Asatru Folk Assembly - 1⧸4⧸23 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 26 - Hospitality

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 Thank you.

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00:01:30.000 Thank you.

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00:02:30.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:03:00.000 hello everybody and welcome glad you guys are joining us tonight it is a special treat tonight

00:03:19.440 we get to welcome a very good friend of mine folk builder heather young here because she is uh

00:03:26.400 resoundingly so by her peers the the example of the virtue of hospitality

00:03:33.520 so welcome heather good to have you on the show hello um top of the show stuff we are broadcasting

00:03:42.700 on youtube twitter odyssey something else that's escaping me right now um nick will probably post

00:03:55.160 those things up uh yes entropy that's the the and vk so we're on all of those things um if you want

00:04:05.880 to join us on entropy you are able to donate which we appreciate and you're also able to

00:04:11.720 get your questions to the front of line if you want to participate in the super chat um

00:04:16.680 Um, other top of the show things, um, our first moot that we are hosting at Sigerheim is going

00:04:27.100 to be on the 14th of this month. And it looks like a lot of people are coming out for that.

00:04:33.060 Um, again, it's a, it's a, uh, vacant chunk of land right now. So it's not like there's a ton

00:04:39.540 of stuff, but some folks are getting an Airbnb. We're going to spend time hanging out at,

00:04:43.760 and we're going to go on the property. We're going to explore, get a feel for the place,

00:04:48.480 plot some stuff out of what we want to do and just kind of envision what we want to see there

00:04:53.100 in the future. So, uh, that's very exciting. Anybody who can do that, that's going to be in

00:04:58.300 central Tennessee. Um, let your folk builder know if you're interested in attending that

00:05:03.980 and they can get you set up. I think that's, uh, that's where we're at. So

00:05:11.480 So, Heather, could you tell us a little bit about hospitality and why that's something

00:05:22.580 that you're so prolific at or why that's something that's so important to you?

00:05:31.400 It's just kind of how I've always been.

00:05:33.800 um when I was very little my mom remarried and I was adopted by another gentleman and his mother

00:05:45.120 I just wanted to be her like when I met her she was just perfect like it was like we never didn't

00:05:53.800 know each other we did crafts she treated me just like all the other grandkids and she just

00:05:59.220 I wanted to be just like her so from when I was five up I just mimicked her all the time and I

00:06:06.560 mean she never met a stranger and nobody ever did was unwelcome at her home or was to feel

00:06:13.180 unwelcome at her home so it's just always been a thing like that was a big deal to me to be felt

00:06:22.260 like I was part of their family so I always make sure that everybody feels like they're part of

00:06:28.280 something no matter where it is I meet them at well for those of you that may not know Heather

00:06:34.960 is a major plank of the of the team that runs Thorshoff in Linden North Carolina and Heather

00:06:44.780 has really taken upon herself to make that a welcoming place for all of our folk and to take

00:06:51.740 charge of the hospitality there and it's really something to see I hope you guys get a chance to

00:06:56.080 experience that if you make it out in Carolinas. But yeah, that's always remarked on and certainly

00:07:03.320 appreciated. Hospitality is such an important thing to us and such an important part of our

00:07:11.300 culture. It's very long been the AFA's, I guess, motto in a way is welcome home. And the idea of

00:07:22.560 people coming home to Ausatru and coming into the AFA and feeling like they're in a place that

00:07:27.260 they belong and like they're coming back to home and to family. And it means so much to us when

00:07:34.600 people describe it that way when they join us. And folks like Heather are such a big part of

00:07:39.320 making that a reality and fulfilling that promise. Heather, this is your first time on the program.

00:07:46.340 So something we kind of ask folks when they are on here first.

00:07:53.080 Real quick, we've got a $3 donation from Sarah.

00:07:56.280 And Sarah says, Heather, you look absolutely beautiful.

00:07:59.400 I agree.

00:07:59.940 You look great, Heather.

00:08:01.120 Thank you.

00:08:02.520 All right.

00:08:03.060 So what I was going to ask you was, can you tell us a little bit about how you came to

00:08:08.980 Ousitru?

00:08:10.020 And, you know, it may be the same, may be different, but how did you come to the Ousitru

00:08:15.660 Folk Assembly?

00:08:16.340 Well, I might make a little bit, make people a little bit angry, but when I first learned about Asatru, my husband and my daughter were practicing Asatru, and I made fun of them.

00:08:35.220 I told them that they were going to raid villages and wear horns on their heads and furs and all that.

00:08:42.220 So Daniel was searching online to find.

00:08:46.840 Lauren asked if we could find more people like them or she didn't want to do it anymore.

00:08:53.180 So Daniel started looking online and he found a gentleman that then hooked him up with a folk builder in South Carolina.

00:09:01.440 and daniel called me and he said he was going to take lauren to this event at this guy's house

00:09:07.280 and i'm like you're not going without me you're not taking my kid around a whole bunch of weird

00:09:13.120 people without me so i went and um there were some people there that were very very very nice

00:09:23.360 to me like they didn't treat me like i was dumb because i didn't know anything and they could tell

00:09:29.500 that I was trying to figure out what they were talking about.

00:09:31.980 So they would sit with me and then break it down into smaller chunks

00:09:35.940 so I could understand what the other guys were talking about.

00:09:39.720 And when I left, I just felt so welcomed and like I fit somewhere

00:09:45.400 that when we pulled out of the driveway, I put in an application.

00:09:51.360 Well, that's great.

00:09:52.320 I'm really glad that they dragged you along to that

00:09:55.540 and that it worked out so well for you.

00:09:58.060 we are definitely better off having you with us um got some questions stacking up over here

00:10:04.300 brandy asks heather what made you want to be a folk builder for the afa um it was

00:10:12.860 two reasons one daniel was a folk builder and i already kind of did things with daniel

00:10:19.740 so i i wanted to help you know in in bringing people home and so they could have the same

00:10:28.620 that i have but also because i was so introverted that i wanted to push myself

00:10:36.860 to actually put myself out there to actually you know not have daniel make my doctor's appointments

00:10:43.020 for me because i was afraid to talk on the telephone now i had to talk on the telephone

00:10:47.340 So it was kind of a selfish reason reason and a good reason.

00:10:53.120 You know, I help bring people to the AFA, but also help make myself stronger by doing it.

00:11:04.640 Well, good to hear that. I think that's I think that's important.

00:11:09.560 And I don't think that's that's wrong.

00:11:12.180 some people get uncomfortable when they mention they get a benefit out of it and you should there's

00:11:17.620 nothing wrong with ambition and there's nothing wrong with getting getting the just rewards for

00:11:22.980 your hard work and for stepping up into a position of leadership so i mean as long as you're earning

00:11:28.260 it and being worthy of it there's absolutely nothing wrong with that you certainly are uh

00:11:33.460 worthy of it you're doing a fantastic job folk building uh king of cheese matt heather good to

00:11:40.340 see both how are you how are we going tonight how are you doing heather i'm doing good

00:11:48.340 all right i'm doing good as well you know me it's always the same answer i love talking to

00:11:53.620 my friends and i like talking to you guys and just being with being with my afa family so i'm doing

00:12:00.580 fantastic uh but i always appreciate you asking and checking in tony uh shea asks heather do you

00:12:09.780 Do you have any suggestions or practices on how we could be better at welcoming guests to our homes?

00:12:19.420 I just always think about how I feel when I go to someone else's house or how I want them to make me feel.

00:12:26.280 So if I go like to your house and I sit over in the corner and nobody talks to me and I just feel like I don't belong, then I try to do the opposite of that.

00:12:37.560 I try to, you know, make sure everybody's spoken to if they need something, if they want something to drink, find something in common so we can have conversations or talk about what we don't have in common.

00:12:53.040 I just always try to do exactly the opposite of what I don't like when I'm somewhere where I don't feel like I fit in.

00:13:03.120 If that makes sense. I don't know if that made sense.

00:13:07.560 No, it does. I think, like I said, hospitality is really at the core of what we do and of what makes this real. And I think that a lot of us, a lot of us come to this from different places.

00:13:22.680 And we are in a period in our history in the West where people are very, very isolated, especially after these last couple of years.

00:13:38.420 A whole lot of people are cut off from other people. Their social interactions are online, you know, online channels where they get in political arguments with, you know, fake names and no faces that you don't really know who you're talking to.

