t just an option, it’s a civic obligation. Even if the school district you reside within is bad, your kids must attend, and their education must be sacrificed for the greater good: to keep schools funded. The individual child’s experience is secondary to the long-term financial solvency of the institution. This, despite all evidence that American schools are getting markedly worse by all measures decade after decade.

And then there are the various homeschool cults.

The unschoolers who are lazy and don’t actually teach their kids anything.

The Charlotte Mason moms who treat her writings less like guidance and more like scripture.

The Waldorf moms who wont let their kid play with legos for fear of disrupting their “etheric body.” (The lowest layer of the human body/energy field — it’s an occult thing, look it up.)

And then of course there are the families who are in actual religious cults featured in Netflix documentaries.

If you are a parent researching various options and approaches to education, you are bound to stumble across some or all of these in your research.

What emerges on both sides is the same underlying pattern: a tendency to turn educational choices into moral positions. Public school becomes a duty. Homeschooling likewise becomes a social statement. And within homeschooling, specific methods can become markers of identity.

But children are not ideologies to be proven. They’re individuals, and they need (and deserve) an education. The moment any approach becomes more about defending the system than serving the child (a tendency I’ve witnessed from homeschooling groups to my DMs), it risks becoming the very thing it set out to protect against.

Read on for my detailed thoughts on the various approaches to homeschooling, and what has and hasn’t worked for my family — including my review of The Good and the Beautiful, a very popular curriculum with influencers.

How to Educate Your Child at Home Without Becoming a Cult Leader

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This Week

We are reading:

• John 13-21

• Joshua 1-15

• Proverbs 6:12-35, Psalm 55, Psalm 58, Psalm 61, Psalm 12

Summary

We wrap up the Book of John this week, completing our first testimony of Jesus’ life on earth.

This is a heartbreaking read even though we know what’s going to happen. After everything we have read so far, God’s love for us is so clear. Humanity’s sinfulness and ungratefulness stands in stark contrast to His mercy, underscored by the fact that we alone didn’t create this fallen world — we find ourselves at the crossroads of almost unfathomable cosmic spiritual warfare.

And here I am, complaining that people keep stealing my content on the internet.

We’ll catch up with John again at the end of the year when we read his letters and his final Revelation.

But now, back to the desert.

This week we begin the Book of Joshua. Joshua takes over where Moses left off, leading the Israelites into the promised land and beginning to conquer the land and take over the cities.

This Bible study is free for everyone, made possible by the support of our paid subscribers.

If you’d like to support us, please consider a paid subscription. Paid subscribers receive:

• Full-length weekly cultural and Biblical deep dives

• The Edit weekly newsletter, and access to all community chats

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Here is the daily breakdown from our annual plan:

• Day 103 — Monday, 4/13 — John 13-15, Proverbs 6:12-19

• Day 104 — Tuesday, 4/14 — John 16-18, Proverbs 6:20-24

• Day 105 — Wednesday, 4/15 — John 19-21, Proverbs 6:25-35

• Day 106 — Thursday, 4/16 — Joshua 1-4, Psalm 55

• Day 107 — Friday, 4/17 — Joshua 5-7, Psalm 58

• Day 108 — Saturday, 4/18 — Joshua 8-11, Psalm 61

• Day 109 — Sunday, 4/19 — Joshua 12-15, Psalm 12

Day 103 — Monday, 4/13 — John 13-15, Proverbs 6:12-19

• Jesus washes the disciples feet, exhibiting the radical humility and love our God has for humanity

• Jesus knows what is coming and declares “One of you will betray me.”

• Jesus states that He is the new law — the Way, the Truth, the Life

• Jesus describes the Trinity and the coming of the Holy Spirit in John 14:15, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him for he dwells with you, and will be in you.”

Day 104 — Tuesday, 4/14 — John 16-18, Proverbs 6:20-24

• Jesus is arrested in the garden of Gethsemane

• Peter slashes off the right ear of Malchus, one of the guards (in the other gospels, Peter is not named specifically to protect him, but it’s believed this gospel was written after Peter’s death)

• Peter denies Jesus 3 times before the rooster crows, as predicted

• Jesus is taken to Pontius Pilate

Day 105 — Wednesday, 4/15 — John 19-21, Proverbs 6:25-35

• Jesus’ crucifixion is ordered and the soldiers put a crown of thorns on him, mocking him

• Pontius Pilate has a complicated presence — he reluctantly orders Jesus’ crucifixion, and he repeatedly refers to Jesus as King of the Jews, even putting a “King of the Jews” sign on the cross in multiple languages. When asked to change it to He said, I am King of the Jews, Pontius said, “No. I wrote what I wrote.”

• When Jesus sees Mary from the cross, he says to John, “Behold, your mother” indicating John is to take care of Mary after Jesus’ death (note: it’s been asked if Jesus had brothers, Jesus likely would not have assigned this responsibility to John if he had brothers or if Joseph was still alive, it wouldn’t have been proper or necessary in Jewish culture)

• After Jesus’ death, one of the soldiers pierced his side and blood and water pour out, signifying the eucharist and baptism and fulfilling earlier scriptures in the Old Testament

• Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb and finds it empty. She goes and tells Peter and John, who both run to the tomb (but John infamously runs faster).

