Help? A Question for You This Time
Help? A Question for You This Time
Dispatches NEEDS your input. Me too.
Dear Friends,
Thanks for reading Dispatches. It’s gratifying to know that when I cast my words out into the ether, someone sees, hears, and feels them. I’m pleased to know you folks are reading!
My month at St. Gertrude’s has been a pivotal sojourn, one in which I’ve accomplished a lot (see below). I leave on Friday to return home to the Professor and the family, the dogs, Chula, our great neighborhood, and my job with the Idaho Coalition of Land Trusts. I’ll be around in July before the Book Passages Travel Writers and Photographers Conference in August, but from Friday on I suspect you won’t hear from me as often as you have this month.
The St. Gertrude’s Residency has been an amazing time to focus only where my mind has led me: I’ve posted over 20 blogs on all kinds of stuff, manually transferred 190 posts from my old WordPress site to Substack, asked and gotten answers to 3 God Questions, recorded 3 podcasts and vlogs, and most importantly, examined my personal values and how Dispatches reflects them (or doesn’t).
Overall, though I prioritize them differently now than they’ve played out in terms of topics of posts published, Dispatches is an accurate reflection of my values though you may not perceive that. I’m considering how to narrow my focus or better communicate how my values relate to content. Maybe I’m thinking too hard?
Here are some stats (these are rough categorizations - some posts might have been counted in more than one category):
Since 2007, Dispatches has published 180 posts (actually many more, but over the years I’ve removed some that no longer seemed germane to Dispatches readers.
Those 180 posts have been read 14,361 times. My new goal is to attract that many reads between now and next June. Big step, I know.
Here’s the topical breakdown:
Miscellaneous personal reflections (61)
Travel (53)
Exhortations, political behavior (20)
Public service - including integrity, kindness, altruism, justice, democracy, and the Rule of Law (18)
Faith (15)
Agriculture (7)
Community and self improvement (4)
Children (2)
Those numbers surprised me. What do you think? If you would like Dispatches to cover other topics, please comment below.
Last but hardly least, biggest kudos to those of you who became Founding Members last week, doubling your subscription cost to underwrite someone else’s! You, my friends, exemplify kindness. May it return to you tenfold. Thanks also to our new Paid subscribers. Founding, Paid, or Free, you have no idea how your partnership encourages this solitary writer.
For the rest of you, a reminder. The Dispatches’ subscription plan changes this Saturday. While I’m sure I’ll blow past these minimums from time to time, what that means is that if you’re a free subscriber, from then on you’ll get a minimum of one newsletter a month. Paid subscribers, you’ll get a minimum of two a month, full access to every newsletter on Dispatches, the podcasts and vlogs. And everyone gets so much love for your support! Thank you, thank you!
Teri
PS If any of you want to upgrade your subscription, Dispatches’ Introductory Rate expires Saturday.
Between now and Friday, Dispatches will take 10% off the membership fee for all new annual full access individual, group, and gift subscriptions!
10% off for one year
must be redeemed by July 1, 2023
only applies to annual subscriptions