As children emerge from the cocoon of toddlerhood and begin their journey into the world, the 21st century parent must decide where and how their child should be educated. Public school is often the obvious choice, but other families may choose private, charter, or alternative schooling. A small number choose to homeschool. More wish they could, but find it unrealistic due to employment or other extenuating factors. In Washtenaw County we are blessed with a myriad of options. One such option, Ypsilanti’s Kindred Journey School (KJS), sits in the happy medium between private and homeschool. KJS is perfect for families who relish the individualized curriculum and close personal relationships that homeschooling offers but are unable to do so themselves. Serving Kindergarten through fourth grade and growing every year, KJS seeks to nurture the individual child and foster connection between peers, educators, and the local community.
Out of My Comfort Zone: Three Scary Statements
The words were out of my mouth before I’d spent even a single second considering them. Appalled, I gazed, eyes wide, at the woman in front of me, a new acquaintance whom I knew to be highly intuitive, an accomplished spiritual healer. I couldn’t fathom where that statement had come from. It was almost as if the words had been spoken to me, as much as through me.
Kindred Conversations with Hilary Nichols: Featuring Alex Thomas
Alex Thomas has returned to Ypsilanti to care for his hometown. He is a West Willow Community advocate, and a Transformative Strategies Specialist, and he is Assistant to the Sheriff of Washtenaw County,
Advertisers Highlight, July 2026, Week #2
We are so appreciative for our advertisers in each issue, and you should be too! They help keep The Crazy Wisdom Community Journal FREE in print and online. Please support them by clicking on their ad below to find out more about their services.
The Art of the Vibe: Boost Your Next Event with Coffee, Music, and Kultura
When Juana Mancera graduated from the University of Michigan in December 2025, she decided that if she was going to face the daily grind, she might as well be the one choosing the beans. Sick of working for other people, sick of climbing a corporate ladder, Mancera opened Kultura, a mobile coffee-music pop-up, or as she explained it, “coffee, culture, and speakers on wheels.” The hottest thing in town isn’t just the caffeine, it’s the electric blue cart and the heavy bass vibrating through the steam of your new favorite cuppa joe. Meet the coffee experience that’s treating the local caffeine scene less like a transaction and more like a pop-up party.
Crazy Wisdom Kids: Experiencing Spring Through the Senses
Before the calendar changes, before the jackets disappear, before adults agree that winter is finally over, kids start pointing things out. The light looks different. The sidewalk feels warmer. The air smells like wet dirt, not cold metal. Something has shifted, even if no one can quite name it yet. In Ann Arbor and surrounding areas, spring reveals itself in small, almost secret ways—and those clues teach kids something important about the world and about themselves.
Think You Can’t Do Yoga? (Think Again!) A Conversation with Mindy Eisenberg, Founder of Yoga Moves MS
Mindy Eisenberg founded Yoga Moves MS, a nonprofit adaptive yoga organization, over 20 years ago, providing free classes to those impacted by multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and other neuromuscular disorders. Her inspiration? Growing up with a mother with multiple sclerosis who spent the better part of twenty-seven years in bed paired with a profound belief in the healing impact of a regular yoga practice.
A Dive Into The Universe Stuff: A Q&A with Renata Portes
Meet Renata Portes, creator of The Universe Stuff; a holistic, creative brand of candles, teas, Reiki, tarot, and more. Originally from Brazil with a background in law, Portes found herself drawn to bring light and healing to people during her transition to life in the United States.
Tea with Peggy: Tea for Your Summer BBQ
Do you love watching cooking shows on T.V.? I admit, it is a guilty pleasure of mine. One of my favorite things to watch is the BBQ competitions. I enjoy learning about all of the unusual ways you can grill meat, poultry, fish, vegetables, and even fruit.
Keeping the Faith—Even When it’s Hard
It’s easy to believe we are protected, loved, and supported by the divine when life is going well. But what about when we are treading in troubled waters and the tides threaten to sweep us out to sea? Thrashing in the waves, struggling to stay above water, sucked into the deep, our breath catching in our lungs— and the darkness finally overtakes us. That’s a different story. So, how do we keep the faith even when we feel abandoned?
Interview with Dallas Ahrens — Gentle Ground Hospice and Grief Support
There was a clear absence in Southeast Michigan for a Buddhist perspective on death and dying. Most large metropolitan areas in the West, by which I mean Europe and North and South America, offer Buddhist hospice services, both medical and nonmedical. At this point, Gentle Ground Hospice and Grief Support is nonmedical. We are also non-denominational. Secondly, our team has the experience and passion to help fill this void. Besides Buddhists, we cater to atheists, agnostics, Christian curious, anyone really. By the way, we will never try to convert anyone.
