Field Notes #2
From the desk of Ana-Maria, Earthborn's Editor in Chief
Welcome to Ana-Maria’s Field Notes, the behind the scenes of making Earthborn Magazine.
Surprisingly, I have been fairly calm, peaceful, and operating in joy as I navigate the landscape of creating a magazine. A far cry from my usual over planning and desire to control the direction of a creative project. That is until a few days ago.
I looked at the timeline and realized we are six weeks away from my target launch date. Talk about the butterflies coming fully online. This is the first project I undertook where I listened to creativity fully. Where I did not hijack it with my own shoulds … at least not too much. I promise the impulse was there, but I reigned myself back and listened … I listened deeply.
One of those shoulds was to write pieces for Substack before the magazine has a chance to go live. Much to my chagrin, this was something I had to let go of. A few other foundational pieces needed my attention. Namelly, the print version.
I found a solution that would be a great compromise to what I initially had in mind. My goal was to always have a print version that we can touch, feel and annotate. A volume we can return to again and again. And as I took my own advice from the Winter Retreat I am currently running on my personal Substack Originborn … I loosened my attachments to what a printed magazine should look like. The inside won’t have those staple glossy pages that almost feel like plastic. But they will be printed on coloured paper and look incredible.
What I was not able to accomplish for the first volume is to find a way to print the magazine on paper I know was made sustainably. That will be an ongoing investigation.
In the meantime, I received a printed test copy of the Contributions and Inspiration Guide and it felt incredible to have something tangible to look at. Here’s a sneak peek.
Everything is taking shape beautifully, and it is now time for me to also dive in and finish the pieces I will be writing inside the magazine.
I won’t officially share that the target launch date is Saturday, March 21st 2026 for the digital version until I finalize what I had in mind as the virtual event and accompanying experience that will lead us into living with the first volume. I am beyond excited to work on this accompanying project to merge the theories with practical action.
Don’t mark your calendar yet … but keep that day in your prayers for me!
And if you desire to contribute, there’s still time to submit your work and be featured. In this post you’ll find all the details you might need and be sure to download the Contribution and Inspiration Guide.
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Next issue is Spring/Summer 2026.
xo,
😭 It's TOO beautiful