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Leaving Before the Lockdown: Reading the Signs of Shrinking Mobility
This message is an invitation to stay awake. The world is shifting quickly, and people are beginning to feel it — the tightening of systems, the quiet disappearances of benefits, the growing unease about what happens next. While no official order says “you can’t leave,” the truth is that exit windows rarely close with a public announcement. They close through small, invisible steps that make leaving harder and harder until the option is gone in practice. The question keeps s

Jillian Aurora
Oct 294 min read


When Governments Show Their Cards
Some subjects are hard to look at. This is one of them. The moments before repression rarely feel like the ones that come after; they unfold slowly, politely, even bureaucratically. Yet when we study history closely, we find that governments often reveal their intentions long before the violence begins. They show their cards in budgets, in weapons orders, in “security reorganizations” announced in calm language. This isn’t about fear, it’s about honesty. Facing how militariza

Jillian Aurora
Oct 254 min read


When the Ground Shifts: Acknowledging the Signs
This message isn’t meant to alarm — but I write because I wholeheartedly believe in informed self-determination. We all know American feels uneasy. There’s a quiet (and sometimes not so quiet) tension under the surface politically, socially, and economically. I’m not sharing this to create fear. I’m sharing it because awareness gives us options and wisdom. Recently, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) increased its spending on weapons, explosives, and tactical gear

Jillian Aurora
Oct 223 min read


Finding Networks and Resource in Times of Suppression
When suppression begins to take root, it rarely announces itself with drums or banners. It slips in quietly: a shift in tone, a...

Jillian Aurora
Oct 144 min read


When Travel Stops Being Just Travel
There was a time when traveling from the United States carried a kind of lightness. You could say, I’m going abroad for a few weeks, and...

Jillian Aurora
Oct 133 min read


Facing Hard Truths with the Light of the Hearth
This topic may feel heavy—perhaps even offensive to some. The word genocide carries a weight that most minds instinctively turn from. But there is wisdom in facing difficult truths with courage. To study how such atrocities unfold is not to dwell in darkness—it is to learn how to keep light. When we understand the machinery of hatred, we are less likely to become its gears. When we can see the pattern, we have a chance to interrupt it. Genocide does not begin with mass grave

Jillian Aurora
Oct 56 min read


Lessons from the Fires: Witch Trials and the Survival of Women
When we think of the witch trials, we often imagine bonfires, shadowy figures in courts, and whispered accusations passed over fences. Yet beneath the drama of superstition and fire lies a deeper story: how societies under strain weaponized fear, how political and religious divisions fueled suspicion, and how women—so often the target—found ways to endure. The witch trials were not about witches. Most of the accused had no connection to pagan practices or secret rituals. They

Jillian Aurora
Oct 23 min read


Emergency Preparedness: Guarding Your Hearth in Uncertain Times
Tending the hearth has never only been about comfort — it has always been about survival. In calmer times, a stocked pantry or an extra...

Jillian Aurora
Sep 283 min read


Surviving Civil Unrest: What History Teaches Us
When we look back at times of crisis, it’s easy to see only the violence and despair. But history is also full of stories of resilience —...

Jillian Aurora
Sep 206 min read
HearthFinder: Building safe futures, one hearth at a time.
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