00:13:57.340 And you don't get the same interaction that you do with actually spending time with somebody in real life.

00:14:03.100 And I think that we've really we suffer from that as a culture now.

00:14:07.100 I think it's much harder.

00:14:08.140 I watch young people come up and they don't have that interaction where they've got to

00:14:14.140 make friends with, you know, other young people where they have to go and meet, you know,

00:14:19.320 meet a guy or a girl in a social situation and make something happen organically.

00:14:24.060 It's it's all through this kind of the anonymity of of the Internet.

00:14:29.580 And I think we suffer because of it.

00:14:31.280 So one of the things that I love so much about the Ask True Folk Assembly, and I always have, is the fact that we're real and we get together and we do stuff.

00:14:39.860 If some of us are separated over large distances, it's great to do things like this where we get to interact with each other.

00:14:45.900 But the meat and the taters of what we're doing is our in-person moots, welcoming people into your homes.

00:14:54.440 And this goes on the back of Shay's question a little bit.

00:14:56.640 And fundamentally, the idea of welcoming people into my home is what my experience with House of

00:15:06.640 Truth is built on. When I was up in Alaska and I started folk building, that was the key to

00:15:14.620 everything we did was I would open up my home and have people over for a dinner and we'd do a bloat,

00:15:20.240 we'd do a sumble and whatever, and we'd share a meal together around my table. And that's always

00:15:26.120 been some very fundamental to to this that we do and you know we extend that to welcoming folks

00:15:32.120 into our hoffs and it's just really nice to see so hospitality is is really at the core of

00:15:40.680 real aussitude practice and nick can you throw up that picture real quick so

00:15:47.480 hospitality always means a lot to me and i have uh i learned that from my grandmother my mother's mom

00:15:56.120 Mary Ann Davis, her picture's on the screen now. She was that for our family. I grew up

00:16:03.200 close enough to where I was around my grandparents and she would always have us over for the holidays

00:16:08.220 and anything else at her home and really embedded into me the importance of hospitality. So I keep

00:16:16.280 a picture of her hanging in my kitchen so I can remember that when I'm preparing meals for

00:16:20.180 the folk when we have them over. And she's really my inspiration behind the hospitality that

00:16:25.520 that myself and my family exhibit we got a question from sarah heather you have an awesome

00:16:32.400 story about the toy drive donations for the hof would you please share it sure um i applied for

00:16:41.040 toys for tots for thor's hall and we got approved and i went they called me and said my toys were

00:16:48.240 ready so i went and got the toys and i took them to the hall and i wasn't expecting the amount of

00:16:55.200 toys that they gave us. So I was going through them and seeing what all I had. And then I went

00:17:03.000 home. A couple days later, I get another call. And I'm trying to tell this lady that I already

00:17:09.260 had my toys. And she kept trying to tell me that no, I didn't. So I kept on going back and forth

00:17:15.500 with her. And she goes, No, honey, you have a second load of toys. So I said, Okay, I'll come

00:17:20.800 up there on Thursdays because that's my day off so I drive back up there on Thursday and they give

00:17:26.500 me more toys and she was saying that they didn't know what Hoffman so they were calling it Thor's

00:17:34.200 house of fun and I told her I said well it is Thor's house of fun and she said well wonderful

00:17:40.740 we were right she said but I googled y'all and then we were loading the toys and she was quiet

00:17:46.360 and i was quiet because i didn't know what was going to come next from i googled y'all so

00:17:53.400 when i shut my van she gave me a hug and she told me she said honey keep doing what you're doing

00:18:00.760 they'll see one day and it just made me cry i just cried so hard all the way back to the hall

00:18:08.440 to put the toys in the hall which was a whole nother van load so but i just thought that was

00:18:14.360 cool and then she told me put your application in next year we'll have a place for you

00:18:22.120 that's that's fantastic um you really knocked it out of the park this year this was uh

00:18:27.800 thor's haf's first year of doing our uh yule toy giveaway that that we tried to do at all of our

00:18:33.800 hafs and it was very successful this year and that was you know that was all heather and the

00:18:40.280 the love and the work she put into it so it's much appreciated um trent asks hey heather

00:18:47.880 is there a particular god or goddess that inspires you to be so hospitable

00:18:56.440 um

00:19:02.680 i think it's kind of all of them i cut there's little pieces of all of them that i want to

00:19:10.280 honor. So I try to do my best when I'm, especially when I'm at the Hoff to show

00:19:19.140 how grateful I am to be there and, you know, to honor the gods, to know who they are,

00:19:27.040 because I didn't know who they were for so long. So, I mean, I love Frigga, but

00:19:33.840 all of them in some way kind of push me to do that because you never know who's coming to the

00:19:44.000 hall you never know who's who is their favorite god and you know everything brings people to the

00:19:51.480 hall for a reason everybody's coming for their own reason so I think all the gods kind of

00:19:58.360 fulfill that for me if that makes sense

00:20:01.040 without. No, it absolutely does make sense. Brandy asks, Heather, is there a difference

00:20:14.400 between daily hospitality versus for a big national event hospitality?

00:20:21.880 No, I don't think so. And that's my personal opinion. I try to be who I am at the hall

00:20:30.920 um everywhere I go I'm not always perfect of course but I mean I might I do the same thing at

00:20:40.260 my job um if people are having to run too much at work I'll stay over and not get paid for it

00:20:49.220 to help so they can get home too um so hospitality I guess is just in me I do it everywhere I go

00:20:57.760 helping people at the grocery store, getting Lauren to help people at the

00:21:02.220 grocery store, getting Daniel to help people at the grocery store

00:21:05.740 or at a store. Everywhere I go, I just

00:21:10.240 always seem to be helping somebody or

00:21:13.600 making somebody laugh or feel better.

00:21:19.180 It's kind of the same for me personally

00:21:21.640 at home and at the Hoth.

00:21:27.760 well and i think you know that's something i was alluding to a little bit earlier but

00:21:35.040 the hoff hospitality is very much an extension of our personal hospitality and the hospitality

00:21:41.360 we learn at home in a way those of us who are are fortunate enough to regularly attend our hoffs

00:21:51.120 those very much become our home and when we welcome guests or people who you know new

00:21:57.040 newcomers to the hoff folks that way it very very strongly feels like welcoming

00:22:02.960 people into your home and i think i think that's really

00:22:10.160 what we try to show and i think it's why it's so natural and so genuine is because we feel

00:22:15.440 that way about our hoffs and i know we've got um folks men and women but very often our ladies that

00:22:22.720 really take a lead in that hospitality at our hoffs and you know there's there's always a

00:22:27.760 few of them at each of our hoffs that do such a good job welcoming people and providing that

00:22:32.880 hospitality it's something i'm so proud so proud of every time i get to experience

00:22:36.880 um christine asks heather how does building frith and hospitality work together in unison

00:22:48.480 well i feel like they go hand in hand because if you don't have frith and everybody's getting along

00:22:57.520 and everything's working smoothly it's hard to be hospitable i mean you can be and i have been

00:23:03.840 before but if everything's running smooth and everybody's you know getting along and everything's

00:23:12.880 going as planned it makes things so much easier to just have a good time and not have to work to

00:23:20.720 be hospitable um if there's some kind of conflict then it makes you work harder to be nice and help

00:23:31.040 people um you might even start feeling a little like i don't want to be there because it's um

00:23:38.640 rough but um definitely when it's fruitful it's way much easier to be nice and make people feel at

00:23:47.600 home definitely one of the one of the functions that is also extremely important from our ladies

00:24:01.880 at our hafs is being frith weavers and through hospitality among other things really bonding

00:24:11.900 people there together in a way to where we're united and where relationships are built and

00:24:17.840 strengthened amongst our families, our members, and new people that come. Building and weaving

00:24:24.100 that frith, I think, goes hand in hand with hospitality, and it's something that our ladies

00:24:29.360 really strive for. Buck asks, Heather, do you feel that children are a big part of our folk

00:24:37.760 in church's future. Is there anything that would help spark their interest in our lore?

