It's Been Awhile

I haven't done a "Friday Five" for the RevGal circle for some time. I can't really say why, I just haven't. But today's challenge is interesting and introspective. So, here goes...

Here are the questions:

1) Have your blogging (writing/reading) habits shifted since the days of yore? Definitely. I find I have less to write about, or perhaps just less that I think anyone else would find interesting. I also find that I have less time to write.

My blogging habits shifted a fair bit during 2007-2008 when my chronic pain started to haunt me with that "I'm never going away" message night after painful night. Light sensitivity meant that the computer wasn't always my friend, so I used it mostly at work in the mornings when my pain was at its lowest. This is often still the case. Thus, less blogging.

The difference now is also that I don't feel like I need to say anything terribly wise or important if I say it on facebook. Here, I feel more of an obligation to say "something" of substance - after all, that's why I started it....to hone my writing skills and create something of a personal journal.

2) Do you have some favorites that you miss?
I have several blogs that I enjoyed checking in on daily. Even now, they remain on my bookmarks and I stop by occasionally in the hope of finding a new post. Usually there is nothing there and I am reminded that time has passed and people have moved on. That's okay. That's life, it evolves.

I have new places where I check in with some regularity. I worry if someone doesn't post for awhile and hope that they are well and just busy with life.

3) Are there some blogs you still put in the 'must read' category? Definitely.

4) If we gathered at your knee, what would you tell us about those early days of blogging? First, I would get you a chair. Then I would tell you how delightful it was to discover a circle of women and men in ministry who shared so many of the same experiences - joys and sorrows alike - and were so gifted in storytelling. Our circle of friends made me laugh and cry and created a community like none other I had ever experienced. Meeting some of these friends in ministry at preaching conferences and other events was fun, enlightening and simply wonderful.

5) Do you have a clip or a remembrance of a previous post of yours or someone else's that you remember, you know an oldie but goodie?
I do. It's a response to a question from a friend in 2006 re: Why Blog? I'm having trouble with blogger giving me the actual link, so I'll be annoying and re-post it instead. What I find interesting about it is that it is as true today as it was then.

Why blog?
I've been at this blogging thing for quite some time now. I began in March 2005, treading carefully into the blog world, consistently surprised that anyone out there was actually reading what I tried to capture here.

A good friend who has recently discovered my blog asked me today, "How does it feel to do that?" How does it feel to blog? Well, it seems to me that an appropriate answer to that question begins with another answer to another question -- Why blog? So here is an attempt to answer both parts of the question regarding this phenomenon we know as the blog.

Why blog?

1. Writing. My blog began only a few months after my official writing gig for the preaching resource "AHA!" ended. I no longer had a commitment to produce a huge amount of material for my editor by a certain date on the calendar. I felt a bit at a loss. I had several other writing projects on the go, but all of them were fairly "loose" and unstructured. I needed a forum for writing. Blogging has provided me just such a forum.

2. Journaling. I have kept journals since high school. They were usually lined notebooks of various types, though in recent years the covers became much prettier. I work things out with words. It's always worked for me, and still does, the difference is that now I change my template instead of my notebook. (On the other hand, I still keep a notebook journal by my bedside. There's some stuff even you dear readers don't get to see.)

3. Community. In July 2005 -- One year ago this week!!! I happened to visit the wonderful blog of our friend and matriarch St. Casserole. A discussion was happening there about creating a web-ring - a circle of web friends - connected by vocation and interests, by humour and heartache. Out of this discussion, the RevGalBlogPals emerged, and we haven't looked back. The circle now has over 160 women and men who walk together in faith and seek to serve God in their lives. We have produced and sold two devotional books with proceeds going to Hurricane Katrina relief and we have a line of RevGal clothing the proceeds of which are sent to the Heifer Project. (Yes, I own the t-shirt that says, "Does this pulpit make my butt look big?")

I cannot begin to articulate the gifts that the amazing people in our webring have brought to my life in the past year. They are my friends -- the ones I know in "real life" and the ones I know through their blogs. The RevGals, and so many other bloggy buddies have been a deep blessing to me.

How does it feel to blog?

1. Like catching up with friends. At least one good reader out there has expressed a feeling when he reads my blog that he is somehow being voyeuristic. Pish-tosh! (Does anyone say that anymore???) In any case, I don't put anything on the blog that I don't want people to know about me. Sure, I would prefer to sit down personally with each person who is reading this and share a cup of coffee (mmmm....I remember coffee) and make eye contact and part with a big hug. But if that can't happen because of geographical distance or life's busyness, then this is another way to stay connected.

2. Like a spiritual discipline. Writing is a very spiritual exercise for me, partly because my primary writing task each week is a sermon. In addition, the only writing I have had published and have been paid to do was a weekly creative reflection on three lectionary readings. So, virtually all of the professional writing I have done has had a spiritual aspect to it. When I hit those Blog blocks where I just don't have a single cogent thought to post, I delve into the same spiritual place of searching that I do when a sermon is not coming together, or when I was nearing a deadline with the magazine and feeling dry. I navigate that spiritual desert using various forms of prayer.

I hope that has in some way answered my friend's question from earlier today. It was a good question, and I'm glad this evening to reflect on it.