Dear Friends,
It is time to start something new. I’ve been blogging for seventeen years at five different blogs. I’ve also been a guest writer or freelancer at a wide variety of other publications. And yet over the course of this last year, it has become evident that something is missing.
My Evernote journal is brimming with pages, either too raw, too intimate or too irrelevant to my current audience at AverageAdvocate.com to serve them in their quest to do good well. I cannot share all of who I am there, and that is okay. I believe as long as you know who you are, you don’t have to show up as your full-self in every environment. There, I will continue to show up as the best coach I can to help everyday people change the world.
But this isn’t enough. I need to bring the rest of myself to the table. It is not that I need to write more, but rather it is time to make public the words I type in the quiet of night. God already knows my questions, stories, and thoughts. Yet there is a reader out there who needs my words to make sense of their own. I believe my personal challenge to share more authentically will help others become more whole.
Welcoming
Undoubtedly, intertwined my own practice of writing authentically is a desire to create a community where others also feel invited to be more authentic.
I love community, and community is also the trickiest. I can name a thousand reasons, and I am sure it is a topic that will come up often.
But today you only need to know this: I am not like you and that is okay. Even if you think one-hundred percent differently than I do, you are still welcome here.
Impossible Authenticity
Although my goal is to try to be more authentic, and have created this space to do just that—I still can’t fully do so here. I value my relationships offline, and often they need privacy and protection. I have raw wounds that are currently healing and need boundaries like Band-Aids. In the future I hope they will be aired in the open for others to relate to or learn from, but that is not today. And that is also okay.
One of the arts of authenticity is boundaries. It is one I am forever learning.
Clear is Kind
I’m not always easy to understand. It is a good portion of why I write, to process and find clarity, and from there to put shape to the unintelligible. I ask that you give me grace for when I communicate my thoughts poorly. Please remember I am sharing myself “in-process.” I haven’t arrived.
But I value clarity; especially when setting expectations. Authentically Elisa is just beginning and it will change. But at its inception, this is what you can expect from me:
Around the same time each week (we will start with Wednesday) I will send out prose, an essay or piece that examines life from an authentic perspective.
In addition—I’m aiming for monthly—I will write something specifically about the applicable practice of being authentic, or as I call it, the art of authenticity.
Lastly, I will also send you occasional poems, reviews, and updates on my journey as a writer.
Paid subscribers will also have the following:
You will meet, and hopefully be ensnared, by Winifred. She might be fiction, sometimes fantastical even—but she is us. You will also have access to other short-fiction stories.
I am very excited about my "What if?" and "Outside My Paradigm" essays—these are where our worst-case scenarios get tackled or I question my worldview, faith and lifestyle.
I will also be doing a monthly Q&A with another human also trying to live authentically.
Topics
I expect to cover the collision between faith, church and culture frequently. But I will also talk about well-being (both mental health and physical—such as living with anxiety, PTSD, lupus and being neurodivergent). In fact, it was writing this last year about pregnancy and lupus that clued me into how many people appreciated my honest writings, how much they related to my season of suffering. Alternatively, I might write about family, parenting, travel, joyful moments, leadership or my experiences working.
As much of my work is intertwined with the non-profit sector, ministry, coaching, and writing about how to do advocacy for justice-issues, there might be a some overlap between here and my other blog, Average Advocate. However, time will help me figure out what content goes into which space best. Please know that overall I expect to write very different content here.
Examining Leaves and Writing Authentically
The weather is usually near perfect and San Diego, which the trees find confusing at this time of year. It isn’t uncommon to find old summer leaves with autumn’s fiery orange and red, mixed among dead branches, flower buds, and fresh spring green all on the same tree. They can brim with every season.
Writing authentically is like noticing one of these trees and picking one of its leaves. I take the leaf—an idea, experience, belief—and examine its colors from every angle. My words become a microscope, revealing the deeper mysteries of life. It is a study—biology with pen and paper.
I can pass these woods by, or I can observe the story they tell in their cycle from death to life. Each page is a beautiful narrative to unlock, poised with the gift of meaning or purpose. Feel free to rush by these vibrant all-season trees. But you when you’re ready to find me, I’ll among them, practicing being authentically Elisa.
Your invitation from the trees,
-e