I've decided to go ahead and do something I've been toying with for a while:
I'm shutting down da blog.
I began it for a purpose, and that purpose has been fulfilled. But now, it's taking up too much time, and I'm experiencing a real pull to direct my energies elsewhere. I was going to put it on hiatus for Lent anyway, but there is a project for which I got a strong, specific idea in early December that I really want to give some serious attention to (besides the Bible study guide which is due in two months), and I could be doing that in the time I blog. Thought I'd have made real progress on it by now, but I haven't, and I need to. I have that much faith in the idea. I don't want this one to be just one of the other good ideas that I've started and not been able to finish. I'm almost 43, and it's time to get serious about another direction in my career. I don't know what I'd do if, as has happened every time in the past, a year were to pass and I had one more lost project on my conscience, all because the pull of posting links to weird articles and posting my inconsequential thoughts was so tempting! What it is is that blogging has a weird way of both expanding and contracting your vision. You hear the experiences and insights of other people, but at the same time, the temptation is always there to just think in terms of those who making up the blogging community. I need to free up my brain and my imagination. So,...farewell to the 1600+ who come here every day. Or the 160 who come here ten times a day. Whatever! God bless.
(Besides, there are so many blogs out there, there's plenty to read. For news, you can depend on Holy Weblog and Relapsed Catholic, and Mark Shea, Eve Tushnet, and Peter Nixon at Sursum Corda and others offer far more thoughtful insight than I ever could...)
Update. Well, thanks a lot. I've been sitting here all morning reading mail and trying not to cry, unsuccessfully. This is just insane.
And seriously - I should have mentioned this above - thanks to the many, many, many wonderful readers who have made this blog what it is. You come to chat with each other, and I've been honored to provide that space and give you fuel for the discussions. I've also learned a great deal, and I am in awe of your wisdom and experience. God bless all of you. And thanks, Rod - you're a prince among crunchy cons, truly.....!
Update #2: My husband and others convinced me not to delete - I need to keep the archives. They're right. The only additions to this space at least until late fall will appear when I have something interesting published either in article or book form.