• Jesus appears to Mary outside the tomb, and to all the disciples later on

• Doubting Thomas earns his name

• John recounts a few other miracles, but states that it’s impossible to write down all the things Jesus did because the world could not contain the books that would be written

Day 106 — Thursday, 4/16 — Joshua 1-4, Psalm 55

• The Israelites finally enter the Promised Land!!

• Spies are sent into Jericho, and they meet Rahab who helps them take over the city, sparing her family

• Joshua leads them across the Jordan River in a moment that echos the crossing of the Red Sea

Day 107 — Friday, 4/17 — Joshua 5-7, Psalm 58

• The sons of Israel are circumcised because they weren’t circumcised on the way

• The Israelites conquer Jericho, their first Canaanite city, with trumpets alone

• After Jericho, Israel is defeated at Ai — and it is revealed that Achan of the tribe of Judah took forbidden things from Jericho, resulting in their defeat

Day 108 — Saturday, 4/18 — Joshua 8-11, Psalm 61

• After repentance, God grants victory at Ai

• Joshua renews the covenant by reading the Law to all Israel and engraving a copy of it onto stone

• The Gibeonites deceive Israel into making a treaty with them to spare their lives

• God fights for Israel in major battles, even causing the sun to stand still - an event the Book of Joshua mentions is written in the long lost Book of Jasher (the modern version may or may not be a medieval forgery)

Day 109 — Sunday, 4/19 — Joshua 12-15, Psalm 12

• We encounter yet another Biblical listicle: a record of all the kings defeated by Israel

• The Promised Land begins to be divided among the Israelite tribes

• Caleb, from the tribe of Judah, receives his inheritance for his faithfulness as the only other person besides Joshua who fled Egypt and made it into the promised land

Tune in next week to find out what happens next on Keeping Up With The Israelites!

This Week

We are reading:

• Deuteronomy 27-34

• John 1-12

• Psalms 149-150, Proverbs 5-6:11

Summary

Whew! What a slog through the Torah but WE. MADE. IT.

Reading through the Bible in a year is one thing, but writing my thoughts on it every week is another. I, too, feel as though I’ve been wandering through the desert for 40 years.

And yet here I am — making summer plans for a road trip with three kids through the American west — my own little desert wandering adventure.

All that to say: sorry this article is a day late this week, and Happy Easter to you and your families!!

On to the Bible notes.

As we wrap up Deuteronomy, completing Moses’ narrative in these first five books of the Bible, one of the most interesting things we are reading this week is what is commonly referred to as the Deuteronomy 32 worldview. This is further validation of the story told in early Genesis and Enoch, where we learn about the supernatural conflict between the fallen angels and the humans who have dominion over the earth. In Moses’ final words, he details how God disinherited the rebellious nations at Babel, assigning them to lesser divine beings ("sons of God") while creating Israel as his own portion.

This explains why other nations worship lesser gods/demons instead of Yahweh, why idolatry is the worship of demons and receives a strong focus, and how spiritual warfare underscores the very conflicts we see between nations today.

And on that note — I am so excited to be wrapping up this section of the Bible and jumping to our very first Messianic Checkpoint with the Gospel of John!

Thank God Jesus is finally here to reverse the fallout of Babel and take back the nations.

The Gospel of John is markedly different from the other 3 Gospels detailing Jesus’ life — Matthew, Mark, and Luke, collectively called the Synoptic Gospels. The Synoptic Gospels detail what Jesus did, whereas John details who Jesus is.

John was written much later, is much more direct about Jesus’ identity as the son of God, and focused on validating that identity by documenting His miracles. It is presumed that the author didn’t want to repeat the other Gospels and was addressing an audience of heretics. John also specifically names names where the other gospels didn’t, but that won’t come up until next week’s readings.

Note to my future self, as I evolve this Bible study for next year: I gotta say, I wish I had cut about 10 days out of the plan earlier (maybe skipping Jubilees?) so we could have read John in the lead up to Easter. I might do that next year.

I really love ending the Torah and then reading one of the Gospels. It’s such a great reward. It helps us make connections. I just can’t wait 30+ more books for Jesus and I truly feel bad for the suffering Israelites. And while I definitely think the story of the entire Bible is fascinating and of course worth reading and studying, I also think if you just read the Torah, the first section of Enoch (1-36: Book of the Watchers), a few of the Gospels and Acts — you would have the outline of early world history and the baseline of the spiritual warfare we find ourselves within. You wouldn’t have the details, but you would have the shape of things.

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Here is the daily breakdown from our annual plan:

• Day 96 — Monday, 4/6 — Deuteronomy 27-28, Psalm 149

• Day 97 — Tuesday, 4/7 — Deuteronomy 29-31, Psalm 150

• Day 98 — Wednesday, 4/8 — Deuteronomy 32-34, Proverbs 5:1-6

• Day 99 — Thursday, 4/9 — John 1-3, Proverbs 5:7-14

• Day 100 — Friday, 4/10 — John 4-6, Proverbs 5:15-23

• Day 101 — Saturday, 4/11 — John 7-9, Proverbs 6:1-5

• Day 102 — Sunday, 4/12 — John 10-12, Proverbs 6:6-11

Day 96 — Monday, 4/6 — Deuteronomy 27-28, Psalm 149

• Moses and the elders command Israel to set up plastered stones with the Law written on them once they enter the promised land.