The Dreambody, Processwork, and Uncovering our Unconscious Desires
A few years ago, early on my path toward healing, I had a therapist who told me that the body often acts out our subconscious drives and desires, and that if we watch what our body does, we can unlock fresh understandings of what we believe, what we want, and what’s holding us back—the unhelpful patterns, the edges we’re avoiding, the cages we’ve unwittingly locked ourselves in.
Sustainable Health: Hypermobility Disorders: An Overlooked Diagnosis
Persistent daily pain is a diagnosis that has unfortunately increased over the past decade in this country. Sometimes the source is known, but oftentimes, the etiology remains a mystery. As physicians, we wondered why some patients skate through life with very little pain and why others find themselves reaching for the Advil every day.
Breath, Plants, and the Return to Relationship
As I got older, plants again became teachers. First tobacco, then cannabis introduced me to non-ordinary states through ritualized breath. Smoking was never just consumption for me; it was relational. Breaking apart the plant, lighting it, inhaling and exhaling with intention—these acts shaped my nervous system and my awareness.
Yoga for Life: How to Know If Your Stress Is Out of Control, Plus 6 Simple Yoga Tools to Reduce It
Unless we spend time exploring the underlying causes of our stress, ultimately nothing will change. A yoga practice can help us do just that. One of the gifts of yoga is that it helps us cultivate greater self-awareness. By getting on your yoga mat, you are taking time to slow down, be mindful, and see what you can learn about your body. With ongoing practice, you are better able to listen to your body and give it what it needs on a daily basis.
AI: Will We or Won’t We?
My audacity regarding the possibility of AI becoming an existential threat to our species does not spring from my extremely limited understanding of its current capabilities, nor from any reassuring foreknowledge of its future evolution. Neither does it arise from a profoundly misanthropic, I-couldn’t-care-less view vis a vis my fellow human beings. While I will admit to a blood red No Vacancy sign eternally lit in the bottom of my heart for some members of our species, (I know you know who you are, and I know you don’t care a whit about how I feel about you) but “good riddance” regarding my fellow human beings in toto? Absolutely not.
Southeast Michigan Spiritual Road Trip
I have been a happy habitant of Southeast Michigan for more than 15 years now, and we are blessed to have many metaphysical stores in our corner of the state. Each is filled with warm, welcoming people who are eager to help anyone on their personal spiritual journey. Join me as I visit five of them.
Weekend Getaways: Honoring The Past, Embracing the Future — The Inn at Rustic Gate
In the early 2000s, co-owners Marcia Stroko, Patricia Barrett, and Sharon Stroko were inspired by cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien to create a place where guests could focus on self-development. In a January 2006 guest book entry, guest F. Rowe shared, “Thank you for having such a wonderful atmosphere in your home inn and surroundings,” thereby recognizing that Rustic Gate is not only a space for visitors, but also a family home
An Interview with Psychotherapist on Authentic Masculinity and Embodied Healing
Daniel DeSena is a social worker and psychotherapist who has become active in leading male embodiment and self-mastery workshops locally, and also nationally on Zoom. He is passionate about the intersection of spirituality, meditation, energy work, martial arts, sexuality and embodiment. He and his twin sister, and younger brother, were raised in the Pittsburgh area. Now 52, he’s been in southeastern Michigan for 30+ years.
Pollinator Hotels Part 2: Welcome Back, Bees!
By Karen Quinn
After a long, bitter cold winter, it’s time to welcome our bees and other pollinator friends back after their much needed, and well deserved, hibernation.
If you built pollinator hotels and overwintered them last fall (see my article in issue #90 of The Crazy Wisdom Community Journal for building directions), you can put them back out in your yard when the mid-day temperature reaches a consistent 55 degrees, and the overnights are above 35 degrees. In Southeast Michigan, that puts us around late March to mid-April, on average. However, we natives know that Michigan weather is hardly consistent, so use your best judgment.
Here are a few tips to help the flying friends as they come out of hibernation. First, I will suggest creating something called an “Emergence Box.” This can be a plastic bin or heavy-duty cardboard box that your hotel will fit inside. On one of the sides of the box/bin, cut a single ½ inch diameter hole. As our little buddies wake up, they will follow the light of the hole and leave the box. I went the plastic bin route, since I can use it year after year, and I don’t have to worry about it if it gets wet. If you choose to go this route, I suggest using a non-clear bin to make it easier for the groggy bees to find their way out. However, my first few years I did use heavy duty cardboard boxes. If you decide to take this route, just keep it up off the ground and under cover to keep it from getting soggy during spring rains.
