Closing a WordPress blog — sadly

Dear friends, my posts here on WordPress are becoming few and far between. There’s a reason.

I’ve been feeling overloaded with my commitments to online platforms and social media, and I’m cutting back. (Remember, I was born in 1940.)

Most of my work these days is devoted to my podcast, Learning How To Be Old, which will start again shortly and will be broadcast by Wellington Access Radio every two weeks, starting on 15 July. I’m thrilled about this, because it’s been a lonely business and I was in obvious need of a podcasting community. A podcast is a huge amount of work, and it was already eating into my WordPress time. Of course you can find Learning How To Be Old right here on https://writeintolife.com/podcast/.

Follow my podcast Learning How To Be Old

With your ears, not your eyes. Not on a screen, but through your phone with earbuds or hearing aids. Not with It’s getting better and better, and is much more fun than the terrible title suggests.

You are very very very important to me

I love our online community here — feel as if we are friends in a special way. I enjoy your posts and photos and above all I love your comments on my posts. So much support, so many great ideas! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

This website is important to me. But I’m conscious that much of the content needs updating — another job!

One problem with WordPress, for me, is that the algorithm had slowly but surely forced me into a corner, showing me only a narrow selection of blogs that it presumed would interest me. Do you know what I mean? I imagine that all social media platforms do this sooner or later, and I couldn’t see any way out.

So I’ve started posting on Substack, where I am finding a motley, unpredictable bunch of writers. It is a much simpler platform, designed for writers. It’s not fancy, and I love that! I haven’t mastered it by any means yet.

Perhaps I’ll occasionally post something here. But I suspect it will mainly be to alert you to something I’ve written on Substack, or to a podcast episode.

Find me on Substack!

More articles, poems and notes! More bad drawings! More Rachel, if you like my sort of thing.

My own substack is called Now, and it’s free.

• Nobody pays anything.
• Everyone can comment.
• Everyone gets everything I write.
• You get my posts straight into your email.

I will be more relaxed and productive on Substack, partly because Substack kind of makes that the natural thing to do. Maybe because it has a New Zealand co-founder?

Please understand why I’m moving on. And please, please, please —

Follow me free on Substack!

I’m dying to see you there, and we will have some fun. Let’s carry on our conversation there. I’d hate to lose you!

I’ll still be writing and podcasting and scribbling (and contributing in other ways) around ageing. Aging well, staying engaged with the world, facing the challenges and finding the delights of aging — these still occupy my mind and loom large in my own life. And I’ll be exploring other topics too. Of course!

Love to you, all my wonderful readers! Closing a WordPress blog doesn’t mean we lose each other. I’ll meet you on Substack. And I’ll chat to you on Learning How To Be Old.

May you feel happy. May you feel well. May you feel safe. May you feel loved. May you feel at ease in the world.