• The Levites proclaim twelve curses for hidden sins — and all the people say, “Amen.”

• Detailed blessings are given for obedience, with very specific curses for disobedience.

• Foreshadowing! Exile is foretold if Israel is unfaithful to God. Gee, I wonder what’s going to happen next.

Day 97 — Tuesday, 4/7 — Deuteronomy 29-31, Psalm 150

• God renews the covenant with Moses and Israel in Moab.

• Israel is once again warned about idolatry and secret sin.

• God promises restoration of Israel after exile.

• Moses prepares for death and commissions Joshua as the next leader of Israel.

Day 98 — Wednesday, 4/8 — Deuteronomy 32-34, Proverbs 5:1-6

• Moses delivers the Song of Moses, recounting God’s faithfulness and Israel’s failure.

• Alright now we’re getting to the interesting part of this week’s reading: the Deuteronomy 32 worldview. Wherein God divided humanity among multiple spiritual beings (often understood as angels or divine council members) and personally chose Israel as His own inheritance. The other nations are under lesser spiritual rulers, who become corrupt and lead nations into idolatry.

  • NOTE: Some of your Bibles might say “sons of Israel” in Deuteronomy 32:8, but the original in Hebrew is the infamous bene Elohim — sons of God. This passage is talking about the events of the Tower of Babel, Israel didn’t even exist! How could God have divided the nations based on the sons of Israel!

• Despite the Israelites turning away, sacrificing to demons and whatnot, God will ultimately vindicate His people.

• Moses blesses the tribes of Israel, then God shows him the promised land that he will not enter.

• Moses dies, God buries him in Moab, and Joshua succeeds him.

Day 99 — Thursday, 4/9 — John 1-3, Proverbs 5:7-14

• The Gospel of John opens with the Word becoming flesh

• John the Baptist testifies to Jesus’ arrival

• The first disciples begin to follow Jesus after his recognition from John the Baptist

• Jesus performs his first miracle — turning water into wine at the wedding of Cana, at the insistence of his mother (a nice inclusion of Mary since John completely skips the immaculate conception — again, probably to avoid repeating stories contained in the synoptic gospels)

• Jesus sees dealers and merchants selling goods in the temple and is furious they have turned His father’s house into a marketplace, so he fashions a whip and chases them all out

• The Jewish leaders are furious at this and Jesus tells them to destroy the temple and that he will rebuild it in three days — a veiled reference to his ressurection, which the disciples will later remember

Day 100 — Friday, 4/10 — John 4-6, Proverbs 5:15-23

• Jesus reads a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well for having had 5 husbands and not being married to the man she’s currently living with — but he connects with this outsider by choosing to reveal to her that He is the Messiah and selecting her as the missionary to the Samaritans, a group at odds with the Jews — ultimately showing that Jesus has come to heal and redeem all the nations

• Jesus heals a sick man on the Sabbath, pissing off the Jewish leaders yet again

• Jesus feeds 5,000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish

• Jesus walks on water

• Jesus tells the people in Capernaum that he is the bread of life and that anyone who eats the bread of life will live forever in Heaven. Several disciples say this is too hard to understand and desert Him. You guys want to discuss the Eucharist in the chat?

Day 101 — Saturday, 4/11 — John 7-9, Proverbs 6:1-5

• Jewish leaders argue over whether Jesus is the Messiah

• The story of the adulterous women in John 7:53-8:11 was not included in the earliest manuscripts. Some of the early church fathers believed the story likely reflected an actual Jesus story that circulated for a long time before it was documented in this Gospel — so it’s likely historically accurate if not authentic to this original manuscript.

• Jesus heals a blind man, again on the Sabbath, and accuses the Pharisees of spiritual blindness

Day 102 — Sunday, 4/12 — John 10-12, Proverbs 6:6-11

• Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead — ultimately triggering the series of events that leads to his crucifiction

• Jesus, riding a donkey, enters Jerusalem to a crowd carrying palm leaves — on a day that will be memorialized as Palm Sunday

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There is a specific kind of silence that hangs over certain parts of the American West.

We see it in the towering red rock spires of Sedona and the jagged peaks of the Sierras — landscapes that feel less like natural erosion and more like the handiwork of a physically larger civilization.

From the earliest campfire stories to the footnotes of forgotten excavation reports, the idea of giants has lingered at the edges of human history. Too consistent to ignore, yet too inconvenient to accept. Across continents and centuries, whispers of towering figures appear not as isolated curiosities, but as pieces of a pattern that refuses to fully disappear.

What if these accounts are not relics of imagination, but echoes of something real; something systematically dismissed, buried, or explained away?

To explore the possibility of giants is to step outside the comfort of the official narrative and into a far more unsettling question: not whether giants once carved their legacy into the red earth, but why we’ve been so thoroughly convinced they didn’t.

If you ask the modern scientific establishment, giants are nothing more than the fever dreams of ancient poets or the hoaxes of frontier hucksters.

We are told that history is a straight line of gradual progress, a neat narrative curated by institutions that guard the past with a ferocity usually reserved for state secrets.

But what if the “official” narrative is missing a chapter? What if the earth has occasionally coughed up evidence of a humanity that was larger, stronger, and far more mysterious than we are led to believe?

