Nurturing Raise In Place
Year 1 review in numbers and looking ahead to year 2
I began Raise In Place about 13 months ago with the foggy notion of creating a gathering place for families centred around Montessori principles. A place where we would explore the science and art of raising great kids.
So far we’re 546 subscribers strong, starting with a 27% open rate and maintaining it across the year (seriously! What an amazing community you are.)
I’ve published 13 newsletters with an average of 272 views per post.
3 were podcast episodes with an average of 70 downloads per episode.
The newsletter has brought in a humbling $80 in revenue with paid subscribers supporting upcoming articles and episodes, and helping to keep existing work free and accessible to all.
My goodness…these are sweet and small beginnings and I’m truly proud of this publication’s first year.
But, if I could be honest for a moment, I’ve been delaying the start of Series 3.
Why?
Because I have been yearning to go deeper.
To search for answers to a stunning yet ordinary pattern that I see echoed in myself and in every one of you. And I can not stop thinking about it.
This pattern is seen in our unending capacity to be new in our next moment. Your unending capacity. My capacity. Our capacity. Humanity’s capacity.
But it isn’t just about being any kind of new. I’m talking about a newness that expands hearts, bridges worlds, builds trust, and grows meaningful connections.
This “newness” is without a doubt tied to nurturing; the nurturing we’ve received, the nurturing we offer others, and the nurturing we offer ourselves.
This is not a new phenomenon.
In fact, I am certain that one of my biggest influences and humans that I crush on from across the internet, author/poet Maria Popova, has touched on it in her newsletter The Marginalian and, given time, I’ll find it in her archives.
It’s also very possible some of my favourite writers here on substack like
at The Map is Mostly Water, at The Examined Family, at Bad At Keeping Secrets, or at The Clearing have written about it too - tag me on their post’s comments if you find one! I’m craving their clarity.If you know of others who have pondered the subject, I would love to be introduced to their ideas, art, or person too.
As I sit here welcoming my tendency to form some sort of model from the dizzying disorganization of my curiosity about newness and nurturing, I am coming to understand it as a sort of upwards spiral that I imagine goes something like this:
Illustration by Erika Fraser - The cycle of nurturing starts with us. We become conscious of a part of ourselves that needs nurturing…so we nurture ourselves, grow and heal. And our capacity to nurture others increases. Which opens up space for us to become conscious of a part of ourselves that needs nurturing…
And so it continues.
In the spirit of being new in this next moment, I’m feeling ready, really truly ready, to share what’s next for Raise In Place.
Raise In Place is graduating into a weekly newsletter and sometimes podcast.
It is a rhythm that will bring us together. That will create the momentum necessary for us to travel into the homes, schools and wild spaces of inspiring leaders in nurturing. That will celebrate the magic of relationships in progress and create space for us to connect over our shared experiences nurturing others and being nurtured.
You’ll now see posted on the publication home page and at the top of future articles and podcast episodes, this new description of what we’re building here:
Raise In Place is a weekly newsletter and sometimes podcast exploring our natural capacity to nurture, unpacking its ties to our consciousness, healing, and our relationships with our dearest. If you have felt held, understood, or inspired here, consider supporting it. In addition to weekly newsletters, for $5/month you will get access to podcast episodes, community threads, and ongoing video content, and in the archives.
One thing remains the same:
p.s. I have one more confession and truth behind my delay in writing to you here.
I’ve been writing elsewhere.
I am currently launching courses that I’ve been writing over at Bueno Market where we’re helping families thrive in early parenthood. The Diaper Free Summer, The Montessori Toolbox, and The Permaculture Toolbox are among the first to launch. Since many of you started as subscribers to Bueno Market, you’ll be getting invites to join us really soon…possibly later today or this weekend!
If you aren’t yet on buenomarket.com’s list or aren’t sure if you are, don’t miss out on our early enrolment offers! Make sure to add yourself to the newsletter list here >