Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Blogging Break: Putting Things in Perspective


Take a break! (Photo Credit)

So, it’s another come back of sorts to my blog. Does that bother me - the long break? No, it doesn’t. Sometimes it’s just nice to sit quietly and watch the world go by. This time, I also watched the madness of other bloggers go by. This break also proves that one can’t rest on one’s past laurels. And that, one is never invincible after overcoming a challenge (the #NaBloPoMo, in my case) unless one continues to put in efforts. So, I am back with no promises of coming back often. To me, it’s ok to flow with the flow once in a while. It’s ok not to push things to do the way it should be done to conform to some arbitrary rule I did not make. 

Breaks are good. From whatever one does in life. Surprisingly, looking at others go about their frenetic activities while you are on a break makes them appear even more fast paced. So when I think back about blogging related activity that I noticed around me during my hiatus is - there’s just too much of it. Could be because of the effect I told you earlier. But I also felt that everyone is so much in a hurry to blog. To blog more. To blog everyday. To write for every weekly theme. There are so many conversations around how to just keep posting no matter what. I am honestly astounded at how fellow bloggers can not just churn out posts everyday but also share them on various blogging platforms for others to read!! I constantly wonder - how do they manage! I figured that maybe I am not just that hardworking or it’s not in me to be able to do that or just plain ‘don’t care’ attitude! Any which way, I realized that not being in the rat race works for me. 

And I think the more I saw that happening on social media, the more I savoured my luxury of not blogging when I did not want to. To choose to stop typing just because I don’t feel like. And to be ok with it. As I have mentioned earlier, I write for the passion of writing. I write because I feel strongly about something. I don’t know how to write to increase page views (I don’t even know that for my professional blog! “What a fool!”, you say? Well!). I don’t know how to write to drive traffic. (I think this means the same as what I said before). Yes, my professional blog has some semblance of planning for the posts of a month. But that’s about it. Blogging is not the central thing in my life. I am sure avid bloggers reading my post - if anyone’s reading this post at all - might gasp in incredulity at this assertion. But that’s just how blogging works in my life. (Though, hats off to people to who manage all the blogging with kids and full time jobs)

Another reason for the hiatus has been probably a common thing that all of us go through - life takes over and it’s hard to find the time. With some personal issues and the rush of keeping up with my professional blogging, I has to compromise on a few things. And my personal blog is usually the casualty. Plus, once you stop, the languor sets in making it even harder to begin again. You know, you’ve been there! But after avoiding looking straight in the eye of my neglect of this blog, even when I could begin writing, here I am fighting through my lassitude. 

While I was pondering about blogging sitting on the periphery of the blogosphere, I figured what might work for my blog here. I need to work on what works for me. Daily blogging doesn’t. I need to go back to my reasons for writing - the love of it and improving the craft of writing. So consistency through well thought of posts seems to be my kind of plan. I am outright incapable of writing a good post every single day. Maybe, if that was my only profession. So, I need to find a rhythm that keeps me going and the blog too. And I think I have kinda figured what that rhythm could be.


If you have made it all the way here through my rant, thank you so much! Your free gift of good karma should reach you soon! And while you are here, have you been through a phase where you just took a break even from something you love? It could be a hobby or a (weekly) ritual that you followed for a long time. Tell me about it. I’d love to hear about it. 

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