Originally published Nov 13, 2025 for our weekly Issue of Mindful Intelligence Advisor. Subscribe to get weekly issues.
By Paul Gordon Collier, Editor
“Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I’ll show you someone who has overcome adversity.” — Lou Holtz
“When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.” — Thomas Edison
“Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, ‘Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little.
You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord .
You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.
Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.’”- Haggai 1:3-11
The path to a sustainably flourishing life is rarely going to be easy, or even as we plan it. The vagaries of life alone can alter plans unexpectedly. As our country experiences the constraining power of the rising progressive nation from within, we will surely have to be creative in dealing with whatever new legal obstacles might come our way.
The results of this last election make me feel good about the castle we bought and the plans we have for it. We have a veritable fortress with plenty of space able to aid not just ourselves but others. At a moment’s notice, myself, my wife, and my brother can meet at the castle (with my daughter and mother in tow) should catastrophe come our way.
This is a comfort in times such as these, but pursuing our Hope Castle dream as of late has largely been deferred, for now, though we have reason to hope that’s about to change.
We are about six months into our purchase of a church that we plan to turn into a castle, Riqueday Castle. It is intended to be our home, our ministry, and our sustainable flourishing model we hope others will be inspired by.
Since our purchase, we have been able to make small repairs to the church, including getting the heat working, the water running, and other minor cosmetic fixes. We have purchased the supplies we need to thoroughly clean the basement outside of an industrial strength steam cleaner we plan on using.
Our small kitchen upstairs has a new refrigerator and a hot plate (stove to come later) so it’s effectively fully functioning. Our downstairs kitchen hasn’t been thoroughly dealt with yet, though we do have the electric oven working well.
All the lights have been checked, bulbs replaced, and doors secured.
But along the way, life throws us hurdles, and these past few months have been filled with hurdles, mostly from major health issues in our family (in my household, as well as my brother’s) that have prevented us from working on the castle as consistently as we were before the healthcare issues hit.
In addition to the healthcare issues, I was in a car accident that totaled our car. After we purchased a new used car, my wife had an accident too that ALSO totaled our car. Now, we are one car down, and that car is a significant downgrade from the cars we lost. Both were Ford Explorers that had all-wheel drive. Our car is an HHR with front-wheel drive.
At present, our plan is to wait a few months to see if the prices of cars come down (they are exorbitantly high right now) to then replace our lost long-distance car.
This new vehicle reality means we can’t go up so often for one-day trips like we could before especially because our car is over 15 years old (though we still love it for local driving). The castle is 3 hours away from where we currently live.
With the winter coming, and our castle being in northern PA, we expect we might find problems getting up there regularly until the spring. Getting the major work done we’d like to do in the basement will have to wait until Spring for this reason alone.
Our new plan given our new circumstance is to start going up every other week starting in January (weather permitting), staying there from Sunday to Saturday. During the winter season, I will primarily be concerned with getting my new studio fully operating so I can work at the castle when I’m there and we can start doing our planned podcast in support of this publication, From the Belltower (which will be livestreamed from our actual bell tower).
Our castle doesn’t have a shower yet, so we will stay at my brother’s house, Bill Collier, the MIA publisher and joint owner (along with my wife and myself) of Riqueday Castle. His house is just 20 minutes away from the castle. He will also be the co-host of our show From the Belltower.
Our friend Joe, our Anglican priest, is working on preparing the sanctuary for Sunday services which we hope to start by the beginning of April. These services are for the household, family, and friends, not open to the general public (at least not for a while).
My wife is chomping at the bit (though she knows we need to be patient now) to get to that downstairs kitchen and start cooking meals for people in need.
We are all anxious to see that space become a blessing to the community around it like it once was.
We purchased the church from people who were planning to convert it into apartments. My wife especially didn’t want to see a community lose such a beautiful church and we were in a position to not only eventually to help our soon-to-be adopted community, but also serve ourselves in our dream to live an extended family household life as opposed to an atomized single-family life.
This is a dream the three of us share, myself, my wife, and brother Bill.
Our castle already has a long history in that community, and many people have shared stories of all the ways that building has blessed their lives, so we are anxious to return it to that community service it hasn’t been able to fulfill since 2022.
In the next issue, we will conclude our series, Detaining the DNC. We will also have more information about what you might expect from us in 2026. We also have news about expanding our extended family home project to at least one more site (and this one is in the family already).
The election was a major setback for America, but we have much to be hopeful for and grateful of. We still live in the freest country in the world and there are AT LEAST one hundred million Americans willing to stand strong in defiance against the rising progressive nation.
If you have a Hope Exit castle you are building, share it with us at MIAmailroom@gmail.com.
Thank you all for your continued support.