There are a few reasons why this is a good practice. One reason is it keeps the pollinator hotel dry and free from most rodents and predators. The only stinkers you have to keep an eye out for are mice. If you find mice are making their way in and out of the emergence hole, you can cover it with a mesh screen. I use old potato or onion bags to cover the hole. The second reason is that a nesting female won’t see that as a safe place to return to lay her eggs.
Be sure to monitor the hotel in the emergence box often for unwanted visitors as well as keeping track of when it’s empty. You will know that a tube nest or the wooden block holes are empty when the plug at the end of the tunnel is broken. If you used pinecones, straw, or sticks, a cursory look for anyone sleeping among the debris is your best bet. Another important thing to watch for is moisture. This could be due to rain, or leaks in the wood. Access it to see if you need to weatherproof the seams, extend the roof, or adjust the placement of the hotel. Keeping the hotel dry, safe, and warm is of the upmost importance as our buzzing buddies wake back up.
Once the hotel is empty of occupants, it’s time to clean it up and get it ready for the next use. Start by removing all the nesting materials. Then, give it a good sanitizing scrub with a diluted bleach mixture. MSU suggests a ½ cup of bleach to a gallon of water for this process. This is a very necessary step to keep your local population of pollinators healthy. It is imperative to remove any parasites or pathogens that can cause diseases from the nesting areas. If you are reusing your tubes, clean them out with a pipe cleaner or straw cleaning brush to remove any debris, then soak them in the bleach solution and allow them to air dry. If you are using the drilled block method, you can use the same size drill bits to rebore out the holes if you wish, then soak the wood in the bleach solution, and allow it to air dry completely. You can use the natural tubes and wooden blocks for two years before they need to be replaced. Be sure to wash the box of the hotel completely as well and make any necessary repairs to rotten wood. Once it’s all cleaned and dried, you can place it back out in your garden or store it and use it next year.
Now, if you want to help your nesting female friends out all summer (and I highly recommend you do!) Simply place a new, clean, bee hotel, identical to the one you put out in the fall, near the emergence box in your garden. Now, it doesn’t have to be “new,” it can also be the nesting box you just cleaned or one you stored from the previous year. Make sure it is in a protected, covered space, facing southeast so it receives direct sunlight in the mornings. It is best to put the new hotel up about 4’-5’ on a post, building, or tree as close to your garden as possible. Then simply leave it all summer, and when the temperatures drop again in late October, your hotel is full of pollinators and ready to be put in a safe place!
If you place a new bee hotel out, continue to monitor it throughout to garden season. When you see tubes or drilled holes capped with mud or leaves, that is a sign of mason or leafcutter bee nests. You might even find cocoons of moths or butterflies in your straw and sticks, which are oh so much fun to watch. But aside from “wanted activity,” you should also watch for unwanted events as well
Next, watch out for ants! They will gladly use your hotel as a bee larvae diner and destroy your bees’ nests. There are many pollinator safe remedies out there. Diatomaceous Earth (or DE) around the base of the post or in the bottom of the nesting box can be a good preventative as well as deterrent. I’ve also heard other gardeners have success using ant bait and sticky spray to deter an active invasion. The last thing I watch for is an excess of spiderwebs. Now, if some enterprising genius arachnid sets up shop on my bee box, I’m not above moving a spider away from my hotel, but a lot of webs is an indication that it might be in a little too shady of a spot.
Finally, be sure to add more native blooms and natural habitat around your garden to encourage even more bees, flies, beetles, moths, birds, and butterflies to stay. Be the oasis these little creatures are dreaming of, and they will pay you back tenfold by simply being themselves, and making your garden more beautiful than you knew it could be.
Karen Quinn is a writer and artist who homesteads on a rural urban farm in Livonia, Michigan with her husband, son, and a menagerie of animals. Her favorite things are reading, exploring, and drinking tea.
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The words were out of my mouth before I’d spent even a single second considering them. Appalled, I gazed, eyes wide, at the woman in front of me, a new acquaintance whom I knew to be highly intuitive, an accomplished spiritual healer. I couldn’t fathom where that statement had come from. It was almost as if the words had been spoken to me, as much as through me.