Can I ask you a question? Or 15 to be precise?
Reader Survey + plus a short essay on writing and delight
Hello (again) beloved readers,
I am popping into your mid-week inbox as a friendly reminder to take my Reader’s Survey. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the responses received thus far this week and want to give you ample opportunity to participate if you haven’t already. It is most important to me that I am serving you well and your feedback is crucial. There is so much good content out there and I realize my tiny corner of the world often gets lost among the bigger names. So I am even more grateful for those who faithfully read my words and those who stop by every so often.
I started writing in 2012, a few years after blogging became popular. I had zero clue what I was doing and didn’t even know why I had the urge to write. Either way, I started a free but private blog on WordPress because I wasn’t about to dare make my clueless wanderings public. So I wrote in private, keeping my thoughts and feelings to myself. It wasn’t until 2016 that I felt brave enough to start writing publicly. I was studying Life Coaching at the time and my first post was about how to stop comparing ourselves to others. It was short and sweet, and not very profound but it was a HUGE step for me. I was finding my voice and since then, I have been growing and changing and refining my voice, letting it evolve with me.
This substack started as a MailChimp newsletter of about 40 people and has grown to over 150 readers. That may not seem like a lot but it is to me. And I want to grow, not for platform or income or any other vain thing but because writing is what lights me up inside. Even more, your responses and text messages and mentionings about my writing light me up inside too. So this simple Reader Survey is a tool I am using to find what’s working and what isn’t.
I want to write helpful content that lights you up inside and not just add to the dizzying meanderings of a thousand other people who aren’t really saying anything of substance. I also don’t want to add to the burdensome content overload many of us experience every day. I want my writing to be a respite; a welcoming bench under a grand birch tree that offers a moment of rest and reflection. I also want my writing to be a safe space that is comfortable with tension and disagreement, like two friends sharing their opinions over a delicious latte where no one walks away feeling dismissed or unheard. Though I write primarily about my own personal journey with faith and the many evolutions it has undergone, I am also writing about you.
So many have found their way here simply because of a shared experience and I find this to be the most beautiful outcome of this newsletter. We are in this struggle of faith and life together. None of us have it figured out but instead of ignoring or isolating, we found community. Our human souls need spaces where we feel seen and heard but also spaces where we can wrestle without someone showing us the door. So many of us have been conditioned to keep our mouths shut for the sake of community but I’d rather sit at a messy table with a bunch of people shouting over one another than at a pristine table with no one talking except for a chosen few. I will take anyone’s vulnerable mess over someone’s perfected facade any day.
Thank you again for reading my messy words.