What Did I Miss?

Being away from blogs during Lent was a really, really good thing. This is not to say that I was holy and pious and kept to my plans with tenacity (yeah not so much). This is just to say that it was a nice re-set button for me.

One thing I realized is that the world can do just fine without my input. That's obvious, and I knew it already, and yet I was constantly commenting, responding to other people's comments, keeping up with all the drama. It's good to know how small I am.

Another good thing was that life became more localized. I stopped being a wannabe Catholic and accepted that, for now anyway, I'm Episcopalian with some Catholic-leanings, and I'm content with that. I realized that my local parish has been my rock and support while I was far away from my friends back home, and it hit me just how many people to whom I owe a great debt.

I also recognized the parts of blogging that are beneficial. I enjoy making connections with people from other faith traditions and other parts of the country (and sometimes even other countries!). I enjoy reading insightful pieces and learning new things. And I relish the "newsy" aspect - like when I checked These Walls on my way to work to learn that Julie gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Congratulations!

And then there's the underbelly. For instance, I completely missed that whole dust-up about a bride-to-be making naive remarks about marriage in Catholic Exchange until I saw a write up on Darwin Catholic (which was actually quite lovely). My initial response, I'm sad to say, was to start up the search engine and dig up all the posts - to see what Simcha and Lecretia and all the rest had to say. But just thinking about it made me tired. Drama is exhausting, and at the end of the day I would learn nothing new. Besides which, it's yesterday's news - maybe now there's some other Big Idea Which Must Be Discussed. It will probably be equally inspiring.

Sarcasm aside, I'm glad to be writing again, and I'm glad to be checking in with folks. So since I did in fact "miss everything," what gems did you see along the way? How was your Lent and Easter? And what's new in your lives?