Tall Tales from a Wide World

The stories of giants are not a local anomaly, they are tales told in countless cultures across the globe.

In the oldest books of the Bible, the Nephilim (the mysterious offspring of the “sons of God” and the daughters of men) stalked the antediluvian (pre-flood) world. These were the Anakites and the Rephaim, lineages of such stature that the Israelite scouts famously claimed they felt like grasshoppers in their presence.

We all know the story of David and Goliath, but we often forget that Goliath was merely the last of a line, a remnant of a physical reality that was once commonplace.

Across the ocean, tales of giants are echoed in the Greco-Roman Titans and the Norse Jötnar, representing more than just chaos; they represented an older, more primal version of the world. Even the Egyptians, who were meticulous chroniclers, left us the Anastasi I scroll — a 3,300-year-old document describing a terrifying group of people called the Shosu, residing in Canaan (where the Bible also places these giants), who stood over eight feet tall. The text doesn’t treat them as gods, but as a tactical nightmare for the Egyptian military.

This isn’t just ancient myth, either. In 1520, Ferdinand Magellan’s chronicler, Antonio Pigafetta, recorded an encounter on the coast of Patagonia with a man of “giant stature” so tall that the Spanish sailors only reached his waist. While modern skeptics dismiss this as “explorer’s embellishment,” later voyagers like James Byron confirmed seeing people of extraordinary height in the same region.

Why do we dismiss it as coincidence when disconnected cultures share similar stories, and call it myth when they describe the same physical details or specific evidence?

The Weight of Proof

If giants were real, they would have left more than stories.

They would have left physical evidence.

And they did.

Want more deep dives into the hidden corners of history and the mechanics of the “official” narrative? Subscribe to the Capitalism & Glitter Substack for weekly explorations into the intersection of culture, religion, and the things they’d rather you forget.

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This Week

We are reading:

• Deuteronomy 1-26

• Psalms 133-135, 137, 146-148

Summary

This week we begin Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy is largely a redux of Leviticus and the entire 40 years of wandering in the desert as Moses reiterates the rules Israel is to abide by as they take over and inhabit the Promised Land.

Given the behavior of the Israelites for the last 40 years of desert wandering (hey, at least they weren’t slaves anymore), it makes sense that Moses would devote an entire book to summarizing the Israelites faults and rebellions and the rules that the next generation is to follow to stay in God’s good graces.

This week also marks Passover, which begins at sundown on Wednesday, April 1st and continues through Thursday, April 9th. Our family will be doing a Passover Seder to share the story of Exodus with our children. If you’ve never done a Passover Seder, it’s a ritual using symbolic foods and ritual acts that invite us to step into The Exodus ourselves, using story, symbolism, and questions to pass along what freedom really means and where we come from, in a way our kids can understand and carry with them.

Why is this night different from all other nights?

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If you’d like to support us, please consider a paid subscription. Paid subscribers receive:

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Here is the daily breakdown from our annual plan:

• Day 89 — Monday, 3/30 — Deuteronomy 1-3, Psalm 133

• Day 90 — Tuesday, 3/31 — Deuteronomy 4-6, Psalm 134

• Day 91 — Wednesday, 4/1 — Deuteronomy 7-10, Psalm 135

• Day 92 — Thursday, 4/2 — Deuteronomy 11-14, Psalm 137

• Day 93 — Friday, 4/3 — Deuteronomy 15-18, Psalm 146

• Day 94 — Saturday, 4/4 — Deuteronomy 19-22, Psalm 147

• Day 95 — Sunday, 4/5 — Deuteronomy 23-26, Psalm 148

Day 89 — Monday, 3/30 — Deuteronomy 1-3, Psalm 133

• Moses recaps Israel’s journey: their failure to trust God when the scouts saw the giants in Canaan, and the resulting rebellion that led to 40 years of wandering; the defeat of King Og; Moses barred from entering the Promised Land; Joshua commissioned to lead the Israelites over the River Jordan.

Day 90 — Tuesday, 3/31 — Deuteronomy 4-6, Psalm 134

• Moses practically begs the Israelites to be obedient to God as they continue their journey into the promised land — warning against idolatry, reminding them God is near to His people, repeating the Ten Commandments, and urging them to teach the faith diligently to future generations.

Day 91 — Wednesday, 4/1 — Deuteronomy 7-10, Psalm 135

• Moses is again reminding the Israelites that they are chosen to inhabit and occupy the promised land — and that they have been chosen not for their greatness but due to God’s love for them. That God will indeed punish those who reject Him. And that they are to destroy idolatrous influences of other nations.

• He encourages them to fight the wicked giants of other nations, and to remain pure of heart by reminding them of the golden calf rebellion, and the renewed covenant on Mount Sinai.

Day 92 — Thursday, 4/2 — Deuteronomy 11-14, Psalm 137

• Moses goes over the blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience; reminding the people that their children have not witnessed the glory of the Lord traveling with them via cloud and establishing a relationship with Israel — and that the land will respond to faithfulness.

• Moses again reminds the Israelites to reject pagan worship practices, warns against false prophets, and reiterates the levitical rules about ceremonially clean and unclean animals and that radical loyalty to God is required.

