HearthFinder Blog

There was a time when my voice was loud. In my younger years, my confidence filled rooms. I carried my opinions like torches that were bright, sharp, imposing. I confidently asserted my limited knowledge, often reinforcing ideas that make me cringe today. But life has a way of tempering us. Not diminishing, but refining. Over time, my fire settled into something steadier and more grounded. Quiet, but far more powerful. These days, I don’t need to announce my direction. I simp

When College Stops Feeling Like an Option In the United States, higher education is supposed to ignite our passion for deeper learning, potential, and possibility. For many people, it feels more like a locked gate with a price tag hanging off the handle. Families watch tuition climb into numbers that would once have bought two houses. Students do the math and realize they are being asked to mortgage their entire future before it has even begun. Quietly, a lot of people simply

When the recent Epstein emails surfaced, I expected an appropriate response to the gross exploitation of minors by powerful men. But what I've seen in public reaction wasn’t shock or a demand for justice. It was minimization. "He wasn't a pedofile... he was just into the barely legal types... he liked 15-year-old girls." "He wasn't into 8-year-olds... he liked the very young teen types..." "There's a difference between a 15-year-old and a 5-year-old." The Megyn Kelly's commen

Romania stands at a cultural crossroads — modern in law, traditional in spirit, and still deciding which part of itself will define the future. The Contradiction at the Heart of Modern Romania At first glance, Romania seems firmly part of the European modern project. It is a member of the European Union, bound by human-rights conventions, and home to a young generation that travels, studies, and works across a continent that increasingly values equality. Yet beneath that Euro

Every city and village in Romania seems to be charmed with the presence of cats. They stretch across sunlit steps, curl up on cafe chairs, and nap on cobblestones as if they own the streets. Here, cats exist in a shared space between domestic and wild, beloved and free. They are not seen as pests. They are accepted, fed, and adored by nearly everyone. When you walk down a Romanian street, you’ll see bowls of food left under park benches, tiny shelters tucked beside apartment

In recent weeks, I’ve written about the quiet tightening of global mobility and the slow erosion of our ability to move freely through the world. For many, this idea feels dramatic, something that could never happen to U.S. citizens. But this week, we've seen yet another crack in our fragile system. The Federal Aviation Administration has announced plans to reduce air traffic by about ten percent across forty major U.S. airports. The reason is not a storm or security threat,

When I asked a local in Brașov to explain the difference between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, he didn’t quote scripture or mention rituals. He smiled and said simply, “We didn’t have crusades, the Inquisition, or witch trials.” It was such an abrupt, almost startling answer — not theological, but historical, and human. The divergent memory was of two civilizations that shared one faith but grew into very different moral worlds. Divergent Paths from the Same Root Both Catholicis

This isn’t about fear—it’s about discernment. Across history, people have faced the impossible question of whether to stay and fight for their country or leave to escape the oppression. It’s a question layered with emotion, loyalty, and grief. The stories we’re told about heroism often glorify the ones who stayed—those who defied tyranny from within, who risked everything for the chance to reclaim their homeland. But those stories, as moving as they are, rarely tell the full