Why You Will No Longer See Me in the Write of Passage Community

My 100th Post on Substack

Felt like a west coast sunset from my archives was the best way to say goodbye. San Juan Islands. June 2021

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.