Day 93 — Friday, 4/3 — Deuteronomy 15-18, Psalm 146

• Moses continues to reiterate the levitical rules to be followed: releasing those from debt and slavery in the Sabbath years; caring for the poor; celebrating the major feasts including Passover; laws on justice, kingship, and worship; and a call to living holy in the promised land (in which again we find the Israelites must be directly told not to sacrifice their children or practice witchcraft).

• Moses tells the Israelites a new prophet will be raised up to guide them — foreshadowing Jesus

Day 94 — Saturday, 4/4 — Deuteronomy 19-22, Psalm 147

• Moses describes the events to come: the Lord will destroy the existing nations illicitly living in the Promised Land, after which the Israelites are to establish cities of refuge. He reiterates the laws of justice and warfare, and urges trust in God rather than military strength.

• Moses goes over the various civil laws that provide order to the Israelites and are to be enacted in promised land (unsolved murders, family order); laws on inheritence; laws on community responsibility and sexual ethics; and protection of life and property.

Day 95 — Sunday, 4/5 — Deuteronomy 23-26, Psalm 148

• Deuteronomy 23 opens with pretty specific rules for what I hope was a rare situation in Israel: a man whose testicles were crushed or whose penis was cut off could not be permitted entry to the assembly of the Lord. This was likely about ritualistic purity of some sort of position, but still, wow.

• Moses continues to reiterate the rules that have been established throughout the 40 years of desert wandering: regulations for assembly and camp purity; protection for vulnerable people; laws on divorce, pledges, and justice; care for the poor, widows, and foreigners; fair punishment and economic justice.

• Deuteronomy 25 is straight up funny, out of exactly what circumstances did these rules arise?

• We end this week with Moses once again asking the Israelites to wholeheartedly obey the Lord’s commands.

Our family has lived in Sedona for nearly five years now, and we can honestly say it’s our favorite place we’ve ever called home. From San Francisco to New York City, we’ve lived in and explored some amazing spots — but nowhere has captured our hearts quite like Sedona.

We’ve traveled all over the world both with and without kids, so we know how important it is to make the most of your hard-earned vacation days. We created our full length Sedona Travel Guide to help you experience Sedona like a local — from our favorite hikes and family-friendly activities to great restaurants, hotels, hidden gems, and the perfect photo ops.

While that guide is very comprehensive, we get a lot of questions about just the highlights if you are only visiting for a weekend getaway, so here we are sharing the top 10 places to hike and things to do, see and eat while visiting Sedona.

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The 5 Best Hikes in Sedona: A Local Family’s Top Picks for 2026

1. Birthing Cave / Long Canyon Trail

This hike is roughly 2 miles round-trip, and is short and manageable, but the final scramble up to the cave is steep (~400 ft elevation gain) and requires some sure footing.

Why it’s great: A relatively quick hike that leads to one of Sedona’s most photographed hidden gems, the Birthing Cave. The massive red-rock alcove frames panoramic views of Long Canyon and the surrounding buttes. It’s a short effort for a huge payoff.

Local tip: Start early, both to find parking as well as to catch the morning light as the cave faces west and lights up beautifully mid to late morning. The trail splitting off to the cave itself can be easy to miss. Just over half a mile into the Long Canyon trail from the trailhead you will see a smaller trail splitting off to the left near an old wire fence. Follow this smaller offshoot to find the cave.

2. Subway Cave / Boynton Canyon

This hike is roughly 6 miles round-trip to the end of the canyon and back, and is mostly gradual with a few steeper sections near the end.

Why it’s great: Boynton Canyon trail is one of Sedona’s most iconic (and most crowded) canyon hikes, blending red rock walls, and lush forest as it transitions from open desert views into a shaded box canyon, making it one of the most diverse and scenic hikes in the region. While this trail is very popular, many people miss the smaller trail offshoot leading to the Subway Cave itself which is a must visit location for an adventuring hiker.

Local tip: You can access the Subway Cave from the small side trail about 2 miles in. The side trail isn’t well marked but you will see a huge Alligator Juniper tree right where the trail splits. Start early to enjoy cooler temps and fewer crowds. Parking fills fast at the Boynton Canyon Trailhead and spills into street parking down the road. Don’t miss the short detour to the Boynton Vista/Vortex near the start of the main Boynton trail for incredible views and a quieter experience at sunrise or sunset. Bring lots of water as the shade comes later in the hike.

3. Honanki & Palatki Heritage Sites

Honanki:

The Honanki Heritage Site has roughly 1 mile total of short walking paths with minimal elevation gain. It is short, accessible, and suitable for most ages/abilities.

Why it’s great: One of the best preserved Sinagua cliff dwelling sites left in the area with incredible rock art, masonry walls, and a quiet canyon setting make it feel like stepping back 900 years.

Local tip: The drive in is on rough dirt roads so go slow, and ideally bring a higher clearance vehicle.

Palatki:

The Palatki Heritage Site has 1.2 miles total of designated paths to cliff dwellings and pictograph alcoves. These are well-marked trails and they offer ranger-guided educational areas.

Why it’s great: Dramatically set against towering red rock cliffs, Palatki features extensive rock art panels and ancient shelters that help tell the story of Sedona’s earliest known cultures.

Local tip: This site requires advance reservations as they limit capacity to protect the ruins. Timed reservations cost $1 and can be reserved at Recreation.gov. Like Honanki, it’s also accessed by a rough dirt road. They’re located near each other in the same canyon region, so many people visit both sites in the same outing.

