Shifting Gears

What this Substack is and isn't

Last night This morning I wrote a silly poem about insomnia. (I wrote a funny—but less silly—one in notes here in December. Insomnia is still a thing with me.)

Only there was no accompanying post here beyond that silliness to prove that insomnia is my writing-superpower. That’s because the on-the-computer writing I was doing at one o’clock in the morning was drafting an Executive Director’s job description and contract (with some accompanying policies) for myself at The Pilgrimage Inc.

I absolutely had no idea what I was getting into when we incorporated The Pilgrimage last year. Neither did the Board of Directors, I’m pretty sure, who have gamely tried to stay afloat with me this whole time as I flounder around learning all the things I didn’t know I didn’t know. I think we’re starting to swim now,¹ but not without a few false starts and regrouping at the side of the pool, as it were.

For example, last week I wrote a post exclusively for my paid (or comped) subscribers, which I never do anymore, informing them that I would be turning this Substack into a part of The Pilgrimage ministry. Then after I sent it, I began considering logistics and intellectual property rights and conflicts of interest, realizing that it was going to be a little tricky to take a four-year-old personal blog where I write informally about ideas I’m working out, and turn it into a strictly demarcated spiritual formation blog for a business.

Then I discovered my initial post for this Substack, in which I explicitly described creating it as a site for myself as a writer. A lot of what I said in that post has changed (for example, I’m no longer pastoring a church), but after I read it, I realized I didn’t want to lose my inciting vision for being here. I started supposing that I would have to delete the last four years of content just to stay within the rails of the nonprofit. This seemed needlessly cumbersome and restricting. So the next day I sent out a “never mind” post to the same people and then got busy trying to get professional advice about conflict of interest policies for the new nonprofit.

All of which ultimately means that Gathered and Scattered will remain a personal writing space for me, and I’m working on some policies to keep both me and The Pilgrimage Inc. safe and distinct as pertains to all the different pieces of content I put online. But there will also be some changes around here:

As part of my individual service to The Pilgrimage Inc., I will continue to tell you about The Pilgrimage Inc.² and upcoming programs and other ways you can get involved. But my writing categories here will likely change (no more specific “Notes on Pilgrimage,”³ for one thing) and this space will take a back seat to my work responsibilities connected to The Pilgrimage Inc. The appearance here will also change over the next few weeks and months, as I divest this space of The Pilgrimage Inc.’s specific color palette (derived from its Impossible Camel logo).

I hope you’ll stick around here with me and see where we go next. I also hope you’ll get connected with us “on Pilgrimage.” We’re developing new programs…and the tried and true Stepping into the Story is getting a refresh to launch in late March. Don’t miss it. See you on the road.

1. I think this because I’m starting to be glad to have made the choice to incorporate rather than thinking, “What am I doing? What is going on? I should’ve just folded this whole thing up!”

2. For example the seven times I have linked to its rebuilt website in this one post.

3. At some point after our infrastructure is a little more settled, I may recreate a Notes on Pilgrimage blog directly on our website.