Blog Shaming

"How's the blog coming?"

Her question was innocuous enough, born of friendly curiosity and professional interest. A fellow author and blogger who is more at home in cyberspace than I am, my friend also has the uncanny ability to pre-plan her posts for entire seasons. She squeezes in book signings, writer's workshops, marketing tours and speaking engagements and still finds time to weed her garden. And write.

I have obviously been slacking off.

When I first started this blog, I posted daily. Then twice a week, and then weekly. Now, it's when I get around to it. The gradual decline hasn't been due to a lack of material or willingness, but prioritizing. I've got a lot going on, and I mean that in the humblest sense. This isn't a rant about being too busy - everybody is - or me boasting about the fullness of my life. It's a choice I'm making to live more often in the physical world than the digital one. Summer in Vermont is so beautiful, I can't help but want to enjoy it while I can.

When I was in high school, I wrote this snippet:


Let me live now, and never regret losing an instant
For let no second go by that I am idle, 
No thoughtless moment mar a day
Filled with the opportunity to do,
or to be.


Yeah, right.

Thirty-something years later I know how important downtime is. The need to recharge the batteries - to fill the pitcher up so that you can pour it out. And so, that's what I"m doing. I'm still working on my third novel and doing a reading here and there, but I'm spending a lot less time online. Thanks for understanding that I want to enjoy this life I've chosen, not let the stress of its demands kill me. And, if having a irregular online presence makes me a blog failure, so be it; I'm not ashamed. 


But... if you don't mind dropping in every once in a while just to see if I have, we can still be friends. And now, my youngest would like to go swimming with me. Sounds great!