4. Secret Slickrock

This short hike is less than a mile round-trip, is relatively easy and has an amazing payoff at the end of the trail leading to a wide, flat slickrock with incredible views.

Why it’s great: A quick hike with minimal elevation gain (~75 ft) when you want “Sedona scenery” without the work of an actual hike. Perfect for a relatively easy impromptu family photoshoot or a nice picnic.

Local tip: Head here for sunset, bring a blanket and stay a moment on the slickrock to soak in the red-rock glow. Parking is small so arrive early.

5. Doe Mountain

This hike is roughly 1.5 miles round-trip. It’s a short but steep climb (~400 ft elevation gain) that weaves through switchbacks quickly up a mountainside to the top of a mesa. You can go from the trailhead parking lot to the top of the mesa in about 30 minutes.

Why it’s great: A local favorite. Some of the best views and a short challenge with a minimal time commitment. The top of the mesa offers a wide, flat expanse with panoramic vistas of Bear Mountain, Fay Canyon, and Boynton Canyon.

Local tip: Ideal for sunrise or sunset as the light from either direction showcases the spectacular vistas of the red rocks. The top of the summit is flat but has cliff edges, so keep kids close. Limited parking at the Doe Mountain/Bear Mountain trailhead.

Best of the Rest: The Best Swimming Hole, Restaurant, Coffee, Shopping, and Landmark in Sedona

6. Best Sedona Swimming Hole — Bootlegger (Oak Creek Canyon)

The “other” water slide. Slide Rock State Park is iconic, but it’s often crowded and prone to closures. Bootlegger, located just up 89A, offers shaded canyon vibes and shallow wading that is much safer for younger children. Its a quiet, less touristy creek spot where locals go to cool off. Keep in mind there is limited parking in the relatively small lot, and you should bring water shoes as the creek bed is rocky and slippery.

7. Best Sedona Restaurant — Indian Gardens Café & Market

Indian Gardens Café & Market, a 1940s General Store turned modern cafe, has become the best hidden gem up Oak Creek Canyon, boasting a beautiful outdoor courtyard and fresh, farm-to-table sandwiches, salads, and more. Has gluten-free options and pastries. A great brunch/lunch stop before or after a hike at West Fork or anywhere in the canyon.

8. Best Coffee in Sedona — Blackhawk Coffee

Blackhawk Coffee is a local coffee cart with some of the best coffee in town. It is located in the parking lot of Twice Nice Thriftique (which is also a great stop if you’re into thrifting). Try the Cubano.

9. Best Shopping in Sedona — Tlaquepaque Arts & Shopping Village

Tlaquepaque is a charming, Spanish-style plaza — modeled after the original Tlaquepaque in Guadalajara, Mexico — featuring art galleries, boutiques, and restaurants set beneath shady sycamores along Oak Creek. While Tlaquepaque itself is quite popular, it’s easy to miss the best hidden gem there, The Chai Spot. They serve authentic spiced chai and sell various Pakistani snack items, jewelry, books and more. Don’t miss the beautiful upstairs patio in the back, perfect for people-watching and relaxing vibes.

10. Best Sedona Landmark — Chapel of the Holy Cross

Chapel of the Holy Cross is an iconic Sedona landmark built into the red rocks offering breathtaking views and a peaceful atmosphere that draws visitors from around the world. Don’t miss the Madonna and Child rock formation directly north of the Chapel, as well as the Two Nuns.

Honorable Mentions

Son Silver West Gallery

Son Silver West Gallery is part shop, part museum. This Southwest-inspired boutique adorned with a huge collection of antique signs, offers handcrafted jewelry, home décor, and artisan gifts with a large outdoor section filled with miscellaneous kitsch. Don’t miss the many ancillary rooms and the small museum located in the back of the shop.

Harding Spring: Nature’s Water Fountain

Driving up Oak Creek Canyon? Stop at Harding Spring just outside Pine Flat Campground right off of 89A to fill your reusable bottles with fresh, natural spring water. It’s a local rite of passage.

These are just some of our favorites, but you can find the comprehensive breakdown of all of the hikes, restaurants and places in (and out of) Sedona that we love, as well as a lot more in our full guide. Sign up to be a paid subscriber to get access to this guide, as well as our other travel articles, cultural deep dives and a lot more!

If you’re visiting Kauai, there’s one local treat you absolutely can’t miss: shave ice. Unlike typical snow cones, traditional shave ice is made from finely shaved ice that absorbs flavored syrups, creating a light, fluffy texture that melts in your mouth.

Across the island, small stands, food trucks, and beachside shops serve creative variations topped with a snow cap (condensed milk), haupia (coconut foam), or fresh fruit, with some offering the addition of ice cream.

There are classic options, piled high with bright colors, and organic artisanal options for those who avoid artificial colors, flavors, and high fructose corn syrup.

Here are five of the best shave ice spots on Kauai that locals and visitors consistently rave about.

1. Waikomo Shave Ice

Located in Kalaheo, near the the sunny south shore town of Poipu, Waikomo Shave Ice is widely considered one of the best shave ice shops on the entire island (with two locations in Maui). What makes it stand out is its commitment to house-made syrups using real fruit and all-natural ingredients, no artificial colors or flavors.

