A WARM WELCOME

Going for it, listening to the inner call, honoring the desire.

Human Stuff is a free weekly newsletter. If you’d like to create reciprocity for my work and also access my monthly audio recording, q&a, & journaling guide, I invite you to become a paid subscriber. Your support means so much. 

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The purpose of this first letter is to introduce myself, share why I am here, and give you some insight on the journey to starting this space and what to expect moving forward.

An image I carry into new ventures. Polaroid taken in Point Reyes Station, 2007

Well, here I am. Declaring myself a writer a bit more deliberately by way of creating a space where I do just that — where I write. To you. Away from social media, from algorithms, from striving to be seen in the scroll and from mindless habitual forms of filling our time. Away from a caption limit and competing for views against bots and having no control. The only thing I want to strive for these days is more presence — more spaciousness — more intentionality — more honoring choice — more creativity — more alignment with the kind of life I want to live and the kind of person I want to be. Cultivating this space away from social media is one way of doing that. Honoring my love of writing and my desire to live deeper into my identity as a writer is another way of doing that. And allowing myself to receive by way of reciprocity for what I give is another way, as well. There are so many ways we can strive that are actually life-giving, nourishing, and fulfilling… that don’t feel so tethered to the hustle, the constant comparison, the desire to fit in or the feeling that we’re supposed to keep doing what we’ve always done if it isn’t working anymore. Goodness, that’s a lot of pressure.

The truth is that I have wanted to do this for over a year but have put if off out of fear of what people will think. Am I greedy for asking for compensation for my work? I’ve been sharing everything at no cost for so long… who am I to create any income from this? Am I just hopping on some bandwagon of the next thing to do? I’ve sorted through so many internal judgments and what I’ve come to is this:

I am a writer. I want to keep writing more. I want to write more books, write essays and articles, weave life from words and share them. I want to honor myself as a writer. I want to practice the art of writing, get better at it, share more value and offer a wider variety of nurturance through words. I want to honor what I have to say, the time I put into sharing, and the community of people who have chosen to read my words over the last many years. I also want to create sustainability for myself while doing so, tend to my value of reciprocity, trust in my capacity to receive for what I give, and stand in integrity with the kind of life I want to live. All of this requires me to start making space for being compensated for the writing I share. It requires me to write more. It requires me to center writing more meaningfully into my life.

I believe writing is deeply valuable, transformative, impactful, and often life-changing. I believe words hold healing within them. I believe artists, writers, and creatives deserve to get paid for their work… yet it’s been hard to allow that for myself. We’ve been deeply conditioned to believe writing, content, art, and creativity should be freely consumed. It’s tender and vulnerable to create the option to be compensated for what I share… yet it is also in line with what I believe, with my values of receiving & reciprocity, and with the energy exchange required to make writing a sustainable way of contributing to the world.

Which brings me to Substack.

One of my goals this year — for so many reasons — is to carve out more time for what I love. Writing is something I’ve always felt intertwined with. It’s felt like a way of breathing meaning into all the moments I’ve yet to figure out, a way of making sense out of the blur of being human, a way of expressing what get dusty when it goes unsaid. I’ve shared a lot of writing on Instagram for the last 4.5 years, and it’s been such a joy. Yet there are so many limitations there: The literal word count limit, lack of control over who sees my writing, lack of containment on social media, the added pressures of new mediums (reels, IG Lives, stories…. what’s next?) the comparison, the information overload, the lack of reciprocity, the distractibility and mindless scrolling that so easily happens when what we truly want is to actually digest what is meaningful for us… the list could go on.

It’s scary to do something new. It feels sticky and vulnerable, a little shell-shocking and unknown. It would probably be easier not to. Yet I’ve learned we can carry our fear and try new things anyway — express ourselves anyway — put ourselves out there knowing it won’t land with everyone anyway — take another step toward our desires anyway — practice honoring the call from within anyway. I’m really, really excited about carving out more energy, time, and space to offer what I’ve come to know is a gift — something I’m regularly told is what I was meant to do — shaping the human experience through words and mirroring our humanity back to us. It’s such an honor to have a new form to shape in.

I hope for this space to be inspiring, meditative, meaningful, supportive, insightful, affirming, creative, nourishing, joyful, contemplative, and human. I hope it brings you something valuable to muse on, rather than something quick to consume. I hope it cultivates curiosity, ignites imagination, and makes space for possibility. I hope it serves as a resource and feels like soul medicine. Mostly, I hope it allows for a moment of reflection, pause, and self-tending amid an increasingly chaotic and busy world.

This newsletter will circle around whatever might be swirling within me in any given week — you can expect themes related to cultivating a more kind and supportive relationship with ourselves, exploring identity, finding ways to nourish our hearts during challenging or stressful times, navigating what it means to be human in an ever-changing world, embracing our full humanity, asking questions, being with the unknown, changing our minds, allowing ourselves to receive, honoring our creativity and self-expression, healing… and so much more. So much that I can’t and won’t predict, because I want this space to be meaningful, intuitive, responsive to life, and aligned with what is happening in my, and our, world.

Free subscribers will receive a weekly Sunday letter with an essay, reflections, resources, and anything else I’m inspired by — similar to the Human Stuff newsletter I’ve been sharing for the past two years. Paid subscribers will receive the weekly Sunday letter along with a monthly audio episode and Q&A, a monthly journaling guide, and other intuitive offerings that feel aligned to share. Paid subscribers will also have access to leaving comments and engaging with community.

I’m so excited to pour more into this new venture, to take myself more seriously as a writer, to share more abundantly, and to provide deeper and more expansive value to you for choosing to be here and support my work. It’s such an honor to get to share with you and I am incredibly grateful you are here.

With care,
Lisa

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Take good care.