A Leave of Presence

Thus far in 2026 I have only published six real posts here. The last such entry came over a month ago. This deserves explanation, but I don’t have one. So the next best thing I can do is offer some information.

Last month I finished edits on Scroll Less, Live More. The writing of that book took something out of me, and I’m not entirely sure why. I just know I’ve not had nearly the stamina in thinking/writing since completing it.

I did manage to publish a lengthy essay in First Things, which I had planned on expanding here. But that hasn’t happened. The reality is that a prolonged season of dryness and tiredness has affected the Substack moreso than other areas.

And yet, I’m keenly aware that as of today, I have hundreds of paid subscribers who spend money on my writing that they could be spending toward $4/gallon gas. My dryness is not fair towards them, any fairer than a coffee shop’s charging you the full price of the latte before deciding it’s time to close early.

This season of dryness has been neither restful nor enjoyable. I am not taking a “break.” I’m simply stuck in neutral. I could hypothesize aloud about what might be going on, but nobody wants to hear that, and it doesn’t change the facts on the ground.

I currently have four assignments for other outlets that I will be working on in the next few weeks (one book chapter, two book reviews, and one short article—all of these came with assigned prompts, so the creative lethargy isn’t quite as relevant). My goal at this point is to power through these remaining requests and then put energy toward the kind of rhythmic reading and thinking that makes a space like this possible and worthwhile.

In the meantime, billings for paid subscriptions will be paused until otherwise indicated. I sincerely hope that by early summer at least I’ll be back in the saddle, but I’m not going to charge anyone for the non-privilege of waiting to see.

I am very thankful for all of you, and I hope and trust that will be more obvious in the near future.

SDJ