Their flavors are bright, vibrant, and far less sugary than typical shave ice. Popular options include lilikoi (passionfruit), mango, and guava. It was definitely our family’s favorite — we went here twice during our week on Kauai.

The shop itself has a laid-back local island vibe. Located in a food truck just outside Warehouse 3540, a former pineapple canning factory turned hip collection of boutiques and food trucks, making it the perfect stop after a day at Poipu Beach.

Why it’s special:

• All-natural fruit syrups

• Local ingredients

• Consistently rated among Kauai’s best desserts

2. Wailua Shave Ice

If you’re driving along the east side of the island, make a stop at Wailua Shave Ice. This spot is known for its organic syrups and fresh fruit toppings, giving their shave ice a fresher and more authentic Hawaiian flavor.

They also come with an amazing haupia foam topping, which is a light, airy, and sweet whipped coconut cream inspired by traditional Hawaiian coconut pudding. Our family has been coming to Wailua Shave Ice since 2018, when it was served out of an airstream in Old Kapa’a Town, and it was my favorite shave ice for the better part of a decade almost solely due to their unmatched haupia foam.

Located in a storefront in Kapa’a near many of Kauai’s waterfalls and hiking areas, it’s a popular stop after exploring Wailua River or nearby trails.

Why it’s special:

• Best haupia foam on the island

• Organic syrups

• Fresh fruit toppings

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3. Wishing Well Shave Ice

Up on Kauai’s lush North Shore, Wishing Well Shave Ice in Hanalei has built a cult following among surfers, hikers, and locals.

Their shave ice stands out for unique flavor infusions and a relaxed garden setting. You’ll often find flavors inspired by island botanicals or seasonal fruits. They also offer a selection of organic fruit flavor options.

Many visitors also love their cold brew coffee and acai bowls, making it a great stop for breakfast or an afternoon treat after visiting Hanalei Bay. This was once our very first stop on Kauai — straight from the airport.

Why it’s special:

• Creative seasonal flavors

• Chill North Shore atmosphere

• Excellent coffee and acai bowls

4. The Fresh Shave

The Fresh Shave brings a modern twist to the traditional Hawaiian dessert, and is known for its natural syrups made from real ingredients and organic cane sugar.

Their menu focuses on simple but flavorful combinations like pineapple, coconut cream, and strawberry.

The shop’s vintage barbershop theme also adds a fun visual element — we first visited the Fresh Shave in 2018 when they were serving out of a food truck in Kalaeho (where Waikomo is now), when the mustache theme was arguably more culturally relevant.

Why it’s special:

• Natural, handcrafted syrups

• Creative flavor pairings

• Unique barbershop theme

5. JoJo’s Shave Ice

JoJo’s Shave Ice is a ubiquitous institution, with 4 locations in Kauai, and one more opening soon (and 3 locations coming to O’ahu). This legendary stand has been serving massive shave ice bowls for decades.

Their portions are famously huge, piled high with syrup and filled with ice cream on the bottom.

Why it’s special:

• Huge portions

• Classic Hawaiian shave ice experience

• Long-time local favorite

Final Thoughts

Kauai is full of incredible food, but shave ice is one of Hawaii’s most iconic treats. Whether you prefer organic fruit syrups, gourmet toppings, or massive classic bowls, these five shops offer some of the best shave ice in Kauai.

From the beaches of Poipu to the lush landscapes of Hanalei, each stop delivers its own take on this beloved Hawaiian dessert.

If you’re visiting the island, add these shave ice spots to your itinerary — you won’t regret it. And check out this article to learn how my family took this trip to Kauai with all of our hotels and most of our flights for free.

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This Week

We are reading:

• Numbers 16-36

• Psalms 125-126, 128-132

Summary

This week we finish Numbers.

We have the origin of the infamous red heifer prophecy — a necessary ritual before rebuilding the third temple, rooted in Numbers 19.

We meet Balaam, a pagan prophet who can hear God more clearly than most of the Israelites, and his talking donkey.

We say goodbye to Miriam and Aaron, and are reminded of Joshua.

And Moses finally gets to see the Promised Land — knowing that he will never enter it.

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Here is the daily breakdown from our annual plan:

• Day 82 — Monday, 3/23 —Numbers 16-18, Psalm 125

• Day 83 — Tuesday, 3/24 — Numbers 19-21, Psalm 126

• Day 84 — Wednesday, 3/25 — Numbers 22-24, Psalm 128

• Day 85 — Thursday, 3/26 — Numbers 25-27, Psalm 129

• Day 86 — Friday, 3/27 — Numbers 28-30, Psalm 130

• Day 87 — Saturday, 3/28 — Numbers 31-33, Psalm 131

• Day 88 — Sunday, 3/29 — Numbers 34-36, Psalm 132

Day 82 — Monday, 3/23 —Numbers 16-18, Psalm 125

• Korah leads a rebellion against Moses and the earth literally opens up and swallows them whole? Lord, I pray you bring upon my enemies this kind of divine judgment 🙏

• The people are still grumbling about Moses and Aaron so God has Moses present a staff from each tribe — and miraculously, Aarons staff sprouts ripe almonds, signifying his authority as a chosen leader

Day 83 — Tuesday, 3/24 — Numbers 19-21, Psalm 126

• We encounter a lot of the “weirder” parts of scripture this week — including the red heifer prophecy. This is one of the Bible’s most cryptic rites. The ashes of the red heifer purify the unclean, however those who prepare it become unclean themselves.

