Really. I’ve just been taking a little vacation from blogging. Mainly just lurking around and only commenting a little here and there as the mood struck. Amazingly it hasn’t struck very often.
I haven’t been in a controversy mood, I guess. ;p
In the last few days, though, I’ve been doing some background maintenance on the blog here in preparation for getting back into the swing of things. I think. I did at one point give serious consideration to stopping blogging altogether. Okay, maybe not so seriously but it did cross my mind at least once. Maybe. I mean, I’m not ever going to stop reading so I suppose I’m still going to want to talk to someone about the books, you know. But that’s part of what I was considering. The how and why to continue to do this.
Which is part of what led me to do some maintenance here, primarily in rearranging and generally tweaking or maybe a better word would be analyzing the categories for the posts. I’m not actually finished with that process yet but it’s helped me to get a better idea of what I’ve done over the last few years, what I am doing and/or want to do in the future.
There are a lot of minor points on that lists, some of which I’ll share with you over the next week or so in other posts, but for now the major one is that I won’t be reviewing in any way, shape form or fashion. Big surprise there. Well, surprisingly, it is.
To me.
Because one of the things I was giving serious thought to was actually changing my mind on that issue. All things considered, several discussions over the last few months have almost made me reconsider. I can’t say why exactly but the germ of a need almost felt like it was there and I had to think it over. Except when I really took the time to think about it and look at it from all sides, I realized that everything that has always made me reject the idea in the past is still there within me.
I don’t do reviews.
I could tell you more (or really bore you) about the internal arguments I had with myself over this one but the simple truth of the matter is that I don’t wanna and I ain’t gonna do them. For one thing, there are way too many people doing them to begin with so why add to the noise. And before anyone says to just go ahead, here’s the question, if I can do rambling commentary and get called reviewing anyway, why work so hard to structure is as a review? Got an answer for that one?
Yeah, didn’t think so.
But it’s more than that for me. It’s more about simply giving myself permission to just be myself, which I think we all need to do periodically. Sort of a rest, reassess and recharge thing. And after the month I’ve had, I probably needed that more than anything else. Suffice it to say, though, that I’m definitely back.
Well, have to wait and see on the better than ever part. 😀
I tend to think it’s more about knowing one’s own personal limits and reminding oneself of them occasionally. Then there’s also the aspect of having actually looked over that particularly cliff (the reviewing one) once before and deciding I didn’t like the view. (no pun intended ;)) I mean one does eventually reach a point in life where it’s not about challenging oneself about every little thing but just about enjoying what can be enjoyed and not wasting energy on the rest.
As to my father, at the moment he’s back in the hospital and not doing so well. My sister and I are trying to get an appointment to meet with his primary doctor to find out exactly what is going on. To put it bluntly, we need her to tell us whether we’re still talking about fighting for his life or letting him die comfortably because all we can seem to get out of the hospital staff is that he’s really, really sick and not eating. Well, if someone isn’t eating then sure they’re going to be really sick regardless of if they’re elderly with dementia. The hospital staff has no context of anything beyond that apparently. Odd.
Ooops, sorry for venting just a tad. 🙁
Well I do hope that you find some joy from blogging. I definitely do. And I guess if you no longer feel joy or are feeling overwhelmed by it then taking a break is always in order. Would just hate to see you go.
You might know that I do rambly opinions on the books I have read. I wouldn’t mind reading about your thoughts on some of your favourites but it seems you have some strict rules about that so you have to do what is comfortable for you.
I hope that your father is getting better and that you are finding time to re-charge.
CindyS