00:24:47.060 Our children are absolutely everything. They are our future. With our children,

00:24:54.880 this won't be carried on. As far as teaching them to lore, with Lauren,

00:25:00.820 at first we kind of try to make it fun like a like a game um now that she's older

00:25:08.480 you know we'll just be i'll be studying something and i'll just throw out a question and either she

00:25:15.180 can answer or not and then if she can't we just go over you know whatever it was we were talking

00:25:20.820 about but um but like just little you can find little things that I guess probably shouldn't be

00:25:30.980 taken silly but you know I'm not gonna remember the name even though I know I should but the horse

00:25:38.800 that pulls the moon but the foam comes out its mouth and then you go on later and the next man

00:25:45.200 and woman are live off the foam I mean off the dew so I kind of make like help Lauren with that

00:25:53.220 because I'm like Lauren guess what this horse the foam from his mouth makes the dew and then they

00:26:02.060 live off the dew you know but then she remembers you know so when they're when they're smaller you

00:26:09.160 kind of got to make it fun when they're older you kind of make it more serious

00:26:13.120 i think that's i think that's good advice keeping it fun and little little interesting

00:26:22.480 or gross or whatever factoids out of the lord those are the things that make stuff stick

00:26:30.460 and i think that's really cool that uh that you're able to do that with uh with lauren

00:26:36.280 katie asks good evening uh since sharing a meal with folk is such a part of fellowship

00:26:45.400 what is your favorite meal to cook for family and friends heather what you got which favorite

00:26:53.060 meal to cook my favorite thing to cook well my husband's favorite thing for me to cook

00:26:58.500 is hamburger steak and mashed potatoes and green beans or fried pork chops so if you come over

00:27:07.100 and daniel is feeling like he can eat bad then that's what we'll eat

00:27:11.140 but um or lasagna um his dad taught me how to make their family lasagna recipe and then he said

00:27:21.600 i do it better than him so now he won't cook it so i have to cook it for everybody

00:27:26.660 good deal because there wasn't a specific name attached to that i'm gonna throw this out there

00:27:34.140 as a bonus my favorite thing to cook lately for folks is tropical schnitzel i'm gonna take this

00:27:39.780 moment to plug tropical schnitzel because i had the idea and i thought it was going to be good

00:27:44.340 people doubted me it turned out amazing i've made it several times now um so it's just regular pork

00:27:51.460 schnitzel but uh in the batter i decided to try you know why couldn't you make uh coconut shrimp

00:28:02.420 but with schnitzel turns out you can so i used the same batter for the coconut shrimp which basically

00:28:09.540 the um the uh schnitzel batter but with a bunch of um coconut flakes in it and fried that up

00:28:20.100 absolutely amazing and the sauce was just the uh like sweet chili orange marmalade sauce that

00:28:28.100 you make with the with the coconut shrimp and it turned out fantastic can't say enough about it

00:28:32.820 figured out plug it tropical schnitzel that's that's what's up um next question is

00:28:41.540 Do y'all listen to Nordic music on YouTube from Fimble and Hercnunger?

00:28:51.420 Heather, is that your jam?

00:28:55.540 Okay, y'all got me.

00:28:57.140 I know songs, I can sing them to you.

00:29:00.460 I do not know who sings songs or names of songs.

00:29:04.380 If you ask me a song and you give it to me by name,

00:29:08.720 I literally have to type it in and Google it and listen to it to see if I know that song.

00:29:14.300 You know, I think I think I think these two are going to stump a lot of folks.

00:29:22.380 I have never heard of either of those bands. I'll certainly check them out.

00:29:27.460 Are they more like are they folk music? I'm not sure. I'll check it out.

00:29:31.880 i really like um some of the nordic folk music that i that i've heard out there and i've tried

00:29:37.720 to check some of that out but i can't say i'm real you know aficionado on it uh we've got a

00:29:43.880 another question one from olivia hi matt and heather good to see you both do you all have

00:29:50.360 a favorite children's book that explains our gods and goddesses heather do you have a favorite

00:29:56.920 children's book? I have one, but I

00:30:01.040 don't know what it's called. Somebody gave it to me a long time ago.

00:30:06.380 It's on our bookshelf. I can

00:30:09.040 run and get it. I can't remember. But it has

00:30:13.120 all the stories in it. But it broke down

00:30:16.820 for children to understand.

00:30:18.860 if you send me a MeWe message I will send you a picture of the book

00:30:29.040 you know what Heather I'm having the exact same problem I know it's Nora something there's one

00:30:37.880 book I think it's by Dallaires it's got it looks like it's colored pencil drawings

00:30:44.100 but it's it's really neat and i like that and i think somebody over on the side will probably post

00:30:49.380 post it up i'm sorry we don't have a better go-to answer for you on that we really should

00:30:53.940 hold on the book has a row this book um when we first joined this book was given to lauren

00:31:03.540 and um it's the same book oh is it no actually actually no it's not no it's not i didn't see

00:31:09.620 the bottom she really loved it it was um it's really like she still reads it sometime but it

00:31:18.820 breaks down like each god and it's where they can understand it you know if we read the books

00:31:25.460 we read to them they're not going to understand them but yeah my daughter is 13 now but when we

00:31:32.420 joined she really really liked this book and it came with i think sleptner but i can't remember

00:31:39.940 but it came with a little animal too always good toys um tony asks uh what kind of music do you

00:31:56.020 have you two been listening to lately heather what music you've been listening to lately

00:32:00.820 okay me and christine just had this conversation i listen to everything you name it

00:32:09.900 daniel hates going on car rides because you can't put it on a station that i can't sing

00:32:16.840 my grandpa used to listen to opera in the car so i can sing that station too

00:32:21.520 so um yeah i embarrassed daniel pretty bad at the gym the other day because my playlist was like

00:32:29.040 new kids on the block and all kinds of terrible things that made him make fun of me for quite a

00:32:37.420 few hours but I listen to anything it just a word will pop in my head and I'm like oh I haven't heard

00:32:44.720 that song in forever and I'll put it in and start listening to it so Tony I am trying I'm trying to

00:32:52.580 think of what i've listened to lately that's one of the things really and truly i listen to so much

00:33:00.100 different stuff it's hard to

00:33:05.220 it's hard to narrow down like what what i've been listening to lately because i don't have

00:33:08.820 something particularly i've been focused on a lot but it's it's uh it's pretty diverse tastes in

00:33:15.060 music. I too like to like to sing obnoxiously on road trips. Big fan of singing along to

00:33:25.840 Heart and Journey. I think Heart and Journey are some of my favorite things to sing to.

00:33:32.900 But yeah, I couldn't really tell you what I've been listening to lately.

00:33:36.820 Yeah, you blame me for that last road trip to a car.

00:33:40.720 I embrace it.

00:33:41.920 If you wouldn't have started singing, I wouldn't have started singing.

00:33:45.060 It was all good. It was a good time. We're going to do more of that on the way out to Sigurheim.

00:33:52.380 Yeah, it's happening. Shea asks, is there an example in our lore that shows hospitality

00:34:01.080 or maybe the result of whether or not it was extended? Yes, there's tons.

00:34:08.280 um thinking of one off the top of my head because there really are a great many is

00:34:19.000 the one okay the one that stands out to me and i i it's not so much that it's a lesson

00:34:28.400 in hospitality but it really shows our ancestral hall culture in a way that others don't and i

00:34:37.160 think that's extremely important and i think in a lot of ways that idea of the great hall and the

00:34:45.200 mead service and how that goes about is a big part of our ancestral hospitality um so i beowulf is

00:34:55.660 always a big go-to of mine i think beowulf is is often overlooked and there's so many different

00:35:00.480 themes in there and things to pick up but uh the the portions where they're feasting and they're

00:35:07.200 welcoming guests into hrothgar's hall um i think those really speak a lot to me about hospitality

00:35:15.440 heather is there any bit of our lore that that you pick up on that's really speak strongly about

00:35:20.400 hospitality the first thing that i that ever grabbed my attention when daniel was helping

00:35:28.160 me learn was the the stories about rig i love those stories um that was my very very favorite

00:35:38.240 it still is my very very favorite

00:35:43.440 good deal um

00:35:48.640 so

00:35:48.960 So Ansker Dranger, what is a good way to share our lore with teenage or young adult kids,

00:35:59.380 like 14 through 18?

00:36:03.040 Do you have any thoughts on that, Heather?

00:36:11.360 I've been doing a lot of studying myself lately.

