New Publishing Schedule

quieting down during Great Lent

Dear Readers,

This Monday, Great Lent begins for Eastern Orthodox Christians. My family, after a long and winding prayer journey over many years, will be baptized and chrismated into this community – specifically the Antiochian Orthodox Church – next month.

As we enter our first Lent as Orthodox Christians and begin the fast, I’ll also experiment with a different publishing schedule here at The Oar and the Umbrella. Instead of publishing an essay every Saturday morning, I will publish every other Saturday morning. I have wondered about doing this for some time, and Lent – a season for quieting down – seems the right moment to experiment with this.

Publishing these essays remains a dynamic creative outlet for me, and I hope of some value to readers. At the same time, I seek to publish on actual paper, and the pace of developing weekly essays here has decreased the amount of time I give to other writing projects – including a book I’m revising. While this Substack remains an anchor for my writing, over the long run publishing a bit less here will give more time for these other projects. During Lent, it will also offer more time for silence in the mornings.

So, for now, I will publish every other Saturday and see how this feels. At the end of Lent in early May, I’ll decide whether to stick with this new schedule, or go back to weekly essays.

I deeply appreciate everyone’s support, and always welcome any feedback. As always, please remember that I really do rely on readers to share The Oar and the Umbrella with your networks, as I have no social media accounts. Forwarding an essay to friends, posting it wherever you post things, or telling others about it in conversation is the main way readership grows.

Look for another essay here on Saturday, March 23.

Peace,

Joseph