Thursday, May 13, 2010

THE WOUNDED BIRD IS TIRED...

...and will take a break from blogging. I'm burnt out, and, since I can't discipline myself to blog in moderation, going off cold turkey seems to be the only way I can have a rest. Wounded Bird will stay as it is, with comments open, and, after a break of an indeterminate period of time, I may have something to say. I'll post at Facebook when I've written something new. However, my posts will very likely be much less frequent in the future.

For over three years, I've blogged nearly every day, except when I've been traveling. Until now, I've enjoyed myself, and when blogging came to seem more like a chore, than fun, I thought it best to bow out for a spell.

Thank you all who have visited over the years. A special thank you to those who took the time to leave comments. You provided me with much of my energy. Through the world of blogs, I've made fantastic friends in real life and virtually through the intertubes. I couldn't have gone three-plus years without you. Thanks to all who sent links, jokes, and funny pictures which helped me fill my pages. Again, I couldn't have done it without you.

I won't say, "Good-bye," because I'll see y'all around and about in Blogland.

70 comments:

  1. Lovely Mimi,

    Thank you for all that you done in all the ways you have done it to make life happier for the likes of me (and me)! You´re a jewel (I know it sounds like something our grandparents would have said) but I really like it better in Spanish...La Joya...you´re La Joya in our crown and I´ll be wishing you strength and peace as Louisiana faces more oceanfront difficulties...blessings to you and yours,

    Leonardo

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  2. If you won't say Good-bye, neither will I. I'm going to miss your voice, and look forward to when you want to pick up the conversation in the blogoshere again. Peace, Susan

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  3. Hell!

    I guess I'm gonna have to get me to New Meth-leans and see what the hell's a-happenin'! Cain't have it, womarn! Cain't have it!

    Which is deep-woods Georgian for, "We love you and want you to come back soon and well-rested and will miss you terribly.

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  4. Leo, thank you. You've already got me crying. I think I'm doing right, because as soon as I made my decision, I felt a weight lift from my shoulders.

    La Joya. How lovely.

    SCG, thank you, too. I blame the disaster in the Gulf in part for my weariness.

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  5. I'll miss "Wound-Up Bird" (hee-hee) bunches, Mimi.

    Enjoy your break, find your bliss---and come back again, refreshed, when you're ready.

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  6. Will miss your daily posts about the world and the church but glad you are wise enough to take care of yourself. As Buechner says - your vocation is where your deep joy and the world's needs meet -- if either is missing it is not your vocation for now. Find your joy - and Leonardo -I love La Joya

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  7. The Bird is wound down, but I'm not the silent type, so I expect I'll be back after a rest.

    What pretty words from everyone. Thanks.

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  8. Well, I'm expecting your distinct voice to be around what I now call the EpiscoBlob till you are ready to step back into the limelight. Meanwhile, fight the battle for the gulf....!

    {{{{{mimi}}}}}

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  9. I sure will miss you. Thank you for these years of thought-provoking entries. It's been a great gift to many of us, and a wonderful way for you to share yourself.

    I understand what you're saying about the GOM. Just the thought of it still makes me feel like I'm about to fall over. It's beyond sad. It really is the end of the world as we've known it.

    Take care of yourself.

    Love,

    Lindy

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  10. Mimi, darling, I am so glad you are going to take a break and give yourself some rest and TLC. You've been carrying such a burden with all the suffering down there in Lousiana and the Gulf, on top of the usual Anglican/TEC stuff. Turn all the troubles over to the Lord and your fellow bloggers and (as one of my most favorite pastors likes to say, 'rest in the lap of God' -- or of Mother Mary. Take some time to nourish your gifts. In due course we'll welcome you back.

    While you are resting, just remember that you are cherished by a wide circle of friends and fellow travelers out here in blogland.

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  11. Take a break and come back swinging in the next inning!

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  12. Mimi, my dear, I don't know how you've found the energy to post as much as you do. I've been in awe for a very long time.

    Rest ... reflect ... and listen to Ann re: Buechner. Do this when you love it ... and however you love it.

    If you don't come back to blogging, my world is going to be poorer. But I will honor whatever course you must take.

    I love you and your beloved Louisiana. May God bless and protect you both.

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  13. Hope the Cold Turkey works, and you return refreshed and renewed... Have much appreciated what you do, and am glad to nnow it's all up there coking away on the internet whilst you're nourishing your soul elsewhere.

    From Munich (until Sunday) Auf Wiedersehn!

    PS Munich is a very interesting place historically. It's where the English go when they know things are in a mess, and hope they can fix it all up and dish the fascists with an agreed bit of paper we wave around in the air to convince ourselves we all really agree and there won't be another war. It's the spirit of 1938 will get us through!