00:36:14.020 So I had where I needed to rewrite the Voluspa, where I could teach it to somebody.

00:36:24.300 So what I did is I took it upon myself to write it with my 13-year-old sitting next to me and making sure that as I wrote it, she could understand what I was saying.

00:36:36.140 so um i guess like if there's something in particular you want to teach them

00:36:43.180 read it yourself and then just make notes and then kind of break it down for them the best

00:36:48.700 you can without losing anything in it but still make it where they can digest what you're saying

00:36:58.380 you know it's an interesting question and i think this is kind of

00:37:01.260 tangential tangentially related um

00:37:09.900 for that that age group and i'd even extended past that that you know 14 through

00:37:17.820 probably early 20s is a very hard very difficult age group to reach and i

00:37:25.580 don't think that's just us i think that's any any religion has a struggle with that

00:37:32.380 you see that throughout you know christian churches here in the united states

00:37:36.540 um you see that a lot and it doesn't seem to matter what the denomination is it's you know

00:37:42.860 those kids are going through a phase in their life where they're focused on so many

00:37:48.460 so many things so many other things so many hormonal things they're doing all this different

00:37:53.900 stuff and getting them to focus on coming to a house of worship and participating in religion

00:38:01.740 is very hard um it means it means the world to me when that when we get that when we get young

00:38:09.660 people that and we've had this happen before young people that want to come and be involved

00:38:14.620 and they end up having their parents bring them to events because you can't you know come by

00:38:19.820 yourself until you're an adult and we also you know we won't accept you for for membership until

00:38:26.140 you're legally an adult so we ask that you know if if people under under the age want to come to

00:38:31.260 stuff that they get their parents to come with them or or a guardian or something of that nature

00:38:36.140 and we've had that happen and that always means a lot when people in that age bracket

00:38:41.180 want to be involved with what we do um there's a couple of things with that in real life and i know

00:38:47.340 your question was was about the lore and i don't have a good answer on how to get them

00:38:52.700 interested in the lore as but what i think leads to that but from a different direction is to get

00:38:59.100 them involved with our folk and our faith community get them to make friends with other

00:39:05.180 people in their age bracket within the as true folk assembly and have those be real friends

00:39:10.300 not just friends that you get together with when you're at the hof but friends that you know you

00:39:14.860 text back and forth with and you go do stuff with and we're we're finally to a point where we're

00:39:20.380 getting enough young people in that age bracket to where they can group up and do things together

00:39:28.300 it's very hard for them to feel like they're alone at an event with a bunch of you know a bunch of

00:39:34.060 adults and people that you know aren't really in their peer group and to sit there wishing they

00:39:39.740 they were doing something else. I found that when they find other kids there, they get together,

00:39:45.580 they have a great job, they build friendships. And it's really, really nice to see that. And

00:39:50.780 again, like I said, that's not just, you know, it's not just little kids. It's not just the

00:39:54.920 teenagers. I've seen this with, you know, I saw this recently at Feast of the Einherjahr in

00:40:01.880 Oklahoma. We had folks from like, I don't know, I think 17 to 24 or something all kind of hanging

00:40:09.340 out and they hung out by themselves had their own fun had a great time and it was really really cool

00:40:14.780 to see that so i think getting them to events with other kids their age and letting that happen

00:40:21.740 naturally is is the key to long-term success on that um nick reminds me that the first

00:40:31.100 First, the first regularly scheduled national event at New York's Hoff in White Springs, Florida is occurring in February.

00:40:42.740 Charming of the plow.

00:40:45.220 Each of our Hoffs has their one kind of showcase event that people from certainly all throughout their Hoff district, but also from around the country like to go to.

00:40:56.260 Those are kind of a bigger deal.

00:40:57.980 they're a big chance for you know a little bit of extra fundraising for that for that hoff and

00:41:04.620 a chance for them to really shine and have that showcase and the first one for njords hoff is

00:41:09.700 occurring this february so if you can get there it is a beautiful hoff it's our newest hoff

00:41:14.960 uh those people have put so much love into that place and into the events that they hold there

00:41:21.160 and what they do i'm very excited to be back there and get to participate in that i'm going to be

00:41:26.700 bringing my wife and my daughter to this one. It's been a while. Mandy's been on the sidelines

00:41:33.060 with us having a young child for a couple of years now. I think she's only traveled out once

00:41:39.160 in the past two years. So this will be really nice for her to get to go to an event. And I get

00:41:45.880 to show off my wife, get to show off my daughter. And Mandy gets to go back home to Florida where

00:41:52.040 she hasn't been in far too long and see some of her kinfolk and some friends of hers there. So

00:41:58.820 it'll be a really good event. I would love to see you guys if you can make it to White Springs,

00:42:02.420 Florida. That's about halfway between Tallahassee and Jacksonville in that very far North Florida

00:42:10.940 section. If you drew a line straight there and cut it in half, the halfway point is just about

00:42:15.560 white springs um nick asks heather is there a favorite female figure in the lore that speaks to

00:42:24.920 you i tend to um

00:42:33.800 really feel connection with probably it's going to be Frigga with the with being the mother and

00:42:51.560 a grandmother and a wife just a lot of things just connect and

00:43:03.800 really, really, really kind of hit home with me, with Ferga.

00:43:14.100 Well, I think that's a, I think that's a great choice. You know, honestly, I was,

00:43:19.180 I was thinking about this a little bit earlier. Hospitality is such an important part of

00:43:26.440 what I want us to embody at Sigurheim and you know I'm I'm ridiculous I sit around and obsess

00:43:37.360 about these things and dream on these things a lot um our great hall at Sigurheim victory hall

00:43:44.940 I want to I'm just like planning in my head what that building will look like what we'll do there

00:43:53.580 I know it's probably several years out from being a reality, but, you know, I dream forward.

00:44:00.980 It's just what I do.

00:44:02.400 And I was thinking about that.

00:44:03.800 And I really want to have a Frigga shrine towards the entrance of the hall to welcome her in and look to that to inspire us having hospitality in that place.

00:44:17.380 So, yeah, I think Frigga is a great choice of somebody to speak to you.

00:44:22.700 I also think a perfect goddess for us to talk about when we're talking about hospitality.

00:44:30.780 Lawrence for 10 Canadian dollars. Thank you, Lawrence. We always appreciate it.

00:44:35.660 Evening, Matt, and nice to meet you, Heather. Relaxing stream tonight after a hard day.

00:44:40.860 Mentioning your grandma, Matt, reminded me of mine. A widow who used to single-handedly make

00:44:46.460 us holiday dinners and also take us all out to restaurants great memories of her thanks to you

00:44:52.940 both and love your accent heather heather's accent is very endearing so lane asks heather what is

00:45:09.340 your favorite meal to share with guests so pick one that you didn't pick earlier when you answered

00:45:14.540 question. I like to cook steaks for Trent and Madison when they come stay with us. So we'll

00:45:23.600 do steak and make potatoes this time. And again, as a bonus, because I latched onto your question

00:45:35.060 last time i am always a fan of making the um some kind of ridiculous girly cocktails

00:45:46.420 i love me a fancy cocktail i love me a girly drink with put an umbrella in it that's my jam

00:45:52.660 um but yeah i like finding interesting uh interesting drink recipes for folks i think

00:45:57.460 it helps loosen stuff up it's festive and i i enjoy doing that as part of the hospitality i

00:46:03.300 like to do i saw earlier trent throw a little bit of shade about my my tropical schnitzel

00:46:08.820 trent's not adventurous when it comes to the foods but we're going to work on that

00:46:12.820 one day he will try top tropical schnitzel and it will change his life and he needs to

00:46:17.140 like pickles he he does need to adjust his his stance on pickles for the record goethy

00:46:24.100 trent east does not like pickles and he is wrong um shay uh shay asks i am excited to

00:46:37.220 to get out to sigerheim with y'all for the picnic is there a best way to approach the property in

00:46:43.620 respect of the land whites will a land taking ceremony happen sooner or later sooner or later

00:46:50.900 on good question i was talking with uh goethe young about that just this afternoon we're going

00:46:57.060 to be prepared for a land taking i think honestly not having physically set foot on the property

00:47:03.140 myself can't tell you what it feels like or you know any specific advice to that place and the

00:47:10.660 land spirits of that place i think that the best bet when dealing with any sort of land spirits

