The law is the organization of the natural right of lawful defense; it is the substitution of collective for individual forces, for the purpose of acting in the sphere in which they have a right to act, of doing what they have a right to do, to secure persons, liberties, and properties, and to maintain each in its right, so as to cause justice to reign over all.

It is with these words that the nineteenth-century French economist and statesman Frédéric Bastiat describes his theory of the individual rights of man in a classic refutation of the communist ideas that were sweeping across France at the time. In these pages, Bastiat affirms that the non-intervention of the State in private affairs gives rise to our wants and their satisfactions developing in their natural order. Problems arise when the law leaves its proper sphere and is employed in annihilating that justice which it should have established.

One of the nineteenth century’s leading poets, Emily Dickinson wrote nearly 1,800 poems during her lifetime, though only a handful were published. This collection includes some of Dickinson’s best-known works, reflecting her thoughts on nature, life, death, the mind, and the spirit.

“Emily Dickinson is one of our most original writers, a force destined to endure in American letters. . . . Without elaborate philosophy, yet with irresistible ways of expression, Emily Dickinson’s poems have true lyric appeal, because they make abstractions, such as love, hope, loneliness, death, and immortality, seem near and intimate and faithful.” —The Atlantic

Since the earliest stages of human development, the sea has fascinated and entranced us. It feeds us, sustaining communities and providing livelihoods, but it also holds immense destructive power which can take all those away in an instant.

It connects us to far away places, offering the promise of new lands and voyages of discovery, but also shapes our borders, carving divisions between landmasses and eroding the very ground beneath our feet.

In this beautifully-written meditation on what it is that draws us to the waters’ edge, author Wyl Menmuir tells the stories of the people whose lives revolve around the sea in the Cornish community where he lives.

Soap opera writer Deborah Peltz can handle any kind of drama, except for her sister Sharon’s. A wedding planner in Boca Raton, Sharon thinks she has the answers to everything, but with three divorces under her belt, she should be the last person on the planet to dole out all that eyeroll-worthy advice.

Normally, Deborah survives by keeping her distance, safe in the bustle of New York, but when their mother has a heart attack in Florida, she drops everything to be near her. Burying the hatchet with her sister is a challenge in itself, but when they both fall for their mother’s handsome cardiologist, winning him over and earning an invite to his place becomes an obsession.

Now that the citizens of our world have made radical shifts because of the global pandemic, and adjusted to remote work and social distancing, the ways we used to connect with others may seem distant or even obsolete. We yearn for real connection, deep and meaningful interactions that are based on commonality instead of what we can get from one another.

Connections can happen anywhere and can range from the simple to the profound. They are what adds the seasoning to the stew of life. They are the things that can make their day, and make ours, and leave us smiling. And who doesn’t want to smile?

Does this mean that it’s easy? That there are no challenges to connecting with different people? Of course not. In our modern world, it’s become normalized to have conflict with those who are different from us