One more voice in the 'sphere

In the halcyon days before Instapundit became a founding member of PJ Media,  and soon after James Lileks thumped "parachute journalism" with his "Notes from the Olive Garden," I maintained a little blog that was a mix of family anecdote and political commentary. Fun as it was, I let the thing go fallow after several years because it was consuming more of my time than it should have. It wasn't just the blog that went dark. I stopped writing for publication, period. Trying to salvage a failing marriage was more important work.

That salvage effort came to naught. Eventually, I traded a four-bedroom house for a two-bedroom condominium. On the other side of divorce, I'm more acquainted with my own shortcomings than I once was. I no longer follow the news as avidly as I had, or assume that I'm communicating even in or through silence.

But I also know that it's still possible to grow, to think, to hope, to say thank you, to give and receive forgiveness. I'm still a father, still a Catholic, and still one of those people who learns his own mind by using a keyboard or a pen to unleash thoughts as though they were tennis balls thrown for retrieval by faithful dogs. Moreover, mine is a surprisingly musical life. I don't know which movement of the symphony I'm in, but I know that there is a symphony. Often, that's enough to keep me going.

I decided that I could go safely back to blogging. If you find my essays thoughtful or amusing, I'm glad for your company. I've no plans to post as frequently as I once did, or comment often on news of the day. What I am looking forward to is a chance to hold prevailing assumptions up for scrutiny, while learning more about the love of God along the way.

This morning, there was a bird singing outside my window. First time this year. I did not see it, and I'm not enough of a bird watcher to be able to identify birds by their songs, but who's to say there wasn't something sacramental about that? Gratitude has to start someplace.