00:47:18.420 or you know it it's funny because i think when we talk about the supernatural people

00:47:28.820 assume there's different protocol and different rules to me it's all about relationship building

00:47:37.940 and we do that through empathy and empathy affects how you deal with other people how

00:47:45.380 you deal with anything i think it's how you deal with pets it's how you deal with

00:47:53.140 other people that you meet for the first time i think it's how you deal when you make any

00:47:58.820 involvement with a with a thinking creature if you show up with friendliness and with respect

00:48:08.500 and you go through those motions of of trying to do those things i don't think you can really go

00:48:13.700 wrong with that um you know i think that land spirits and ghosts and anything else they can be

00:48:20.980 jerks or they could be they could be nice and i think you probably got about the same odds as you

00:48:26.020 do with people but i think you you start out warm-hearted you start out building a frith

00:48:34.900 relationship and you just go from there so i think when we get there we'll uh say a little

00:48:43.460 say a little prayer or a little uh i guess message to the the land whites and introduce ourselves

00:48:52.820 and we'll kind of go from there i'm prepared to do a land taking what i really want to do

00:48:57.540 the folks that surveyed it um they didn't really do like a 2022 survey they did like

00:49:04.020 a 1922 survey so there's a whole lot of fence posts to this tree to this other tree to you

00:49:10.020 know to this other different kind of tree and i'm very much hoping that there are flags or there is

00:49:17.220 uh spray paint on the trees or there's surveyors tape or whatever so we can figure out the exact

00:49:22.820 property line and i think that's going to determine a lot of how we do land taking there

00:49:28.340 but it is my plan and i'm going to become prepared for that

00:49:30.580 okay so nick asks what's y'all's favorite concert

00:49:44.420 that we've been to um heather what's what's your favorite concert you've been to

00:49:52.020 i'm just gonna go with the first the last one i've been to and i i went to the new kids on

00:49:59.100 block concert a couple months ago okay but i've been to so many i don't know they're all super fun

00:50:07.500 so that was me and dan's thing when we were younger we went to concerts all the time

00:50:13.980 so the the not so new kids on the block

00:50:18.620 the mid-50s kids on the block hey i text brandy the whole time she was asking questions about the

00:50:25.980 whole concert i i i was not then nor am i now their target audience so i can't speak to that

00:50:37.020 um shoot favorite concert i don't like going to concerts i got spoiled um i for for about

00:50:47.020 10 years i worked in the bar industry and through doing security and bouncing at bars i i got a lot

00:50:52.620 of like the leftover you know has been concert crew that would come through or you know acts

00:50:59.820 that maybe were a one-hit wonder and they'd come through 20 years after their prime at the bar i

00:51:03.900 was working at worked a lot of those concerts but doing event security i got to work at a number of

00:51:09.340 other other concerts um trying to think of ones so my first concert i went to was kiss kiss came

00:51:20.300 to the sullivan arena in anchorage alaska that was my first concert the sound system there's

00:51:26.060 terrible but kiss isn't a great band so that didn't really matter what was cool was there was

00:51:32.300 no seat you know i was in the nosebleeds there was no seat in that building that you couldn't

00:51:36.700 just feel the percussion of all their pyro and stuff or the heat when they've got all the

00:51:41.740 different fireworks and craziness that they're doing so it was a fun concert thought that one

00:51:47.820 was really good um

00:51:56.140 celtic woman i worked that concert and they were really nice and they let they were you know a

00:52:01.340 bunch of them had crazy food things where a bunch of them were like vegans or gluten-free whatever

00:52:07.900 they were all i know is i got to eat good because they let me come and eat the food in the green

00:52:13.340 room so i was happy about that um humpty and digital underground came to the bar i was at

00:52:20.540 uh i also got to eat some of humpty's food and i appreciate that honestly that band was really cool

00:52:27.500 so again not not my particular jam but they were contracted basically to come up and do uh

00:52:37.820 the the humpty hump song and that was basically it and everybody's like oh yeah i remember that

00:52:42.780 that was hilarious and then they were getting their paycheck and going but it was cool because

00:52:47.260 he stuck around the whole rest of the night he got up on stage with the house like cover band

00:52:53.340 thing that we had there and sang with those guys and he went around to you know just randoms

00:52:58.700 throughout the bar shaking hands making friends with people that was really cool to see

00:53:02.780 and his you know members of his band were super nice to us they were they were really good guys

00:53:07.900 um i went we also had oh no i went to uh huey lewis and the news concert up there that i was

00:53:17.020 working and the news were awesome but huey lewis was really a jerk to a lot of people

00:53:23.180 but his band was super cool um another thing that was interesting was a hotel up there with vanilla

00:53:31.420 ice and hey he was the most picky and ridiculous about getting the sound system set up at the

00:53:41.420 beginning and all the mic check he didn't go on until like an hour late it was absurd

00:53:45.660 but once he did he was really nice he was a real guy he was nice to everybody he was friendly with

00:53:52.380 all his fans he didn't think he was too cool to do you know his old stuff that's kind of corny

00:53:59.100 and to do his ninja turtles stuff and everything else he really that was pretty cool that's that's

00:54:05.900 that's what i got off the top of my head as far as concerts i know that's a little bit

00:54:09.660 a little bit beyond the scope of the question um what else we got we got another question here

00:54:20.380 heather please share your experiences about uh representing our gods in the bible belt your

00:54:27.100 accent is very nice. Hale. I really haven't had any issues at all. I did a coat drive at my job

00:54:43.340 and they all gave us coats for the hall. A good bit of my co-workers know that I'm also true.

00:54:51.900 um anybody who comes to my house knows that i'm also true um my neighbor is absolutely fascinated

00:55:00.300 with it she um always always always is asking us something um she really actually enjoyed the green

00:55:10.300 man video daniel senate tour um i just i haven't had any issues but i try to not keep it a secret

00:55:20.860 i feel the more secretive you are about it the more that they feel you're trying to hide it the

00:55:27.560 more something they feel that they can attack you for i guess because i really don't hide who i am

00:55:35.380 So there's nothing like to come be ugly to me about because it's all out in the open already.

00:55:47.360 I think that's really, really important.

00:55:50.440 And I hope other people who hear this take that to heart.

00:55:54.980 One of the best defenses that there is, is to just be proud of who you are and what you're doing.

00:56:05.260 and be wide open with it people so often expect for you to be defensive or for you to act shady

00:56:13.980 about what you do and they smell that on you when you act like you're doing something wrong

00:56:21.420 instinctively the rest of us smell that and assume that you must be up to something that's

00:56:26.140 no good or nefarious if you are happy and proud of who you are and proud of what you believe

00:56:31.900 there's you know only so much they can say and if they you know if they come at you one way and

00:56:40.140 you're like yep anyways they don't really know what to do if you don't take a step back on your

00:56:46.520 heels and get defensive and you're just proud of who we are and what we do it really stops a lot

00:56:53.840 of problems before they start um i found that to be true certainly for me and i want to throw this

00:56:59.340 out there too, that it's, I would welcome that compared to the other things we get.

00:57:05.800 I would much rather have the discussion of, you know, religious differences with a sincere person

00:57:15.420 of faith than I do listening to shrill, woke millennials yell about racism. If the reason

00:57:25.620 that you're coming at us is on uh also true versus christianity i fantastic i would love to

00:57:32.280 have that conversation because that's a real conversation and it's about our faith and it's

00:57:36.960 important if you just want to come at me with with some woke nonsense it's just tedious and

00:57:42.100 frustrating so uh you know i i wish we got more i wish we could change that ratio it's one of the

00:57:48.540 interesting things. Some of the, you know, some of the only some of the only real life criticism

00:57:55.880 we've got up at Baldershof in Minnesota, even though the media tries to manufacture a lot of

00:58:02.020 criticism. A few of the real life incidents are, you know, older Christian people genuinely

00:58:08.800 concerned about the fate of our eternal soul. And I respect that. If that's what you want to what

00:58:14.100 you want to talk to us about, I respect it. Go ahead. I always told Lauren, because my daughter

00:58:24.480 has never hid who she was either at school or anything, but I always told Lauren, people fear

00:58:30.440 what they don't know. So if you're upfront with them and you let them know that you're just a

00:58:36.420 normal person doing something different than what they do, then they're usually pretty accepting of

00:58:42.940 it. You know, it's when you keep it a secret that they fear it. They don't know what it is.

