Claire Sandys. My Why Audio Blog. Well…kind of.
The Silent Fri...day.
This isn't really a blog post as such, it's more of an update and explanation as to why from next Tuesday we’ll only be releasing one episode every week.
First off all, I want to assure you that our commitment to the podcast and reaching 101 losses is still as strong as ever. In fact as a completer finisher type person it would take the end of the world for me to feel comfortable with not getting to 101 losses, and even then I’d probably spend eternity with that slight niggling feeling that I forgot something. I love chatting to guests and I'm passionate about helping people with loss and grief, and that’s actually why I’m moving to one episode a week instead of two. Because working on the podcast and meeting so many inspiring people through it has actually widened my passion on this topic and I want to follow through on other areas of educating and helping people with loss. However, to get those up and running I need to create some space in my working week and that means I've had to come up with a new structure.
One of the comments I’ve had a few times from listeners is that I put out a lot of content with two episodes a week, and this actually got me thinking and gave me confidence to think about doing one episode a week instead and building other areas around the podcast. Initially I started the MyWhy blog episodes on a Friday because I wanted to create a reason to make me write weekly - because I love it, but I often just don’t do it regularly enough. I’ll still be doing blog episodes, but just not every week, and as I'm now in the habit of writing weekly I want to use that time to focus on a different area of it - like getting my novel finalised so you can all see or hear that one day!
Plus, I’ve been thinking about developing something that I’m very excited about, around the idea of items that you could gift to someone you know who might be grieving, going through loss or just lonely.
In April 2006 Chuck Close was interviewed by fellow artist Joe Fig and he said this: “Inspiration is for amateurs—the rest of us just show up and get to work. And the belief that things will grow out of the activity itself and that you will—through work—bump into other possibilities and kick open other doors that you would never have dreamt of if you were just sitting around looking for a great “art idea.”
Sometimes you have to make things happen and that involves reshifting priorities a little in order to get there.
I did a core gift session with the lovely Katie Elliott (Episode 2 and Episode 28 of the podcast) to see what my core gift was and my core gift statement came out like this: ‘My Core Gift is helping others to know they're not alone.’ And that’s it in a nutshell, that’s what I want to do, through the podcast, through my writing and through creating things that allow others to share that message with those around them. And to do that, I have to ‘show up and get to work’ - which is my focus this year.
So from next week we will be releasing episodes on Tuesdays, and not Fridays. These will vary from our loss episodes (counting up to 101 different types of loss), to Let’s Chat episodes (where I chat to people who specialise or have experience in particular area related to loss), to My Why blog episodes (and yes I’ll be finishing my ‘To Everything there is a Season’ series, and I have two blog posts based on subjects suggested by supporters coming up too) and more episodes where I walk through how grief and loss is handled through TV, books and film. Plus, I might throw the odd little bonus episode on the podcast feed if I have a burning need to share things once I’ve got the new shiny things up and running.
So there we are, as someone who is passionate about great communication you just know I can’t make these changes without updating you about them and explaining why and what’s happening. I couldn’t just go all silent on Fridays with no explanation! It’s just not in my nature.
As ever, if you’d like to support my work and help me cover the costs of the podcast so I can branch into other areas as well - you can do that at www.buymeacoffee.com/thesilentwhy where you can donate as a one off through buying me a fancy tea or you can support me regularly (to help those podcast hosting bills) from as little as £3 a month - although of course, I’d prefer you to try out the £5, £10 or £20 options. And if you’re really not able to help me financially there are so many other ways you can help support the work - tell a friend, share a social media post, write your own post about the podcast, review us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or Goodpods. It all helps reach one more person, whether with finances or just encouragement.
And lastly, thank you SO much for listening to The Silent Why, each and every listener is so precious to me, and to think that you, yes you - right there - there you are, listening to me - I see you, making space for this podcast in your week - and I am so humbled and so grateful that you're with me. I hope you’ll stay on this journey with me as I start to develop it into new and exciting areas this year.
Arthur Ashe the famous American tennis player said: 'Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.'
So thanks Arthur, I think I will.