Revising the Plan

Bear with me while I figure out a manageable publishing schedule

Autumn colors in my neighborhood arroyo

Okay, I confess: I was so excited about Substack and connecting with you all in this direct way, without ads and algorithms, that I jumped in with both feet and got too ambitious. I’m a learner-by-doing, and after a week of trying the platform out, I realize that had too much planned for each week, and I don’t want to be flooding your inboxes with too many emails.

So I’m reining in my enthusiasm and recalibrating to a more reasonable schedule!

Here’s my plan: Every Monday, start off the week with a Gratitude post: a haiku/haibun and a photo with a very short reflection.

Every other Wednesday, I’ll post a Wildflower Wednesday video, about two minutes long, introducing a native plant and their life story and relations, or a happening in nature nearby.

On alternate Thursdays, I’ll post something from my worlds of natural science and writing, whether a quote and thoughts from a writer I admire, something from my own work, or some interesting bit from botany and the other field sciences.

Every Sunday, I’ll write a longer reflection on practicing terraphilia in our daily lives from my personal point of view, and include personal news.

Everyone—free or paid—will get each of these emails, although free subscribers will get an abbreviated version. Paid subscribers will also get periodic bonus posts on any of the four topics.

Please let me know what you think of this revised plan, and what you look forward to!

Being perfect is not the human condition. Nor should it be—if we were perfect, we couldn’t stumble and fail and thus learn and grow. The failures may be hard to forgive ourselves for, but they teach us the most. And that learning helps us grow into our best selves. —from Bless the Birds, my latest book

I’m still learning how to not be perfect! I guess that’s a lifetime lesson.

I’m a lifetime member of the flat-forehead club. I learn by doing, which sometimes means I smack my forehead against the wall before I see it coming. I’ve also learned to take life day by day, and to forgive myself when I screw up. Which I did by starting out my Substack too ambitiously. My apologies for being a little slow to figure that out, and for not having a clearer plan to begin with. But the truth is, while I read a lot about how Substack works in general, I couldn’t know how it would work for me as a writer or you as a reader until I tried it out.

It’s a good lesson for me in reining in my tendency to leap first before looking. And for all of us in recognizing that one of the best ways to learn is by making mistakes. We just have to also learn how to live with the imperfect selves who make those mistakes. Easier said than done sometimes, but quite possible.

Thanks for coming along on this journey with me. And please do let me know your thoughts.