I don’t have definite answers to those questions, although I hope the answer is no (except, possibly, to the last one). I have been aware in recent months that various bloggers, or former bloggers, or sleeping, or semi-sleeping bloggers, have been making noises on Facebook about regretting the demise of blogging, and the fact that we are poorer for this, and hoping to return to it. People posted links to some pretty good analysis on the superiority of blogging over Facebook, but because of the transitory and inferior nature of Facebook I have lost the reference to it. It was a theme that resonated with me, having only recently tentatively ventured into Facebook, and it made me aware that I have at times found blogging a valuable spiritual discipline, as well as valuing the contacts that it brought, and that I missed it.
However, while I have rejoiced in the (former) bloggers who have been making noises about getting back to blogging, and wished that I could join them, the reality is probably not so simple. My posts on St Irenaeus have ground to a halt it and it is probably unrealistic to expect that I will pick up any sustained blogging for a while. And that does have to do with the situation in my life at present which I hope will not last forever.
In December I wrote about moving to Robertson and developing Life Giving Spring as a place of prayer and retreat. That has been a great blessing, but it has also happened rather slowly and demanded quite a lot of energy. Plus I have been involved in producing a weekly bulletin for our Archbishopric that is actually rather time-consuming (it can be seen here if anyone is interested). I have also discovered that I really do not cope very well with living in two places at once, and have been frustrated that I am simply not at Robertson enough and that I really need a more regular life!
I have been employed on a two-year contract that ends in October, and my employers had been talking about creating a new post for me to set up a small-scale conservation studio which could have included the possibility of working part-time. At one point I thought that this could have been ideal, but I began to increasingly feel that I needed to be in Robertson full-time. I had also begun to get a lot of inquiries for private bookbinding work (to the extent that I have recently put up a note on my bookbinding site saying that I have a long waiting list) and it seemed likely that I would be able to support myself in that way. However, the thought of turning down a permanent post for the insecurity of being self-employed (and I’m not really sure that I’m the entrepreneurial type!) was rather frightening.
And then the decision was taken out of my hands when I heard a month or two ago that my employers are not going to be in a position to offer me a post when my contract expires. My reaction was one of real gratitude as it just made me aware that that was really not what I wanted. And my whole experience since coming back to South Africa is one of God opening (and perhaps shutting) doors in a most remarkable and providential way. So, while I’m aware that there are quite a lot of hurdles to be jumped through and challenges to be met, I am really very gratified and excited by the developments. I long for “a dwelling in one place,” as St Nil Sorsky puts it, and for the context to do what it seems I am called to do.
So, to get back to blogging, it is unlikely that I will do much regular blogging until things get more settled sometime after November. I have been taking on more private binding work as I do need to built that up, and between that, Church related things and my job, I don’t have time or energy for much serious reading, writing and reflection. But at least I know that it won’t last forever. And one of the things that I need to think through is what form of online presence I might develop in the future. Blogging can go in various directions, and be directed at various audiences. This blog started simply as a way of processing my own reading. It has also occasionally allowed me to think through things and process ideas. Both of those are valuable and in many ways I’d like to continue them. But I also find myself in a rather different situation to when I began this blog, and part of that is being an Orthodox presence in an overwhelmingly non-Orthodox context, and being part of a wonderful but rather fragile Church community. And I find myself wondering how we can use the internet to both reach out to others and to form and nurture the local community of believers. This are questions that are still floating around in my head, and I won’t be able to do much about them for a while, but they are perhaps worth mentioning.
In any case, this is probably just to say that this blog is probably sleeping, although it may occasionally stir, for the next few months.
A vow of conversation 
June 3, 2012 at 9:25 pm
PS (I hit the “post” button too soon, and if I edit it will clog up people’s readers): I would value your prayers!
June 3, 2012 at 9:45 pm
Since I’ve been on FB I haven’t had a single decent idea for a blog post. If it wasn’t for the cat I wouldn’t have anything to say at all!
June 4, 2012 at 1:44 pm
I hope everything works out for you! And that blogging does happen again.
June 4, 2012 at 3:21 pm
I find that if I spend too much time on Facebook I tend to become as shallow and ephemeral as the medium, jumping from one thing to another, and when I’ve finsihed that, forgetting where I was to start with. Blogging’s better!
