How Occasional? Eighteen years on

I haven't been posting much since Easter. This is not my first pause over the years of this labor of love. Since Good Friday, when I took a hiatus, I have posted pretty sparingly. There is nothing to this apart from the fact that I was busy on Good Friday and Holy Saturday and, on Easter Sunday, I was utterly exhausted. As a result, I made a difficult and deliberate choice to just let it go and not post anything.

As the Easter octave unfolded, not only did I decide not to post here but I went largely inactive on social media. Initially, I vacated for six straight weeks. I have to say, that was liberating, de-toxifying. I did not grasp the effect frequent social media engagement had on me until I just walked away. Since that break, I dip in and out of social media.

Two months ago, I read on great article on The Gospel Coalition (a Reformed site from which I derive much benefit): "Why I Left Social Media—and Won’t Go Back." I am not going to delete all my accounts, but I don't plan to "be back" in the way I have been for the past decade. I shared the TGC article with my wife. As a result, over the next few weeks we mutually decided to scale back our social media use. When I am not engaging (Facebook has been my primary platform), I deactivate my account.

Blogging, even when it pretty much amounts to posting my homilies, takes time as well. It takes more time to sit and compose posts on various things. To not write about or comment on matters of interest doesn't mean I've stopped following what interests me.

Time is the basic ingredient of life. On the whole, my lack of posting is a positive, not a negative development. I have a full life. By "full," I mean most of my time every day is actively spent. While I have flirted with the idea of ending this effort, I have decided to post when I have time and there is something of interest to post. Way back in 2006, which was the year I began blogging (weird verb) in earnest, I composed a post entitled "How Occasional?" Looking at it now, I didn't answer the question. I didn't answer it because I did not know the answer. I still don't. So, we'll see.

As I almost always do when blogging about my blogging, I have to mention that Καθολικός διάκονος has been a valuable vehicle of growth for me. This blog began life as "Scott Dodge for Nobody," which was a blatant rip-off of a now-ended late Sunday night local radio show,"Tom Waits for Nobody." This past August, I passed 18 years! I was 40 years old when I started and 41 when I began in earnest. I was only a few years ordained. Another leitmotif in recent years here is how quickly time passes.

So, in addition to posting this update, I will post my homily for last Sunday, the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time. I urge you to stay tuned. Advent is coming quickly. The occasion of a new year of grace may well prompt a more sustained effort