why I blog...

A blogging mama I know was going to quit, but couldn't bring herself to do it, as she wrote in this post. Another blogging mama, whom I don't know personally, deleted her blog last year, but is diving right back in... (hooray! this was always one of my favorite blogs) I've said that I'm going to blog less, read fewer blogs, and spend less time in general on the computer. I have even contemplated hitting the "Delete This Blog!" button a few times. But, I keep coming back to it and I think that Pope Benedict XVI says why for me in his message for the 43rd World Communications Day, New Technologies, New Relationships. Promoting a culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship.

He writes that new technologies are so popular because "they respond to a fundamental desire of people to communicate and to relate to each other. This desire for communication and friendship is rooted in our very nature as human beings..." "In reality, when we open ourselves to others, we are fulfilling our deepest need and becoming more fully human."

He also says that "The concept [of friendship] is one of the noblest achievements of human culture. It is in and through our friendships that we grow and develop as humans. For this reason, true friendship has always been seen as one of the greatest goods any human person can experience." This is why I started this blog and why I keep writing.

I know the danger in my time spent on-line lies in what he says next, "It would be sad if our desire to sustain and develop on-line friendships were to be at the cost of our availability to engage with our families, our neighbours and those we meet in the daily reality of our places of work, education and recreation. If the desire for virtual connectedness becomes obsessive, it may in fact function to isolate individuals from real social interaction while also disrupting the patterns of rest, silence and reflection that are necessary for healthy human development."

And so I, like many others, continue to seek the balance that helps me continue to grow in holiness. Lord, make me a saint!