Bilbo: I’m old, Gandalf. I know I don’t look it, but I’m beginning to feel it in my heart. I feel… thin. Sort of stretched, like… butter scraped over too much bread. I need a holiday. A very long holiday. And I don’t expect I shall return. In fact I mean not to.
I’ve been giving this a lot of thought lately…taking a long break from blogging. I’ve been blogging since 2006, a few sabbaticals thrown in there for good measure, but still, every M-T-W-Th-F can cause one to feel a bit ‘thin’ as Bilbo said. I’ve been pouring it on heavy with the book reviews since 2009. I’ve lost track, but somewhere in the 200+ range, I think.
This week I’ve felt it especially so and it shows: three days gone without a post and I didn’t miss it at all. Oh, to be sure, early Tuesday morning, I felt the twinges of the normal ‘pressure’: ‘Gotta get that post done, Kevin.’ To which I replied, ‘Why?’ And I had no reply to that at all; none at all.
So, as soon as I’ve met my book review commitments, I’ll be taking a long break. It might even be permanent (that remains to be seen). It’s always dangerous taking a long break like this in the blogging world. An author can lose his readers (all four of you) and not be able to gather them back to the ‘fold.’ Yet its a risk I’m willing to take.
I think the time I’ll have to devote to other reading of my own choosing, without the pressure of time commitments to post a 250-word review. There are pastoral duties that I’ve either put off or not done with any sense of adequacy, so it’s time to correct that. My discipleship responsibilities have doubled in the past year and they might just triple soon, so that looms larger than blogging at the present time.
So, there. I’ve said it. That seems to make it a bit more real. I might miss it once in a while, but for the most part, it will free up so many other possibilities.
