October Issue

October 20, 2009

I’m slowly recognizing the opportunities created by my new web site, Living in Season, and so my ideas about it are shifting.

Originally I thought I would publish an issue on the site every three months and continue to send out my monthly newsletters. But as someone who advocates living in season, I’m not happy with how quickly the information becomes outdated if I leave it up for three months. And I love the extra features the web site offers: photographs, featured quotes, and comments. So I am (with great trepidation) contemplating updating the web site monthly (yes, monthly) and using the newsletter as a place to announce and showcase the new articles. I’m nervous about this naturally—it’s a lot of extra work with no visible means of support. Let me know what you think and if you have any good suggestions.

One of my hopes for the new web site was more collaboration. So I’m delighted to have two articles contributed by readers: a fascinating look at the way Tibetan Buddhism considers ghosts and demons by Karma Norjin Lhamo and a lively article on the new moon in Libra by astrologer, April Elliott Kent. Plus several of the stunning featured photos came from readers: Judy Maselli contributed photographs taken in Oaxaca, Mexico and Sara Polke-Johns, who lives in Wales, sent an atmospheric photo of mist rising from a river valley behind an old graveyard. I love the way the Internet connects us.

Welcome From Waverly – Lammas 2009

It’s been a dream for a long time. The dream of a magazine. I first started writing about it in my newsletters in 2006. And I announced its imminent launch in January of 2009. Yet the time and clarity and resources I needed to produce it were not available until this summer.

For the past few months, I’ve been working hard with my brilliant web designer, Joanna Powell Colbert, figuring out the design and features. And grappling continually with the question: What is it? Is it a magazine? A web site? A cluster of blogs? A school?

For right now, I’m calling it a magazine. The current plan is to “publish” four times a year, once for each season, with all new articles. But because it is based on blog software, it can be updated continually, and I suspect I will be tempted to do that.

So it is with great pride and trepidation that I present the inaugural issue of Living in Season. You might notice that most of the articles are written by me. That’s not the ultimate goal. But for right now, think early Martha Stewart Living when all of the articles appeared to be “written” by Martha (at least, there weren’t any bylines). By doing that she established a tone and style for the magazine that continues to make it recognizable today, while gradually opening up to creative input from others.

Ultimately I want this to be a place where you feel welcome to contribute your thoughts and experiences with slow time, sacred time and seasonal time. Right now, you can do that in several ways. The easiest way to participate is to submit a comment on any of the articles posted (I will be moderating these, at least at first, so it may take a day before you see your comments on the site). You can also submit photographs, artwork and articles (see the Guidelines page). And you can also reach out to the community of Living in Season readers and let them know about your work in the world, by placing an ad (see Advertising).

River at Lammas taken by Joanna Powell Colbert

Eventually I hope to expand these offerings. Videos! Podcasts! More columns! For right now I feel like this first issue is a leaf tossed in a rushing stream. (I wish it felt more like a seed planted, but it just doesn’t.) I don’t know where it will end up but I am very happy to be drifting down this river, called the Internet, and I hope that all of you will join me. Grab your inner tubes!