Nuthin' much - what's new with you?

Well, we went up to the States for a couple of weeks and I figured that it was a good time to focus on being with people rather than blogging, so that's why you haven't seen any recent posts. On the way up to our family place in Mendocino we stopped to visit a blog friend (now a real-life friend) - Gretchen of Gladsome Lights. We had a lovely lenten lunch with her and her husband and discovered connections that go back over 30 years!

Then when we got home, there was so much going on in my real-life community that I didn't have any motivation to devote time to the virtual community. And I have to say, this break has caused me to reflect (again) on my purpose for blogging. I originally started my blog - only a year ago - to create a closer connection with my family in the US, and especially (I hoped) with my grandkids. I thought that blog posts might be a good way to share what's going on in our lives in a fuller way than can be done with occasional phone calls.

I don't know how effective my initial purpose is, since the only indication I have that any of my family members read my posts is that one of my daughters-in-law told me that she often reads them to her kids in the mornings.

I hope those long-time friends of mine who know about my blog read it, at least occasionally, although none have ever commented on it, so maybe not.

Meanwhile, of course, I developed some online acquaintances - people who occasionally comment on my posts, people for whom I pray on a regular basis. But I realized that if I want to strengthen my connection with them the most direct way to do that is to leave encouraging comments on their blogs; having a blog myself isn't necessary to be an encouragement to others.

I recently realized that to some extent I had been engaging in "competitive blogging". Not competitive really, but trying to keep up with the many bloggers who write daily posts and participate in all the neat linkups. But as I think about it, a more natural pace for me would be to do occasional posts with random periods of silence. None of the people I love have ever gotten daily or even weekly phone calls or emails from me; why should I feel that it's important to do daily or weekly blog posts? I think about how delightful it is to get unexpected emails from friends, and how easy it is to blow off the emails that come from the same source every week.

So this is my declaration of freedom from consistency in blog communication. If you want to keep in touch with what's going on in my corner of the world, I'll stay in touch through whatever method you've set up to get my posts, but not every week. I'm not going to stretch for interesting things to write about as though I'm writing a travelogue. I'm going to keep the focus on things I want to share with my family and dear friends (and anyone who might want to read over their shoulder).

And to reward you for having read this far, here's a mesmerizing video of art done on clay while it's spinning on a potter's wheel.


PS It's raining! Here in the desert! In April! (the lifelong residents say this has NEVER happened before).