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  14. OK. That's it! I'm now Officially Jealous. God knows, I certainly never had a bishop encouraging me to keep blogging!

    Yours is a truly unique and valued voice, Mimi. I hope you hear that.

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  15. Mimi,

    You are so wise! You know when to rest and before you actually burn out is the best way.

    I like many others will miss your wisdom and humour and commentary on so many subjects of relevance today.

    But you say that you will still be around, even on facebook.

    Enjoy the break and take good care of yourself.

    God's Blessings be with you.

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  16. I did the same myself Mimi dearest, so I can hardly complain when you decide to shut down for a bit but as honesty is always the best policy you ought to know that I can't actually imagine blogland without you, and I can't say I look forward to your absence one little bit. Nevertheless, go do what you have to do. There is no other vocation.

    Beannacht

    On the day when
    the weight deadens
    on your shoulders
    and you stumble,
    may the clay dance
    to balance you.
    And when your eyes
    freeze behind
    the grey window
    and the ghost of loss
    gets in to you,
    may a flock of colours,
    indigo, red, green
    and azure blue
    come to awaken in you
    a meadow of delight.
    When the canvas frays
    in the curach of thought
    and a stain of ocean
    blackens beneath you,
    may there come across the waters
    a path of yellow moonlight
    to bring you safely home.
    May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
    may the clarity of light be yours,
    may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
    may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
    And so may a slow
    wind work these words
    of love around you,
    an invisible cloak
    to mind your life.

    John O'Donohue
    Anam Cara: Spiritual Wisdom from the Celtic World

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  17. As you know, this decision is always one I approve of.

    Love and prayers,

    Tim

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  18. Ah Grandmère tu me manqueras. I will look for you over at FB but it won't be the same. Take care.

    wv: nombled, a variation of numbed.

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  19. oh! Thank you Mimi, for your words, your presence, your prayers. i wish I could have met you in person!

    Perhaps still there is the chance...

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  20. A wise decision, Mimi ...

    Enjoy your sabbatical.

    I suspect you'll be chirping around other blogs a bit more and then come back feistier than ever.

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  21. Mimi, thank you for this labor of love and hope that is Wounded BIrd. I will miss your blog very much. Enjoy your time away being unweighted, and I look forward to the time when/if the Spirit moves you to return, refreshed and renewed. Blessings on your downtime.

    Penny Nash

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  22. As we say down the bayou: "On va se revoir!"

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  23. Enjoy the rest. I will be among the many who will miss your posts, but fully understand the feeling of being burned out. Please come North to visit. Izzie and I would love to see you (and Grandpere)

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  24. Patiently waiting for your return to the blogosphere. Will miss your thoughts here but understand the need to withdraw for a time. {{{Mimi}}}

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  25. Your posts will be missed, but I can certainly appreciate your feeling of a weight being lifted from your shoulders. In time, I suspect you will feel an intense need to say something, and we will have you back.

    May your sabbatical bring you much refreshment.

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  26. good on ya Grandmere!

    (sniffle, sob, cry, oh --I am so selfish-- say it ain't so....)

    Even if you be sayin' nothing, you be teaching us all how to be, Grandmere. Have a good rest.

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  27. It's good to take a break, abuelita. When I was on sabbatical last year and had few chances to blog I discovered that it was not all that important to me after all.
    I'll miss checking in every day, but I'm thankful for the years you have shared with us.
    Hasta luego.

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  28. Well, now all you lovely people, I'm in tears again. See what you've done.

    What's so good and what I need now is to be responsible only for not leaving idiotic comments at the blogs of others.

    When the canvas frays
    in the curach of thought
    and a stain of ocean
    blackens beneath you,
    may there come across the waters
    a path of yellow moonlight
    to bring you safely home.


    Ostrich, thank you so much m'dear.

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  29. God bless you, Mimi. Recoup, renew. I look forward to reading your wise observations in the future -- in whatever format, with whatever frequency.

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  30. I shall cherish and remember your rants, raves, recommendations, prayers, thanksgivings, trip accounts, photos.... and your jokes! Ha! Every good wish to you in BayouLand! - Jay Vos

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  31. Catherine in JapanMay 14, 2010 at 9:27 AM

    Mimi, I discovered your blog during the last presidential election. I was sitting in my little corner of Japan watching the online news, reading articles and basically ended up talking back to, and even yelling at, the computer. How happy I was to find your thoughtful, faith-full and just plain wonderful blog. While I will miss your posts, I am glad that you are taking care of yourself. Relax and enjoy your time off.

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  32. Enjoy your rest, Mimi. But, I shall miss you're posts. I haven't commented too much on your blog, but I read it and love it. The Cajun spice you add to our blog world is priceless.

    So, what ever you do until you return to us, "I hope you Dance!"

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  33. Dearest Grand'mére! what the others said so much more eloquently!