00:58:48.920 It's scary. You know, when you're just open about it and, you know, you don't have to tell them

00:58:54.560 everything, but explain the basics. Usually they they're pretty OK with it. You know, that's

00:59:01.780 that's always been one of. One of my hopes for this program and kind of what this program evolved

00:59:08.940 out of. And some of that's internal or whatever else, but I'm proud of who we are and I'm proud

00:59:18.300 of what we do and I'm proud of the AFA and I'm proud of our gods. And I really wanted to always

00:59:25.260 have an open door policy to where, you know, if you've got a question, just ask, you know,

00:59:29.820 it's why I do interviews with, you know, pretty much anyone who asks me as long as they're

00:59:35.380 respectful. And if you burn us by being dishonest once, then that's your opportunity. And I'm not

00:59:41.480 going to go down that again. Like folks with The Guardian, I really have no interest in working

00:59:46.080 with them again. But anybody who honestly has questions, anytime, night or day, I would love

00:59:52.520 to talk to those people and answer stuff. I want us to be proud and open about who we are and what

01:00:00.520 we do. It's been a huge theme of the Asatru Folk Assembly in my time as Alsheria Gauthier.

01:00:07.460 I know that Witten Clifford Erickson, good friend of mine, he's been on the program before.

01:00:12.500 That's a big thing of Cliff's too. He's always been a big proponent of, you know, practicing

01:00:18.060 Asatru in the daylight, as he calls it. And I have found that that is the best thing we can do,

01:00:23.800 is be who we are, be proud of it. It helps all of us when one of us does it. When more of us

01:00:29.180 do it. It helps people that are reluctant to. It helps our children have something that they

01:00:34.000 can grow into and feel proud of. It's by far the best thing we can do.

01:00:41.920 Not really a just no segue, but it just occurred to me that on this broadcast,

01:00:47.340 I should mention it. We got to run in some numbers and the AFA grew by 20% last year.

01:00:56.240 In 2022, the Astro Folk Assembly grew by 20%, and that's fantastic. It's really been an amazing year for us. And I also wanted to point out, because I don't think we talk about this enough, our homeschool program is still going very strong, you know, checking in at the end of the second quarter, that's going great.

01:01:17.220 Our kids are doing great. Our parents are doing great. We've retained all of the folks that

01:01:22.100 started with us. And I'm being told by Gauthier Stamm, Dean Stamm, that we will be ready with

01:01:32.300 not only first grade this coming fall, but also second grade. So this coming fall, we'll be

01:01:38.320 enrolling kindergarten, first and second grade, and our kindergartners will be going on to first

01:01:43.660 grade so i think that that's that's something that it's you know because it doesn't happen

01:01:48.700 at a physical location it's hard to get that the attention that it deserves but that's one

01:01:53.420 of the things i'm most proud of that we're doing and it's really nice that those families have

01:01:58.060 stuck with that um nick's got a question heather if you were to have been selected to represent

01:02:07.340 one of the other virtues which one would you have wanted to be chosen for

01:02:13.660 Hmm. That's a hard question.

01:02:32.260 I don't really know. I don't think I fit in a lot of the other categories. I'm just

01:02:38.580 mean. I'm just

01:02:44.340 nice. I just welcome

01:02:46.260 people.

01:02:51.420 Another's getting all shy.

01:02:53.120 I don't know.

01:02:59.140 I can't say

01:03:00.640 the one that you just put up because

01:03:02.500 I'm nowhere near

01:03:04.260 some of the people that

01:03:05.700 do work in the AFA.

01:03:08.580 mine's just little compared to them. See, I think when I think about it, I think of everybody

01:03:14.780 more than me. So there's so many people that do so much in the AFA that

01:03:23.900 the people who got it definitely deserved it. It's hard to come up with one or to pick from

01:03:33.120 the great people that we have i know that's a thing um so every every other week i ask all of

01:03:42.320 our folk builders and our go thar and folks you know who which which of our leaders do they think

01:03:49.760 represents these virtues the best and there's a lot of good choices to choose from most of the

01:03:54.880 time and it's kind of a mixed bag of who we think is is there but it's always a whole lot of people

01:04:00.320 suggesting the same folks and it's usually pretty pretty squared away um but no i think you were a

01:04:06.880 were an obvious choice for hospitality and and i think a very solid choice i don't think there's

01:04:11.600 a whole ton of you know opinion uh to go a different way than that um and then the second

01:04:19.120 part of nick's question and matt what one virtue would you want to be known for

01:04:23.840 for it's hard Nick um if there's one virtue I'd like to be known for I it would be victory

01:04:35.840 our 10th noble virtue but I mean courage is certainly right up there

01:04:41.360 um yeah i think uh either victory or courage ideally both but you know all of our virtues are

01:04:55.920 are things that would be a good answer to the question they're all

01:05:00.040 fundamental and we should aspire to uh be the best at all of them but i think those are the

01:05:04.860 that i would i would have to choose between tony asks matt heather what does hospitality mean to

01:05:13.900 you and what advice do you have for us to better practice it and how to temper it when it comes to

01:05:22.300 disrespectful guests so let's tackle that in the entirety heather and i will i'll follow you up

01:05:28.940 I'm trying to read it again. That was a lot.

01:05:36.620 Well, this is a good enough time to give a shout out to our producer, Nick Rice.

01:05:41.020 He makes these things function smooth. He types the question up on the screen so we can all look

01:05:46.540 at it and reference it. He's able to put graphics on here and really polish us up.

01:05:52.620 We certainly appreciate all that Nick does to make these broadcasts work so well.

01:05:59.900 so tony i would say um

01:06:06.060 hospitality what it means to me it is who i am um it's who at a small age i decided that i would

01:06:16.460 that i can't do a lot i have a lot of um things that i hold myself back with but

01:06:23.100 But I can't. Hospitality is one thing that I found that I was super comfortable with doing.

01:06:31.920 Super comfortable with making other people feel better, happy, welcome.

01:06:39.580 It was just something that I could do that I felt like I could accomplish completely.

01:06:53.100 And the advice to to be have hospitality would be just be welcoming.

01:07:06.480 I mean, like when you go somewhere, like as simple as if you go out to eat and you go to a restaurant, a lot of times we go to the same restaurants over and over because the people are nice to us.

01:07:19.600 week you know like oh let's go there they're really nice it's it's little things if you think

01:07:25.680 about it and just reenact those things that you like like if you're having guests over

01:07:32.820 you know think of things they like um if they're friends of yours like make sure they

01:07:40.100 you know snacks or these sodas have these snacks or these sodas um

01:07:45.740 have games have good conversation I mean there's so much you can do it's it really is easy if

01:07:56.800 if you don't overthink it I think a lot of people overthink it like it and it comes across like

01:08:04.880 fake but if you just do what comes natural to you usually it'll be fine and if somebody's being

01:08:13.900 ugly i just be nicer because i always say i don't want to come out i don't want to be the person

01:08:22.020 that comes out with egg on my face that is what i tell everybody so if somebody is being nasty

01:08:27.140 and saying nasty things or just being disrespectful i just keep being mean and i keep being nice to

01:08:34.180 them doesn't mean i don't see what they're doing or understand what they're doing it's just i'm

01:08:42.660 not going to act that way. You know, Tony, I, hospitality to me basically means making others

01:08:56.900 feel comfortable and welcome in your space or in the realm that you have control over.

