Giving Gifts

Ways we can Support Each Other

I just finished setting up the function on Substack that allows you, if you so choose, to sign up for a “paid subscription.” There is a monthly subscription level of $7 and a yearly subscription of $70. Those numbers were suggested by Substack, so I just went with them.

I have no intention of creating paid content that I am going to put behind a paywall. Everything I write will be shared out regardless of paid or unpaid subscription. This is because I’m deeply inspired by what Charles Eisenstein has written about Living in the Gift. This chapter from his book Sacred Economics explains what I am trying to do here: create writing that you experience as a gift, and you can then give me gifts back as you feel gratitude. Charles himself makes all of his written work accessible without a paywall, but you can, if you find what he writes to be a gift to you, give a gift back in monetary form. I’ve been supporting Charles in this way for more than three years now and it’s the best $7.50 a month that I “spend” (give away!).

I do hope to grow my subscriber list, in service of the dialogue and conversation I’d love to have with like-minded and like-inspired folks that I wrote about recently. I’m very bad at asking for things for myself or tooting my own horn, so this is difficult to write: but, I do want to write more of what I’m writing, I want to get more ideas out there, and I generally want to develop my work here right now. So, if you have enjoyed reading what I’ve written, if you have found it a gift to you, and you want to give back to me, with a fair amount of shyness, I am open to that. Just choose a paid subscription rather than a free one. The content is the same either way.

The other action you could take is to share my writing with others in your circle that you think might find it stimulating, challenging, inspiring, or generally good for them in any way. Pass it around!

You could also offer me constructive critique, about anything: About the “ask” that I’m making right now and how I might make it stronger, about the monthly and yearly subscriber amounts. You could tell me about the things I’m writing about that you think others would want to read more of, and about things I should maybe write less of. Thank you all for the gifts you each give to me by reading this!

Photo by Lina Trochez on Unsplash