{"id":7828,"date":"2012-03-06T05:04:42","date_gmt":"2012-03-06T10:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/?p=7828"},"modified":"2013-01-01T19:14:21","modified_gmt":"2013-01-02T00:14:21","slug":"getting-my-monk-on-this-lent-blogs-and-bondage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/getting-my-monk-on-this-lent-blogs-and-bondage\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting my Monk on this Lent. [Blogs and Bondage]"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_7829\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7829\" style=\"width: 250px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/gandalftoy01.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7829\" title=\"gandalftoy01\" src=\"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/gandalftoy01.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/gandalftoy01.jpg 250w, https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/gandalftoy01-170x300.jpg 170w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7829\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">wise wizard and guide Gandalf from Lord of the Rings<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Today, I&#8217;m getting all Jesuit. I&#8217;m <a href=\"http:\/\/jesuitcenter.org\/history.htm\">here<\/a> with some monks, spiritual siblings, and the Holy Spirit doing an inward gaze with a Lenten focus.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Why? Because it&#8217;s good for me.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One of the genuine spiritual perils of blogging is becoming a slave to the blog, and technology in general. The fact is, when I use social media to promote my blog then more people read it. The unintended consequence is that I grow obligated to tend that thorny patch to keep things going.<\/p>\n<p>The fine line between obligatory blog promotion and bondage is a surprisingly fine one. I check my stats. <em>Is this post working?<\/em>\u00a0<em>Which tweets helped the most? Who&#8217;s retweeting and passing along the message? When and how should I thank him or her? round and round&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The quick result is little carved out time of true <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/chrisaltrock.com\/2010\/05\/ten-creative-ways-to-connect-with-christ-1-unplugging\/\" target=\"_blank\">unplugging<\/a><\/strong>. Something that will directly refresh my soul, establish healthy spaces and balance, sharpen my awareness to God&#8217;s will, and in fact create reservoirs in me for better blogging and interactions later.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s like going too long without water. Once dehydration sets in you stop feeling thirsty&#8230;when water is necessary to put things right again.<\/p>\n<p>As bloggers (or any kind of humans) we must block out time for this true rest. Put it on the calendar <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><em><strong>in pen<\/strong><\/em><\/span>, and schedule it in like any other appointment. Otherwise, the urgent crowds out the crucial space and genuine pause we need. And, trust me, we suffer for it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Have you ever gone on this sort of retreat?<\/strong> You know, a time away with&#8230;quiet, prayer, silent or common meals, great scenery, no technology, and maybe even a kind of spiritual Gandalf type guide to help you along the way?<\/p>\n<p>I haven&#8217;t been to a monastery for a retreat, so I&#8217;ll be excited to share some of what I learn. <strong>Friends<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>Please pray for me today.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>See you on the other side!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;The fine line between obligatory blog promotion and bondage is a surprisingly fine one.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,5335],"tags":[6553,5518,5520,5519,2000,2251,60,2709,2860,2867,6109,3083,3129,3139,3191,75,83],"class_list":["post-7828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-authors","category-creativity","tag-4bloggers","tag-gandalf","tag-inner-gaze","tag-jesuit","tag-lent","tag-monks","tag-prayer","tag-promotion","tag-rest","tag-retreat","tag-sgb","tag-silence","tag-social-media","tag-solitude","tag-spiritual-director","tag-spiritual-practices","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7828"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11169,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7828\/revisions\/11169"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}