PUBLISHER'S CORNER: Spring 2021

Happy Spring! First of all, we want to thank all our loyal readers and subscribers for your support and feedback. We are honored to continue the 28-year tradition that Solala Towler started so many years ago.

Covid has caused hardship around the world, and we were certainly not immune. Last September, we closed our yoga studio where we had also hoped to build a robust tai chi / gigong center, and with Covid continuing to be an issue, we have decided to let that part of our business go to focus more on the print distribution of the Empty Vessel.

Speaking of issues, we frequently get letters asking us to continue printing Empty Vessel, and not to succumb to the temptation to just go digital. As you know, Covid halted our newsstand distribution, but we continued to print nonetheless. As of this issue, we should be back on the racks so that our loyal newsstand readers can find us once again. If you’ve missed an issue or two, you can always purchase back issues by mail (see pages 38-39), our website emptyvessel.net, and on eBay. The eBay site does not have our full inventory online yet, but we will continue to work on that over the next quarter.

Another new change we have implemented is signing up for a subscriber management platform. After our customer list went corrupt last summer, we rebuilt it by hand, but we have noticed some mistakes in our database. Also, some of our subscribers did not receive their Fall issues for up to 8 to 10 weeks after we had mailed them, due to postal delays. We’d like to track those numbers so please let us know via email or phone if your Fall issues arrived in November or later. If you have missed any issues, please let us know and we will mail replacement issues.

My daughter, Angel, has volunteered to be our Social Media manager to help boost our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and online bookstore presence. She would also like to focus writing on the artistic aspect of Taoism, so if you have any leads for Taoist art traditions (such as calligraphy, brush painting, or music), antiques or exhibits, please email daodogpress@gmail.com with the words TAOIST ART in the subject.

Lastly, I want to welcome back a special contributor to the Empty Vessel, Jane English. We are debuting what I hope will be a regular column about her continual journey and insights on Taoism. We met her last year when she came down to Florida for a weekend shamanic retreat, which we also attended. Over the years, I have connected with many like-minded people over a mutual admiration of her Tao Te Ching work. I never dreamed I would meet her in person in my own backyard, and we are happy to welcome Jane back to the Empty Vessel.

Speaking of my backyard, we have a new snowbird subscriber who has a house in our town, Port Charlotte! Synchronicity is a magical thing. Here’s hoping your spring is also magical.

Nicole