Welcome to The Little Courtyard,
where I post twice monthly: open letters to friends and family, stories from my work in schools, little poems and sermons, and personal (sometimes really personal) essays.
A few themes have emerged since I started writing here in January 2023.
Rogue Spirituality: I’m an interfaith minister, raised by Catholic parents who left the church, and guided by many mentors along the way, foremost among them my teacher, Darryl Slim. Rogue spirituality, to me, is what happens when you feel the spiritual impulse but aren’t drawn to a religion. You make it up as you go, feeling your way through the dark. For me, writing helps.
Radical Masculinity: “Radical” comes from a Latin word meaning, “forming the root.” For me, writing on masculinity is a way of forming my own roots, sinking and sending out my tendrils into the soil of whatever the it means, has meant, and could mean (for me) to be a man.
Restorative Justice (Live-from-the-9-to-5): Restorative Justice is a set of principles and practices, a “way of being,” that has existed in different forms in many Indigenous communities around the world for thousands of years. Today, there is a movement to utilize this “way of being” to transform aspects of modern society, including our education and carceral systems. I work for my local public health department in Maine as a Restorative Specialist, helping schools establish restorative systems that build community, facilitate accountability, and cultivate cultures that honor our interconnectedness. Often I write about what I’m seeing boots on the ground.
Letters and Personal Essays: I’ve found that writing about my life helps me live it. So I write the stories that will bother me if I don’t get them down. And I write letters to my loved ones sometimes, when speaking just won’t do, and also to those who ask me questions I don’t yet have answers for.
Also, I wrote a book once called Walking to Listen. It’s about a year spent walking across America. Check it out.
And here’s my website.
What’s with the name?
I was once told that my last name, Forsthoefel, originally meant “little courtyard in the forest” in German. That may or may not be true, but I love the image, a small clearing in the wilderness, a little courtyard, a fire crackling at the center perhaps, and us, gathered round in circle, gazing into the flames, staying warm, staying close through the long dark night.
How often will you receive my writings?
Free Subscribers receive 1 post per month. After a year these posts are archived behind the paywall.
Paid Subscribers ($5/month) will receive all free posts, as well as 1 additional pay-walled post per month and access to the archives.
Founding Members ($150/year) get all that, and my deep gratitude. Truly, thank you.
