Sunday, May 02, 2010

Pause for thought

Recently, as you'll have noticed, I've been rather an absent blogger.
There are lots of reasons for this.
One, of course, is general busyness and lack of reflective time.
Another is a growing sense that, while a curate could legitimately think aloud, an incumbent ought to know what she thinks before committing it to the internet.
Yet another a recognition that the more interesting bits of my life and ministry are pretty much unbloggable.
Add to that a sense, commented on far and wide, that the blogging phenomenon seems to have peaked.
I tweet alot (a perfect and speedy diversion from almost any given task), and have made new connections there, as well as keeping in touch with many blog friends there
So one way and another, I wondered if this blog's days were numbered.
I was pretty sure that I knew exactly who was reading me, - a small number of old friends, who dropped in out of loyalty when I actually got round to posting something.
I've never had one of those clever gizmos that tells me who is visiting, or from where.....)But just recently, that view has been challenged - and my world enlarged once more.

You see, one of the comments on this morning's homily for church on the hill came from Gabriele...
She wrote
In my country the ballot might be secret but the intimidation that precedes any election is terrible and destructive. Elections here are fraught with fraud and violence and very much them and us. And we are due another one sometime soon .... maybe.
Gabriele lives in Harare,  where she writes a rather lovely blog herself, "Floating in God's Sea"
Her perspective not only reminded me of the huge privilege of safe, free and fair elections that we enjoy unthinkingly in the UK, but also reawakened me to the excitement of a blogging community stretching across the world, to offer encouragement, challenge, fresh outlooks.

Parish ministry so easily becomes, unsurprisingly,all too parochial. But in the past week I've "met" not just Gabriele in Harare but other voices from other places, voices that make me think, remind me that my small world is just one tiny piece of the jigsaw.
I need these wider horizons and I'm rejoicing in them - so I guess that mean I need to keep on blogging.

10 comments:

UKViewer said...

Strange business blogging, but rewarding as it provides the opportunity to engage with so many different view points.

I started following your blog from another which listed them as following you, and something you said at that time caught my attention.

I never worry about not blogging, I have a blog, but only post when I
think that I need to think aloud.

I have learned a lot from following lots of bloggers in the Christian Context as I started a journey to explore a vocation.

At age 60, it was daunting - but made easier by engaging with people who have been there, done it, and got the T Shirt.

Christine McIntosh said...

And your homily, posted on your blog, gave me the last bit of courage for my own this morning, which did provoke one very hostile reaction indeed! (I've put the notes on Facebook - should I put them on blethers too?)

Kathryn said...

Please do, Chris...I can't get to you on FB and would love to know what you said..
Hope you're not unduly bruised by the response you drew...at least they were listening!

Anonymous said...

Hi Kathryn

In far off New Zealand, I look forward to reading your blog first thing every morning.


Jan

JP said...

Please keep thinking out loud, Kathryn - as and when you can.

Anonymous said...

not all of us trust ourselves to tweet, it's too instant. Your blogs are the most encouraging I've come across. I would miss you if you weren't here.

Erin said...

Hope you stick with it and us!

Song in my Heart said...

Just for the record, I read your blog, even if I don't always comment. We may keep in touch primarily by other means... but I remember, too, that I wouldn't have met you at all if we weren't both blogging.

Anonymous said...

ps. love the new twitter background

Still Breathing said...

I'm only just starting out blogging so that probably does mean it is in decline!

Having started I was begining to get a few readers when I spent a time in hospital and thought I'd lost most of them. However every now and then I get a comment from someone with whom I have no connection thanking me for what I've written. How or why they found me I don't know but if the Holy Spirit can use me to help just one person it must be worth it.