1) It is Lent. This year for Lent I am trying to spend less time online. The easiest way to do this is drop blogging and use the time in other ways. Also, I am extremely busy at work as we get ready for Palm Sunday and Easter. We are also making plans for church programming for next year. I need to focus on these things.
2) I need some time to consider the direction of Burbania Posts. This year I expanded its range to encompass my sabbatical year and--of course--homeschooling Norm. I originally thought of it as a way to connect with family and church members during this year of study and transition. However, my readership continues to tend toward the fellow bloggers, clergy, and friends who have always dropped by. Good folks, too. Family and church members do read it, but not, it appears, in any great numbers.
No matter what group you might be in, I am glad to have you. Thanks for reading my blog and I hope you do again! The question for me, then, is what do I want to write about in the future if I expect people to be interested in reading what I write? Do I go back to gardening (which right now sounds fantastic) and other Ecological concerns? Do I blog about my career as a small church minister? I don't know. Perhaps the blog has even run its course and I need to find some other creative outlet. If so...what?
3) I am really grumpy in March. Can't help it. Those of you who know me know this already. I need to reduce distractions so that I can be present as pastor, father, husband, etc. while also experiencing the beauty of spring and the wonder of my favorite liturgical season.
Still, I don't like firm dates so you may hear from me (here, that is) before Palm Sunday, but probably not. It is more likely I will be back during Holy Week. Until then, fellow bloggers can expect me to lurk on their blogs and comment from time to time. Others are welcome to email or call or whatever. I will be working...and buying seeds...
It is hard to figure out what to write on a blog. And it's not easy to predict who will become a regular reader. My family never reads mine, with one exception: my father-in-law. But people I barely know or have never laid eyes are faithful. It's strange. So I decided that what I have to do is to create a kind of general, newsy, personal open letter. Obviously it isn't a journal: there's plenty about my private life that I don't care to share in the aether. But by staying general I can dip into gardening, books, funny stories, melancholy, diatribes . . . which creates the illusion of transparency and doesn't tie me to any one topic or theme. So I guess that what I am saying (as a regular reader of your blog) is that I would be more interested in a grumpy March post followed by a garden debacle followed by why you aren't buying a new car followed by a comic Norm story followed by your thoughts about Lent than I would by a blog that focused only on the politics of new car ownership. Variety is a reader's spice.
ReplyDeleteWell yeah...that has been my concern. I have been too worried about the sabbatical essay question "does it sound right for the church?" than I probably need to be.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't worry about it at all.
ReplyDeleteI'd sit down and let 'er rip. Your thoughts have meaning to those of us who read them, so please do not stop.