    All Love and Blessings to you and Grand'père!

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  34. Dear Grandmère,

         The pace of your posting has always astonished me. Maybe after a rest just dropping in to bless us once or twice a week?

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  35. Mimi, as one who follows your blog faithfully, I will definitely miss you. Blessings on your time off. Come back soon especially for those of us who hate Facebook.

    Special prayers for all of you in the Gulf!

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  36. Mimi,

    Your blog has been an oasis of sanity in a world gone mean. G-d bless you and yours, and all of the rest of Her creation, too.Thanks so much for your passion for the kingdom.

    Peace.

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  37. Now Paul(A.) will have nowhere to send his...contributions.

    Since you won't be blogging for a while, I think you need to come back up here and visit. I'll get Fran down and the three of us will sit out by the lake, drink wine, and solve all the world's problems. How does that sound?

    Love you,
    Doxy

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  38. Wow! First Bishop Alan. Now Andrew Gerns and Episcopal Café. You are well and truly loved, Mimi.

    P.S. wv = "gonwing"
    Wounded Bird done lost a wing??

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  39. You are well and truly loved, Mimi.

    Lisa and everyone, in return, my heart overflows with love and gratitude.

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  40. Aw, I'll miss your daily posts!

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  41. I can only hope, Mimi, that your near-burnout is not attributable to your inconsolable regret at having missed last week's OCICBINY get-together.

    Don't think, however (along with a certain beloved Doxy), that "contributions" will stop. You'll just have to share them (or not) in a different medium. Or maybe I should just copy Doxy in . . . .


    wv = partionl
    (inclined toward less than the whole)

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  42. Thanks, Melanie.

    Paul (A.), you know I hate it when folks get together without me. I am inconsolable.

    Please don't stop sending me stuff. I'm not dead, only resting.

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  43. I'm so late to this farewell, thanks to my internet connection not doing so well the past couple of days, which meant I didn't visit last night for once (it's sod's law I guess), but I am so sad about this and will miss Wounded Bird so much. I agree with everything everyone has said about it so far. And, I'm sorry, but I selfishly hope you will miss blogging so much you come back soon. But in the meantime enjoy your well-earned rest and spare time. Remember we all love you and we love your blog. Bless you Mimi.

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  44. Not too soon, Cathy. Grandpère is happy, although he says I'm still on the computer a lot.

    Now he, my son, and a friend with a boat for shrimping have gone to try to catch shrimp before the oil gets to them.

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  45. Enjoy your rest. You will be missed but rest is important.

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  46. Mimi, I've been pondering this ever since you posted it. I do bid you rest. But there's another thing. When I was at my most frenziest blogging, I thought I had to comment on everything. My dear, perhaps your sabbatical will tell you where you have read energy. I have loved having you comment about everything. But perhaps you will focus your energy.

    I don't know, of course. Only you can discern what's to come.

    But I hope you will find a way to use your energies without wearing yourself out.

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  47. Lisa, that's exactly what I will try to work out during my time off. Before I came to a stop, I wanted to post on the art restoration project in Haiti. I wanted to post on the US regulatory agencies in bed with the oil and oil services companies, and that they don't really regulate anything. And there was one other had-to-do which I have now forgotten. I want to share everything that is of interest to me. What I was trying to do could only have been accomplished by a group blog, and I'm only one person. I now know that I had unrealistic expectations of myself.

    The question of focus will be a key concern during my sabbatical as I consider how to go on without wearing myself out.

    Thank you for your wise words.

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  48. Late to the party, but not confused at all. Enjoy your break; Revel in the feel of the sun on your back (Though I understand in your neck of the woods, sunshine gets all hot and sticky. What's that about?) and rest in the peace of Christ.

    Here's a link to my mental and spiritual health (And we all see how well that's going.), a site where you can download podcasts of the Compline service at St. Mark's in Seattle. Makes one glad to be alive, know peace, and be Episcopalian. Guaranteed! www.complinechoir.org/

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  49. Via con Dios, and come back soon.

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  50. KJ, I'll check out your link. Round about this time of the year, I'm not looking for sunshine, except when I look out the window. I take my walk at dusk, if not later.

    Andrew, thanks. I feel better already after one and a half days off blogging, but I won't make the mistake of thinking that it's time to start up again.

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  51. Oh, Grandmere Mimi,
    I will miss being able to catch up whenever I need to. You have a very distinctive voice that I really appreciate. I've commented once or twice on your blog...and now I've asked to be your friend on facebook. I am UU and feel we're kindred spirits.
    Peace. Lori Williams

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  52. Well no one can say you've not earned a break!

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  53. Lori, we is now Facebook friends. See you there.

    DP, thanks. No matter what people say, from the vantage point of 2 1/2 days, I know I made the right choice.