June 5, 2012 at 7:31 am
Margaret, your cats are one of my favourite things on FB!
Thanks, everyone, for the comments. There are issues around social media that I keep thinking need to be explored at greater depth, but that is one of the things I’m not getting to. I started FB mainly because I wanted to understand how it works, and, although I have threatened to leave, have found it useful, although the hesitations remain. But I do have questions about these things,and the word dissipation comes to mind.
I have sometimes been reminded of Saint Basil’s words (which I once posted here: “To avoid dissipation of the heart, refrain as much as you can from going abroad at all. …” Going online is, in a sense, “going abroad” (I take it he means going out, not going overseas!) Of course, we have to go out (and he proceeds to advise on protecting ourselves in how to do this), and we have to use communications media, but a certain vigilance is needed. For myself, the danger is one of reading too widely, superficially and fleetingly, or making superficial and throwaway comments, without engaging things at any depth. I also find writing really difficult and tend to avoid it, and so blogging (can) actually provide a good discipline in this.
June 6, 2012 at 12:42 pm
My observation is two-fold: 1) I don’t get social media other than rediscovering old friends… as if; and 2) it can serve as a very powerful organizer for mobilizing folks: On giving word of a Habitat for Humanity project to our youth director, she signed up 14 folks in 20 minutes thru FB.
Okay: 3-fold: FB is not a reflective medium unless you think and write bumper stickers.
June 7, 2012 at 9:31 am
Thanks, James. I think that social media can have a variety of uses, and that discerning how they work and what one wants to use them for is important, but not necessarily straightforward.
While blogging certainly lends itself more to in-depth reflection and discussion, I have seen some helpful discussions on FB. But then one needs to know what one uses it for.
I have occasionally thought of Twitter (in fact am considering it again now simply because there are a couple of people I’d like to follow) but find it difficult to see how that can really be a good medium for discussion. At least for me, it would be far too limiting, although for some things that might be a good discipline… (I did actually think of trying to tweet St Irenaeus but decided it would end up getting too trite).
June 8, 2012 at 6:42 pm
Of prayers you may continue to be assured, my friend! Also, I took the liberty of looking up again the blog that inspired me to return to blogging: http://readingthemaps.blogspot.com/2012/01/future-of-blogging.html
June 11, 2012 at 7:36 pm
Many thanks Aaron. I was going to update the post to include the link, but my internet connection is sluggish. Will try and do so again.
June 11, 2012 at 1:16 pm
Macrina,
Evangelion, your ‘weekly bulletin for our Archbishopric’, which you linked to in the post above, has more “good stuff and no fluff” in two pages than anything I can remember seeing. If you have to focus on it rather than the blog for now, so be it. I hope lots of people come to follow Evangelion.
June 11, 2012 at 7:39 pm
Thanks for your kind words Nepsis. At times it feels like an awful lot of work (mainly, I suppose, because I always seem to be working to deadlines), so it is nice to get positive feedback!
June 25, 2012 at 9:22 am
Macrina, I pray that everything works out the way God wills so that you can feel more settled. Your book-binding work and the bulletin sound interesting.
May the Mother of God be with you!
June 25, 2012 at 4:14 pm
Many thanks, Matushka, and especially for your prayers!
June 29, 2012 at 3:50 am
Interesting question. (by the way, I just stumbled across your blog from somewhere, not quite sure where). I just abandoned Facebook and Twitter and started blogging again. I found certain elements of the new social media to be not-so-healthy with the potential to leave bruises on the soul, so-to-speak, at least for me anyway. On the not-so-harmful side, I found that a medium like Facebook – and certainly Twitter – greatly impaired my ability to formulate and express thought. In other words, there was a lot of talk but not much conversation. I hoping that with firing up a blog again, I can write a little more than FB one-liners or 140 character Tweets.
July 1, 2012 at 8:54 pm
Thanks for your comments, Brian. I think that some of this new media can create a scatteredness – at least in me – so that I don’t remember where I read things anymore. Of course, blogs can do that do, but at least they have the potential for something deeper and more rooted.