01:09:05.780 Um, and that can take so many forms. I think people, it's very easy for people to get caught

01:09:14.620 up and feel like they need to entertain people in a grand way or that, you know, everything has to

01:09:20.480 be perfect or else they stress. That's fine. Do it up as big as you want. But I think fundamentally

01:09:27.340 hospitality is sharing what you got. Um, the, the have them all speaks to that. You know,

01:09:34.680 talks about many a friend have i made with you know half a loaf of bread and a half a half a cup of

01:09:41.160 of of wine the half cup i don't think it specifies beverage in the cup but the idea is

01:09:48.760 you know just take what you got and split it and you're good you know here share some chips

01:09:54.360 and you can have a beer and we can just sit down and talk that's all it has to be you know you can

01:10:00.360 you can host people in a royal fashion by all means do that but just sharing what you have

01:10:07.080 making a seat on the couch and welcoming somebody and making them feel comfortable

01:10:12.600 i think that's one of the most fundamentals of hospitality and i think that there is something

01:10:16.920 to be said to be careful if you if you overdo it or you pour it on too thick to the wrong audience

01:10:23.080 again, it's making people feel comfortable. And if you bombard them too much, so I've run into

01:10:31.040 this. We'll have people over to my home and you'll find somebody that's very quiet and keeps to

01:10:35.720 themselves. And, you know, you do the thing in your head, you know, oh, we want to, we want to

01:10:41.620 make these people feel welcome. Let's go bother them. We want to engage them, get them to talk

01:10:47.880 with other people or getting them involved, there's a fine line of figuring out how much

01:10:54.120 to encourage their involvement and how much to respect if they just want to keep their distance

01:10:58.860 and work into it or observe what's going on. So again, keep your audience in mind. The goal

01:11:05.580 isn't necessarily to load them up with stuff. The goal is to make them feel comfortable.

01:11:10.680 And if that means loading them up with stuff, great. But sometimes that just means letting

01:11:14.500 them be. So figuring out how to make a guest feel comfortable. And then how to temper hospitality

01:11:24.040 when it comes to disrespectful guests. That scales up depending on the level of disrespect.

01:11:33.100 If people are just mildly have a bad attitude and aren't great guests, then like Heather said,

01:11:38.960 you know just move past them rather than come at them let their rudeness fall or meet it with

01:11:46.300 silence and completely ignore them and move on to somebody who's not rude if you do that it

01:11:52.220 exposes the rudeness and shines a light on it and maybe they'll get the message and if if they're

01:11:58.580 that way consistently then don't invite them back into your home you have every right to let who you

01:12:04.340 want into your space and to exclude who you want from your space and if somebody you know makes

01:12:10.340 you mad and doesn't uh doesn't respect your hospitality you're not you're not obliged to

01:12:16.180 continue letting them do that and if they go too far and they're completely disrespectful then by

01:12:22.020 all means ask them to leave and eject them from your location and don't have them back but uh

01:12:29.780 there's hospitality has has obligations on the host and the guest um it evolves

01:12:36.980 originally the word guest and the word host were combined in one word linguistically with uh

01:12:46.100 when they try to reconstruct um proto-indo-european or proto-aryan the word was like

01:12:53.220 ghosty and it meant the reciprocal relationship between the behavior of a host and the behavior

01:13:02.140 of a guest and there's obligations on both of those parties and to be a really good host I think

01:13:09.020 you learn a lot from being a very good guest and when you're used to hosting all the time I think

01:13:14.980 it helps you to be a better guest when you go to somebody else's event so I think that's really

01:13:20.640 important to keep in mind as well with that um olivia asks what is your elevator speech

01:13:28.560 basically answer in 20 seconds or so on the elevator by a curious person when they ask

01:13:34.640 what is also true heather when you run into random people that you know want to know about

01:13:40.720 also true what is your what is your quick explanation for them i told them that we

01:13:47.440 worship the norse gods and that we um honor our ancestors and then if they want to know more

01:13:57.600 then we'll go more but usually that's pretty much all they'll need they when you say that that

01:14:05.200 sums it up for them you know i think i think that's very similar to what i say um i say

01:14:12.880 also true is the the indigenous religion of europe and uh that it's the worship of the iser

01:14:20.000 the the gods you'd know as the norse gods we worship our ancestors and we we celebrate our

01:14:26.160 folk and our relationships to each other and then again if they ask more they're curious then there's

01:14:32.160 more i can go into but i think that makes it that sums it up for people in a way that i think they

01:14:38.000 easily can digest and understand um your husband asks heather can you speak on your experience

01:14:49.200 uh running the kitchen at ostara and relationship building in that space

01:14:58.560 um i cried over chicken that's what he wants me to say

01:15:03.520 um i've made a lot of really really good friends with people um helping me in the kitchen

01:15:16.120 at ostara um that's how i became friends with timmy dumas and uh mike malillo which we call

01:15:25.000 Mr. Chicken Grease. Um, and they did all the, the dirty work for me. And then

01:15:31.560 the ladies at Thor's Hof, um, there used to be a lady at Thor's Hof. Um, she helped me,

01:15:42.800 our first Ostara. And that built a bond with us that was like unbreakable. Like,

01:15:50.280 even though she doesn't come to the Hoff anymore we still chat every now and then um she moved

01:15:55.580 pretty far away but then um you know the other O-stars I had uh other ladies help me and um

01:16:06.860 of course my Madison she helped me and um and Jen so we have a pretty and uh Miss Catherine

01:16:16.420 swan's wife um we have a pretty solid team now that we've learned what we were doing

01:16:24.660 but it uh it really really helped build a lot of bonds with the ladies like um

01:16:34.020 like miss catherine she won't she doesn't even want to be in the kitchen she'll tell me i'll do

01:16:38.900 the cleaning and you do the cooking so she takes care of the the hall if there's any spills or

01:16:44.420 trash needs to be cleaned up and then me and whoever will do the cooking and um

01:16:51.860 it just we work well that way it's not like we step on each other's toes or anything we just

01:16:58.420 it's like a a well-oiled machine we just know our places and we go and do them and uh

01:17:06.580 it really brought a lot of the ladies at thor's half really close together i think doing having

01:17:12.100 of sara there well i think it literally brings you guys close together and i'm surprised that

01:17:18.660 you don't literally step on each other's toes those who may not know um thor's hof for an

01:17:24.900 event like that where there's like 70 people or so they're cooking in a in a really small

01:17:31.300 home kitchen sized kitchen there's not a lot of space in there and i know i like to sneak in there

01:17:37.140 and sit on the cooler and get in the way so um i'm impressed at what they can do in that little

01:17:43.220 kitchen and their kitchen's about twice as big or so as nordshoff's kitchen so yeah i love my kitchen

01:17:52.980 after i visited nordshoff yeah we're uh those of us at odin's hoff and at balder's hoff are

01:17:59.780 are much more fortunate when it comes to kitchen space

01:18:02.420 um i think that is a really important thing though to point out with our hoff culture

01:18:13.100 ideally that kitchen is a space to where our ladies really can come together and build

01:18:19.820 relationships and it's a really good it's really good setting for that it's a it's a nice place for

01:18:26.360 that i know we have some guys to get in there and get involved too it's one of those you know out

01:18:30.680 at Odin's Hoff, if we're grilling something outside,

01:18:33.360 it's always nice for the guys to stand around there

01:18:35.180 and have a beer and talk to each other.

01:18:36.680 And I know the ladies have some of that camaraderie

01:18:39.860 in the various kitchens at our Hoffs.

01:18:41.360 And I always think that's such a special thing to see.

01:18:45.900 Sarah asks, Heather did a beautiful vow renewal recently.

01:18:51.660 How did Daniel and you meet?

01:18:53.520 um daniel's cousin was in my math class and she told me that i needed to go hang out with

01:19:04.660 her cousins which i think was really just because i had a car and she wanted me to drive her there

01:19:10.440 but but um we did and we started hanging out um

01:19:17.180 and then um i actually started dating daniel's cousin first and um

01:19:27.160 yeah he he was different so i broke up with him and then um daniel started calling me on the phone

01:19:39.760 and he would not quit calling me until i finally told him yes that i would go that i would go out

01:19:46.840 with him. So then that's how we met. And we've been together ever since that day.

01:19:59.400 When was that?

01:20:03.080 1996.

01:20:07.880 Right after Daniel's birthday in October.

01:20:12.000 1996.

01:20:16.840 Well, that's great. That's been a little while. That's what I was in when I was going into my freshman year of high school. So it's quite a while ago.

