My life this summer

OK, time again for another one of those “update” posts … but I’m going to return to regular blogging after this.

Today I finished my first half-marathon—my unofficial time was 3:07:35. I may train for a full after this. And I’m definitely registering for the Warrior Dash!

My two weeks in Spain were amazing. Not only did I have a truly wonderful time there, but I really feel I learned a lot and grew there as well. I think I’ll be referring to Spain often in future posts.

For the last two months, my dad has been fighting cancer. I believe he’s winning, and will hopefully have good news to report soon.

I’ve lost 45 lbs now on the Alternate-Day Diet. Not finished yet, but the progress I’ve made since January has been amazing.

I have a new home.

I have a new kitten.

I’m rethinking the focus and purpose of this blog: Personal blogging seems to be a dying art, although a few of my online friends, Carl, Bob, Ryan, and Meredith are keeping it alive. I use Twitter often, and post statuses frequently on Facebook (usually short tweets direct from Twitter), although I’m very haphazard in actually reading Facebook statuses. I’ll admit, the fact that Facebook has replaced blogging for so many bloggers bothers me a little; FB is great, but it seems poorly structured for the kind of in-depth sharing that is typical of the best personal blogs.

I’m also wondering how apropos the title “The Wild Things of God” still is, since I have had so little to say about “God” as such. As my faith has become more open-ended and less-defined over the years, such a loaded word as “God” which brings an unpredictable host of deeply-embedded concepts and memes every time it’s used, and it might be less-suited to describe what I write about here, than something a bit more abstract … maybe “Wild Things of the Spirit,” or something else, or keep it the same—I’d like to hear your thoughts.

I’d also like to hear your thoughts about what you’d like to see here: a mix of varied personal musings and spiritually-focused posts? More of one and less of the other? How-to posts, like dream interpretation or dealing with changes and challenges in the spiritual journey? More reviews of movies and books? I’ve been putting my more technical posts about the Internet and technology on Wild Web Weaving. Should they stay on a separate blog or should everything be together? What do YOU want?

Talk to me, my friends!

17 thoughts on “My life this summer

  1. Mi vere pensas, ke dum (dum kiam?) mi loĝas pli aŭ malpli proksime al vi, ni devas fari Esperantaĵojn… eble ni komencu podkaston?

  2. I hope blogging isn’t a dying art, but I also hope that books aren’t fading out, either. It does seem that there are two levels of blogs: “super blogs” such as the Huffington Post, and, well, the rest of us mere mortals. But that’s okay. I’m not in this to get on the cover of Newsweek…

    As for what I want: who cares? I think the genius of a blog lies in its unique expression of its creator. To me, my blog is my feedback-activated notebook. I post whatever I feel like posting… I wish the same for you. Also, regarding how things are evolving online: I personally really like having the blog, the Twitter feed, and the FB profile (and since I use WP, it pushes updates on the blog to both FB and Twitter). The three platforms seem to work together reasonably well, and so I’m happy with the arrangement. Certainly my current book is selling better than anything I’ve done before, and I credit my online community for helping to make that happen.

  3. Thanks, Carl, that helps. I think I need to tweak that FB, Twitter, blog triad a bit. I’m also working on a book and considering publishing some e-books.

  4. Hey Jon. Good to get caught up on what’s going on in your life. My goodness, all things are new, eh? Sounds like a rebirth of sorts going on in your life. Excited for you.

    As for what I want to see on your blog – it’s just Jon-ness. Sometimes that’s personal stuff, sometimes it’s theological rants or movie reviews. As Carl said, just be yourself— look forward to seeing new stuff here.

  5. Nice, Jon! Been following your adventures and transformation on twitter and at at FB, and think something great has gotten a hold of you (or the other way around). Glad your father is doing well also. Will keep him and you in my prayers.

    You’ve never had any problems writing from your heart, so for your blog I would say to keep doing this; seek your heart and write from that unfolding adventure. Many, many of your posts have touched me deeply, Jon. I’m blessed by this.

    Much love- Tommy

  6. Hello Jon, I just recently found your blog and web site and one of the things that drew me to it was your phrase “Wild Things of God.” We’re all on our own journeys and mine is taking me back to meditation and maybe to mysticism, or certainly toward the exploring of mysticism, whether Christian or not. I might not have been quite so drawn to “Wild Things of the Spirit.” It seems a little weaker, somehow. My thoughts to you for what they’re worth.

    As for the rest, I agree whole-heartedly with the other commenters. Keep writing, as Tommy says, from your heart. And certainly, if you’re not comfortable with the “God” word, then you’ll find the right one to use.

  7. Thanks, everyone,

    Yeah, I’m beginning to get a feeling for the changes I want to make here, and writing from the heart is not only something I definitely want to keep doing, but do more and better.

    @Tommy and @Trev, I miss your blogs! Ever think of getting back into it? Your blogs were the main inspiration for me to start blogging.

    @Mary, welcome, and thanks for your comment. I definitely note your point about “the Spirit” as being weaker than “God.” I may not be up for changing the title. Anyway, I’ve always thought of the title of the blog as “Jedi Life in the Real World” and the site as a whole as “The Wild Things of God.” Not sure how or when I lost the title of the blog…

  8. I wish you wouldn’t ask what I want your blog to be. It should be what you want it to be, whatever matters to Jon.

    My blog has lain dormant for months, essentially. But maybe I’ll write about that on my blog. (Ha.)

    Re blog titles… wah. You know how mine has evolved over the years. But only you can decide what to do with yours.

    I don’t know. More anon.

  9. I appreciate what you’ve written here, since I too have gone months at a time without posting anything on my Blog of the Grateful Bear. I’m very active on Facebook and now (thanks largely to you) on Twitter as well. For the last year or so I’ve been cross-posting blog entries and “Notes” on Facebook, and I’m finding I get a lot more comments on Facebook than on my blog. I’m not willing to let it go, though, in large part because it serves as an archive for a lot of good stuff I’ve written over the past decade or so. Same thing could be said for frimmin.com – you’ve written some great stuff over the years, and I hope it remains available on the web through your blog.

  10. @Julie Yeah, my asking for what others want is more of just asking for ideas and input… particularly about things that are more specialized, like my techie posts on http://wildwebweaving.com or posts on language learning, which I’ve really haven’t made yet, but may start soon, whether here or at a diff. blog. Thanks for your feedback. And congrats on your new home!

    @Darrell, You and Carl have certainly found a way to make FB really work for you. I was highly resistant to FB at first, but I’m coming to realize that I need to integrate it more into my online community. Don’t worry, the posts that’re here are going to stay.

    I am thinking of turning some of the sections like the Intro to Christian Mysticism into an e-book, and fiddling around with some other stuff. Won’t be the first major change. The site used to be a static site called “Jon’s fRimMin’ Space” (You can see the archive at http://web.archive.org/web/20030330020917/http://www.frimmin.com/ )

  11. I pretty much enjoy anything you write John. I like learning about your life, what you think, what’s bugging you or inspiring you. They always say, “write what you know.” Well…. write about what makes *you* tick and that’ll make everyone else tick. 😉

  12. Personal blogging seems to be a dying art, although a few of my online friends, Carl, Bob, Ryan, and Meredith are keeping it alive.

    I’m still around too, though some days I’m not sure why. 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.