New here? Me too!
what I'm doing here on Substack
How to honor God with my writing? Create a newsletter that moves like wind.
Thanks for joining me on the journey.
Hey y’all, hey!
My name is Alysia Nicole Harris, Ph.D. I only mention the Ph.D. part because that is a testimony about the Lord in and of itself, and one day I’ll tell you about it.
I’m a poet, linguist, performer, and teaching-artist. But before I am a poet, I am God’s poem. Before I'm a linguist, I am first an utterance, spoken by God before the world's inbreaking. Before a teaching-artist, I am His disciple and His performance piece.
My new newsletter is about all that: my observations from being a witness to the Lord Jesus and my experiences while being a vessel for the Spirit. I’m calling it Chasing After Wind: following the Holy Spirit wherever She goes. (That wasn’t even the original title, but Spirit enticed me in a different direction. Read the next post for more on the name.)
The goal of this newsletter is faithfulness. I have a sea of pages, thousands of nascent thoughts roiling across Google Drive and notebooks. A newsletter gives me the grace and space to shape all this fertile “unformed substance” into something with bones and teeth.
That said, I hope you feel the Wind in your hair while you read. Just please don’t expect a lot of fancy formatting or visuals. Like I can’t. If you here, you here for words.
What to expect from Chasing After Wind
Each Saturday on the traditional Jewish Sabbath you will receive a newsletter from me. It will contain three parts. The Anchor will be a verse of Scripture that guides and reminds us what God has said. If something I write takes you astray, lower the anchor.
The second section is Sea, which illustrates my current thinking. It’s the creative deep containing the waves of life, the ebb and flow of clarity, and the complex beauty enmeshed in being alive. Sea will be 500 - 700 words of prose distilled from what I’ve been drafting that week, and these meditations may not be in their final form. Think of it as the primordial soup of Genesis 1:2.
Lastly is Sail, a brief poem, prayer, praise, or blessing. This is a worshipful response to the Inspiration from the Holy Spirit and how She is moving over the waters of my life.
Ok! That’s it. You’ll learn more about me as we go but there’s more here if you want to check it out. I warn you, it’s a bit out of date, but it’s good for context. I hope you stick around to read and maybe even subscribe. I think we’re going places! I just don’t know where.
Verily,
Alysia Nicole Harris, Ph.D.