If you’re unfamiliar with the online writing course Write of Passage, it is a six week, live cohort based course that has helped thousands of students, including me, publish quality writing online. I was a student at Write of Passage with Cohort 9 in Autumn of 2022 and came back as a Mentor for both Cohorts 10 and 11 in 2023.
When I returned as a Mentor (now the role is titled, Coach) earlier this year to lead several writing groups within Cohort 12, I was again excited to work with writers from all over the globe. Then at the end of last week, the first week of Cohort 12, I was told by Write of Passage Staff, in the shortest Zoom meeting I have ever had, that I effectively was no longer in this community. I still have not been told why.
Many of you have reached out generously with legitimate concerns and warm words. To you all, thank you. My family is happy, healthy, and as well as two parents can be raising a toddler that is getting into everything.
So with that said,
Whoever wanted me gone, is still a child of God, an Image Bearer of the Infinite, and was forgiven in an instant.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
The Apostle Paul to the Ephesians 6:12
Every evening, my discipline as a Spanish Mystic is to follow the Ignatian prayer for resolve, reconciliation, and recommitment, just as my ancestors have done for centuries. In this, I have been reminded of the words CS Lewis wrote in The Weight of Glory:
There are no ordinary people.
You have never talked to a mere mortal…
it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.
The Accuser desires immortal horrors but I know I’m with The Advocate that empowers people to see the everlasting splendors they were made to be.
Christianity cleaved the criminal from the crime that criminals could be forgiven and crimes cannot be… We must be much more angry with theft than before and yet much kinder to thieves...
-GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy
Severing another soul from one's life begins a cemetery at one’s center. Only forgiveness frees us from the rotting corpses we keep in caskets at our cores. Reconciliation turns the darkest darkness into light. Redemption is still the greatest story in every life.
To whoever condemned me in the Write of Passage community:
You are forgiven, You are redeemed. You are loved by the King of Kings.
And when you are ready, write to me.
Until next week,
-Steven
I wrote a bit about how corporate prayer helped me through this week in The Fortress & The Forces. Then I finally shared the story about What Steve Jobs Taught Me at 19. To all my subscribers, my gratitude for each of you continues to grow. If you have yet to subscribe, use the link below.
Steven, your relationships and your contribution in life are way too big for any structure to hold or define them. I'm grateful WOP brought us connected us and even more grateful we will journey forward together.
...layoffs like this are one of the cruelest forms of new tech think...having had a similar experience at a previous employer i send all the heart to you brother...i'm not sure why we are so cruel to each other when it comes to ending work...my mind couldn't get over the fact that for 2 years and thousands of hours the person in front of me had "acted" as a mentor and a peer (then they wouldn't look me in the eye or give me feedback as they said my services are no longer needed)...my brain didn't know what to make of the incongruence...but as you know, this is always 100pct their loss...and eventually my brain and spirit settled on to better places, spaces and communities...great read, reaction and reframe...