• Miriam dies.

• Water again becomes a prominent storyline. Moses is told by God to impress the ever-complaining Israelites by speaking over a rock and getting water to flow from it — but in frustration, he strikes the rock, and though water flows, it costs him entry into the promised land.

• Aaron dies, before reaching the promised land.

• Then comes yet another strange story: after the Israelites complain about their circumstances yet again, saying they hate manna, fiery serpents overrun the camp. God tells Moses to form a bronze serpent and attach it to a pole. The people are healed of snake bites by looking directly at the image of what afflicts them. Is this the world’s first brush with homeopathy?

• There is mention of The Book of the Wars of the Lord — a lost book of the Bible that I would love to read.

Day 84 — Wednesday, 3/25 — Numbers 22-24, Psalm 128

• The King of Moab, afraid of the Israelites, sends for Balaam to curse them. Balaam, a foreign prophet who is able to perceive God more clearly than Israel, refuses to curse the Israelites as God tells him they have been blessed.

• Not only can Balaam hear God — his donkey clearly sees the Angel of the Lord multiple times. After the third time, God gives the donkey they ability to talk — by unbinding his mouth — seemingly confirming that animals used to be able to talk but are now bound. Balaam then is only able to speak the words the Lord allows to come from his mouth, which again, seems metaphorical.

• Balak, King of Moab, repeatedly tries to get Balaam to curse the Israelites — however, Balaam is constrained and can only bless them as God has.

Day 85 — Thursday, 3/26 — Numbers 25-27, Psalm 129

• Ok, as if the talking donkey wasn’t crazy enough, the Israelites quickly fall into idolatry and sexual deviance as they worshop Baal with the Moabites. God is furious and hits the Israelites with a plague — until Phinehas, Aaron’s grandson, drives a spear through an Israelite man and Midianite woman mid-act and stops it — but not before 24,000 people died.

• How do we know 24,000 people died? The census! Which they take again in the wake of this idolatrous destruction — documenting that all the Israelites of Moses and Aaron’s generation have now died off (except Caleb and Joshua), meaning the next generation can now inhabit the promised land.

• Zelophehad’s daughters challenge inheritance laws — and win. Proving that God is a feminist lol jk, He is simply just and fair.

Day 86 — Friday, 3/27 — Numbers 28-30, Psalm 130

• On the precipice of entering the promised land, Moses is given yet another dense set of sacrifice rules.

• Then vows are addressed, particularly those made by women. A father or husband can nullify them — a callback to Adam’s neglected responsibility for Eve.

Day 87 — Saturday, 3/28 — Numbers 31-33, Psalm 131

• Moses is instructed to go to war against the Midianites, as his final earthly battle to lead the Israelites to the promised land. When the Israelite leaders spare the women, Moses tells them not to, since those very women were those that followed Balaam’s teaching to seduce the Israelite men to worship Baal.

Day 88 — Sunday, 3/29 — Numbers 34-36, Psalm 132

• God maps out the promised land in detail — telling Moses the boundaries of the land they are to inhabit, and assigning territories to the tribes.

We generally operate under a comfortable collective delusion: that the date at the top of our smartphone screen is an objective fact of the universe. To most of the world, the date this article was published was Thursday, March 19, 2026.

But if you were to step into a synagogue in Jerusalem, it would be the year 5786.

Cross into a mosque in Riyadh, and it is 1447.

Travel to Ethiopia, and you might find yourself back in 2018 — roughly seven years “behind” the West due to a different calculation of Jesus’ birth year.

While there are a multitude of exceptions across various cultures with alternate calendars, the vast majority of the world is aligned to what we know as the Gregorian Calendar, which is a purely solar calendar, meaning its primary goal is to keep the calendar year synchronized with the tropical year (the time it takes the Earth to orbit the Sun, roughly 365.2422 days).

To account for that extra quarter of a day, the system uses a precise leap year rule where we add an additional day every four years except in certain centurial years (1700, 1800, 1900.) which are not leap years unless they are divisible by 400 (like 1600 or 2000). Super simple, right? This very manual correction gives us an incredibly close approximation of the solar year that only drifts by one day every 3,236 years.

This manual override obviously feels totally aligned to nature and how God had planned for the Sun, Moon and stars to govern our timekeeping, and not at all just a complex approach to making a completely fabricated system make sense. I’m sure God has this mapped out in a similar fashion in His spreadsheet.

1 Nisan: God’s New Year

The day this article was published, March 19, 2026, isn’t just another Thursday. This date also marks 1 Nisan, the Biblical New Year.

While the modern Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) is celebrated in the autumn (and this year it begins on September 11th — the date Ethiopians celebrate the New Year), the Torah is explicit: the year begins in the Spring. God told Moses and Aaron to make the month of the Passover (Nisan/Abib) the new, foundational beginning of the calendar for Israel just before the Israelites left Egypt.

While the Gregorian world waits for January, the Biblical clock explicitly resets in the spring — reminding us that there are major separations between human record-keeping and God’s original calendar.

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