What I really appreciate about a blog is the opportunity to play — by which I mean, change things around if one likes, experiment, be of this mind for a while, or that look, and when it seems necessary, refresh it.

So, a year after beginning an author blog in an attempt to separate out my identity as an author from my other ramblings, I’ve decided to bring myself into just one web place again — here.  If you’re interested, I offer an explanation in my last post there, but the short version is, it began to feel too complicated to be divided. (I don’t know what one does with abandoned sites, however; do I let the content there grow old and faded in the passing online weather, or do I remove it from public view?)

Further, if you’re regular here and also very alert, you may have noticed the CC Blog Network logo has disappeared. There was no dissension between us. I was simply finding it hard, because of other writing obligations, to keep up with the posting regularity the network prefers. Plus, many of my posts aren’t theological, no matter how broadly defined; I borrow my bones rather hither and yon. So I withdrew myself, but I’m grateful to have been part of that good company for a while, and Christian Century remains one of my favorite magazines/places, though I mostly read it on paper via a subscription.

my poppies this summer

New blogs: Two friends of mine have recently begun blogs: Elfrieda Neufeld Schroeder in a lovely, reflective tone at “In Transit,” and Dorothy Siebert, who once did her writing in Winnipeg and now has a better view on Pender Island, B.C., with her energetic voice at a site devoted to “the odyssey of writing.” My church’s pastor, Dan Nighswander, has also begun to blog what he’s reading and thinking as a way of extending his conversation with the congregation — and others — at Jubilee Mennonite Church.

Good question, good answer: “Jesus Didn’t Dance, Did He?” at Rumblings. (Author Ryan Dueck gets some wonderful lines from his kids!)

And good point:  A while back, but worth noting, Paul Schrag in his May 28 editorial at the (re-named) Mennonite World Review, on freedom of conscience.