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  54. Mimi, I'm glad to hear you're feeling respite already, on this 3rd day of your blog sabbatical. Remember: Even God took 14% of his time off! :-)

    I LOL'd at your May 14, 9:31p.m., comment. My dear, you have tried to take the whole world – secular, political, and ecclesial – upon your very fine shoulders. And it is indeed too much for any one person.

    I ran into much the same when I was trying to cover the whole Anglican world. Finally, I realized that many things were being well covered by sites like Episcopal Café's "The Lead," Thinking Anglicans, MadPriest, Preludium, Father Jake, and you, and that most of my readers were already reading those. Others were doing a great job of covering the news. So I gave myself permission to write only when I felt I had something different to offer. That cut down my stress level greatly.

    I recently read Kathryn Stockett's amazing novel, The Help. In it, an aspiring writer receives the sage counsel [and I’m paraphrasing here] to “write about what bothers you – especially if it seems not to bother anyone else.” Of course, that’s not directly relevant to your situation, for you care passionately about many things and we have counted on you to give voice to the outrage that many of us feel. But it wisely counsels to devote one’s energies to one’s deepest passions and her unique voice.

    At the risk of being outrageously presumptuous, might I suggest this? Maybe what you need is something analogous to an acquisitions/collection development policy – though more about what you really want to offer rather than collect.

    I’m reminded of the counsel often offered to those in discernment about holy orders: “Only pursue ordination if you can’t imagine yourself being happy doing anything else.” Mimi, you don’t have a duty to blog. Maybe you should only blog when you feel an irresistible pull: “I have to write about this, for no one else can do it in the way that I want to do it.”

    Or something like that.

    Of course, I could be wrong. And, of course, I may be way off-base.

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  55. Lisa, you couldn't be off-base if you tried.

    I have to write about this, for no one else can do it in the way that I want to do it.”

    The bolded words are the key. There's much that's repetitious around the blogosphere, and I need to concentrate more on what I can contribute that is unique and not simply repeating what others are already saying.

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  56. Lisa, you couldn't be off-base if you tried.
    Au contraire, my dear. But you are kind.

    There's much that's repetitious around the blogosphere, and I need to concentrate more on what I can contribute that is unique and not simply repeating what others are already saying.
    YES! Exactly!!! Know that most of us are already informed of the Episcopal/Anglican news. I don’t need you to give me the news. But I would love hearing your unique slant on it. For instance, we all knew about the walkabouts, but I was grateful for your perceptions of the episcopal candidates. Ditto about the current oil spill. News sources like PBS and NPR are giving me the facts; your voice makes it incarnational.

    BTW, all us bloggers know how much time it takes simply to search, and create hyperlinks, and then pull certain quotations about which we might want to comment. Doing this every now and then may not be a big deal. But doing it to the encyclopedic extent you have is a huge deal requiring much time and effort.

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  57. Lisa, blogging gobbles time at an astonishing rate. What I'm thinking about now is posting less and doing more original writing than quotes and links. That's today. Tomorrow, I could have another idea.

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  58. I know it does, Grandmère. That's why I wrote what I did.

    Personally, I'd be happy to see you write more just in your own voice.

    But don't talk about "tomorrow." Take all the time you need. [Yes, I know you were probably speaking metaphorically.]

    I have a hunch that you should take a long sabbatical ... after your three years of hard work.

    wv = repar
    LOL!

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  59. Late to the party as usual. Thank you Mimi for the good sharing since I discovered you through Madpriest. May you have a wonderful and peaceful rest. I will miss you on your own blog but I hope to see you at other blogs.
    Blessings

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  60. The only way I can keep up, Mimi, is to try to post one thing - One. Thing. - every day. I try to do something original. Sometimes, it's not every day. That's okay. I try not to stress about it. The point for me is just to write.

    I hope you can do something similar. We need your voice in the church.

    Much love to you. Take the time you need to rest and recover.

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  61. Lisa, one month is the least time I will be "resting" from blogging, and the sabbatical may be longer. I'm enjoying the lack of pressure, and the foolish part of it all is that the pressure was all from me.

    Elizabeth, where you are is where I need to get to. I had to quit to break the pattern of frenetic blogging activity that had came to resemble an addiction.

    Thank you all for your love and support and helpful suggestions.

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  62. Have a restful break, Mimi, I look forward to your return.
    Love and hugs x

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  63. Thanks, Erika. I'm enjoying my new freedom thus far.

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  64. I hit burnout but I was also suffering from depression. I now go at a pace I can handle. Sometimes I blog a fair bit - then I go a week or two with little.

    I appreciate your blog. You are one of the good guys!

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  65. Paul, thank you. I hope that I can maintain the proper attitude and not feel driven to post and give myself a break when I don't feel like posting, or when I have little or nothing to say.

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