Writing is scary. It should be, I think. Stepping out, sharing the real stuff, knowing that some people will dig it and others will tell you your grammar is bad and your drawings are ridiculous.

Opening a Substack account reminds me of when I first started blogging. I was living in New Zealand and I’d just come out of a year long stint of do-nothing meditation. (You can read The Weird Story of My Year of Silence here.)

A friend suggested that when you start a blog you shouldn't tell anyone. It's easier
to get a feel for your voice, she said, without thinking about what all your friends will think.

It was great advice.

I wrote in secret for a month.

A poem from September 2011, the day my blog went non-secret

And now I have a secret Substack.

I have no idea where this Substack account will go, and how it will work with my existing email newsletter, but I am delighted to try a new, writer-friendly home.

I have been quiet for many years while I had a child. But I have much to say, not just on the topics of meditation and understanding our mind, intuition, and truly accepting ourself (my wheelhouse and passion) but on topics such as having a kid at 46, poetry, becoming an accidental “mostly vegan,” my killer 1-Ingredient Buckwheat Bread recipe (gluten-free), moving to Mexico, and lots more.

Praying for courage.

Writing is scary.

Let’s do this.

Lisa Esile

You Found My Secret Substack