A few months ago I gave up blogging. It was getting to be a bit of a burden to me and I didn’t care for the direction my writing was taking as a blogger. I decided to step back for a while and focus on my other writing projects and my journey as a freelance writer. I continue to write regularly for Catholic Exchange which has been a great blessing in launching me into freelance writing. I believe in their mission and purpose as a Catholic website.
I also took some time to submit a few pieces here and there on topics of importance to me. I learned a few things along the way. Being a writer is difficult. There are editors who will immediately see potential or like your work and there are others who will not. That is reality and an understandable one at that. Rejection is a part of any art and that includes writing. I also discovered, however, that as Catholic writers we can become entangled or stuck in ruts on topics. There can only be so many articles on abortion or “gay marriage” before we start to sound like a one note trumpet. I see this as a real danger for many Catholic sites. We must be well rounded and willing to vary the discussion.
I found in a topic that is of importance to me, which is the disconnect between the treatment of miscarriage and the Church’s call to a Culture of Life, to be met with some level of apathy. I sent pieces to multiple groups, one of them I understand was not the right approach. It is difficult to get forcefulness through in writing without it coming off as anger and I realized that I need a new approach to garner any interest on that topic. I need a virtuous approach in order to help people see the necessity of the discussion. How can we call people to pray at abortion clinics while ignoring families suffering and grieving miscarriages in the pews? I must temper my own pain and frustration with the Church in this area in order for anything to get done or else I will just stand beating a brick wall.
Since I see that certain topics aren’t going to get a lot of air time right now, I decided to practice and work through them on my blog. I won’t write for publications which tow the line in orthodoxy, as was recommended in one instance. I also did something very few writers see themselves doing this day-in-age and I got rid of my Facebook and Twitter accounts. Social media is seen as a staple in writing and I see the point, but I found social media to be too much of a distraction and full of noise. In fact, it was cacophonous. There is so much fighting these days and very little thought out discourse. I easily became ensnared in disagreements and discovered they had become a major time-waster for me. In other words, Facebook and Twitter were not helping me on my path to holiness, so I pruned them out.
In giving up social media, my husband and I developed a keener sense of being in the present and able to move towards God in a quieter manner that was not there before. I no longer think in terms of “This should go on Facebook” or “How do I get this article to go on Twitter?” I do use Pinterest to save recipes and articles, but that’s it. Now I stay in moments and only take pictures when I truly want to remember a moment. I missed social media at first, but now I don’t want to go back. Social media is a good, but for some of us it is a hindrance in the way we use it. Yes, social media is how most writers find work or make connections, but I am trusting that God will use the connections he has already given me to serve Him as a writer. He has already blessed me with an almost weekly contribution over at Catholic Exchange. As a full-time graduate student and homeschooling mom, my current pace as a freelance writer is right where it needs to be until I graduate next year. The most unexpected development that has occurred recently are the multiple radio interviews I have been asked to give on Teresa Tomeo’s radio show Catholic Connections. I was stunned and grateful for those opportunities.
I am not sure how often I will write here. I hope to write about three times per week and focus on quality over quantity. I still struggle with haste and imprudence, so I want to focus on pieces which will aid people in the journey, while also confronting the realities of the world and the Church. I am working on a term paper on the cardinal virtues for my Moral Theology class, so perhaps I will begin with a series on the cardinal virtues. I briefly covered the topic on the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas over at Catholic Exchange which you can read here. I have learned an entirely different approach to Ethics this semester which focuses on beatitude and virtue over a legalism. It is the Scholastic view of morality. It has been a real blessing and aided me in my journey. I’ve already begun to apply what I have learned about temperance in how I treat my body.
Thank you very much for reading. I will be praying for all of you. Pax Christi.
Swimming the Depths 