01:20:31.500 um it's that's great you guys are a really beautiful couple and one of the

01:20:37.100 so one of the things that i've seen be tremendously successful for people in afa leadership is when

01:20:45.600 they're able to uh have their spouse be involved in leadership with them um those afa power couples

01:20:53.360 as i like to call them really add so much to what we do they set an example for our folk to see

01:21:02.080 living in front of them um it's really a special thing to see and i think you and daniel are a real

01:21:08.480 inspiration to a lot of folks thank you

01:21:14.880 king of cheese matt speaking of hoff culture what are some things i ought to know about the

01:21:21.040 hoffs before i waddle out there for a royal visit i'll get out there to odenshoff at some point

01:21:29.680 hmm you know

01:21:35.360 i don't think there's really something you've got to know honestly they're very they're all very

01:21:39.840 welcoming um you should absolutely go uh come all the way out to odenshoff but what you should

01:21:48.800 really do before and after and in between all of that is go out to Baldershof that I know is much

01:21:55.360 closer to you. And I really want to see you out there at Freyfaxi this year. But yeah, anytime

01:22:03.460 you want to come to Odenshof. Hof culture things, again, it depends. You pick up on it real quick

01:22:11.620 when you go there and you and you meet the people. It's there's not really any preparedness,

01:22:23.740 I think, that has to go into it. You just have to go there as if you're going in a house of

01:22:29.660 worship because you are. I think the same way that you would approach going to church is the

01:22:35.120 way you should approach going to one of our Hoffs and see what happens. Now, I think what we do

01:22:40.040 there is so much more engaging. I think it's, there's such a greater sense of, of family and

01:22:46.340 togetherness, but coming there with an attitude of piety that you're coming to worship our gods

01:22:52.280 and to fellowship with your folk, making sure you, you know, you're, you're speaking nobly and not,

01:22:59.060 you know, they're telling dirty jokes and cursing a bunch and whatever that should bring in

01:23:03.220 positivity there um you know dress dress nicely dress how you dress when you're going to go to a

01:23:10.720 religious observance because that's what you're doing um but no need to be uncomfortable uh

01:23:17.280 another thing i'd say and i think this is is subtle but something our people need to realize

01:23:21.960 especially our folks that aren't used to practicing house true in a group it is very very tempting

01:23:28.560 especially with the world as polarized as it is today for when we get together especially when

01:23:37.200 somebody gets together who hasn't had a chance to vent to people that understand or they get it

01:23:43.440 they like to come to things and then get in an endless venting spiral about politics and all

01:23:53.280 the things wrong about the world around us. And I understand that. I understand that, especially

01:23:59.600 if you don't have other people to talk to about it. But the beauty of our Hoffs and the beauty

01:24:03.880 of what we're doing is providing an alternative from that rather than focusing on all the things

01:24:10.500 in the world that aren't what we like or aren't the way that we wish it were. That's our chance

01:24:17.000 to focus on things that are going good, things that are the way that we want, the world that

01:24:21.580 we are creating together. That's what our Hoffs are each a satellite for. That's what Sigerheim

01:24:27.860 is being built as an everyday space for existing in a world that does make sense with people that

01:24:35.580 we love and we care about with good values and good traditional approaches to our gods in the

01:24:43.520 world. So when you go there, focus on all the things you love and not on the things that you

01:24:47.980 don't like i'd say that's important to anybody who goes to one of our office for the first time

01:24:52.860 and the other thing i'd say and i don't know um people's relative experience with interacting

01:25:01.580 with the gods some people don't have that personal relationship with our gods yet or

01:25:07.980 working on building that we're all at different phases in that but what i would say is when you

01:25:11.740 you go to the Hoff, go in there completely, completely open, open to making friends, open

01:25:20.980 to interacting in a, in a, in an open and a, in a transparent way with our gods, go there

01:25:29.160 with an open mind and an open heart and see what happens.

01:25:32.540 And I'm very impressed with the things I hear people to say when they've been to the Hoff

01:25:37.900 or any of our Hoffs for the first time

01:25:39.980 and how good they feel and how at home they feel.

01:25:42.720 And I hope you feel that too when you make it to our Hoffs.

01:25:45.440 Like I said, I want to see you at Freyfaxi.

01:25:51.940 So last question we have on the side.

01:25:56.420 Not sure if we've got any stragglers

01:25:58.440 over in the side chat with anything.

01:26:04.180 In closing, Heather, is there any,

01:26:07.320 any message that you would want to send in general or perhaps specifically to our

01:26:14.680 ladies out there about hospitality as a noble virtue?

01:26:21.540 I would just say for the ladies,

01:26:27.440 we all know because we're all ladies that we tend to

01:26:32.680 like gang up make friends with these people and not those people and there's not really a reason

01:26:42.200 why but i think we as ladies in the um afa should be a little more open to just talking um

01:26:51.240 to each other all everybody not just in your group or with the people you're um comfortable with

01:26:59.360 Go out of your comfort zone a little bit and get to know other ladies that aren't in your area or are in your area.

01:27:09.760 And just build these friendships because these friendships could last forever if we build them the right way.

01:27:20.720 We wouldn't be just friends.

01:27:22.720 We are family.

01:27:23.420 So our kids would have so much more if we could just all come together instead of so much bickering.

01:27:38.920 And that's not just with the women, just with Asatru in general.

01:27:44.540 I watch a lot where people just kind of just start spiraling out of control.

01:27:52.780 And I think if we just all just took a step back sometimes and just – or see somebody who is doing that, kind of, you know, shoot them a joke or something and try to break that cycle of negativity or whatever, I think things would go a lot smoother and everybody would be a lot happier.

01:28:11.440 um just go forward things being smooth and chatting instead of being negative be positive

01:28:24.960 the best we can i think that's solid advice and there's one question that that i skipped over

01:28:32.260 unintentionally earlier um heather i want you to name five books and five movies that are your

01:28:40.760 favorites. Go.

01:28:44.560 Do they have to be

01:28:49.040 Asatru books or just any

01:28:50.860 books? Okay.

01:28:53.560 Shlomo said

01:28:54.720 favorite books, five favorite books and

01:28:56.760 movies from Heather, please.

01:29:00.080 My

01:29:00.680 favorite books are going to be

01:29:03.120 I like

01:29:06.760 the Norse God's Trance book

01:29:08.960 for the ladies i think that's the name of it and um i'm trying to think it's been a long time since

01:29:16.880 i've read just books regular books not also true books um i used to love crime books so i would read

01:29:28.940 all kinds of crime books so um i know i read the lovely bones and i read where the crawfish thing

01:29:38.660 that was a pretty good book it was a pretty good movie too and then i like movies that are like

01:29:48.100 super sad so you probably won't like my movies but i like the notebook the lovey movies notebook

01:29:54.540 like gone with the wind um where the crawl dad sings was a good one um and the godfather

01:30:05.480 all right so heather you you you owe him two books and one movie oh gosh two more books um

01:30:16.680 let me think let me think

01:30:21.160 another movie would be casino

01:30:30.100 all right that's more books two more books okay um

01:30:37.540 i like lady with the mead cup people say it's a dry read but i like that book a lot

01:30:53.020 and i like what's another book that i would just i was just reading to read

01:31:00.100 I'm bad with names and titles.

01:31:14.700 A book, book, book.

01:31:23.860 Deep Ancestors.

01:31:25.580 I've been reading that one a lot, lot, lot lately.

01:31:28.340 all right there you have it well heather thank you so much for joining me tonight it was great

01:31:34.520 having you on the program i look forward to having you back on here again and thank you so much for

01:31:39.020 being so hospitable thanks for being you and thanks for all you do for thor's off you really

01:31:44.760 put a lot of heart and soul into making that a special place for us and for the rest of us so

01:31:52.380 thank you well thank y'all for having me and thanks for picking me that meant a lot it really

01:32:00.620 did i didn't expect it heather it is it is well deserved you were the obvious choice whether they

01:32:08.060 whether they picked you or not we would have even forced it through because you you exemplify this

01:32:14.700 like no other um thank you for being on the show uh thank you guys for listening thanks everybody

01:32:21.980 uh the couple folks that donated thanks everybody who's had great questions and provided a lively

01:32:27.900 atmosphere over there in the side chat uh trent you need to try tropical schnitzel tony you need

01:32:33.740 to make it baldershoff seriously owe it to yourself you will love it i promise it'll be great um but

01:32:40.460 yeah until next time uh hail the gods hail the folk hail the afa and remember that victory never

01:32:48.300 sleeps. Good night, guys.

01:33:18.300 Transcription by CastingWords

01:33:48.300 Thank you.

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01:34:48.300 We'll be right back.

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Asatru Folk Assembly - January 05, 2023

1⧸4⧸23 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 26 - Hospitality

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