TIME OFF

I am taking some time off from The Buddha Diaries. It's a difficult decision for me. On the one hand, there's the fear that readers will abandon me in droves, especially at a moment when my (world-wide!) readership seems to have been building once again. On the other, the blog is an addiction of a kind, and missing even a day is accompanied by a feeling that I have not done something that I should have done.

But there is another call right now, and it has been getting stronger by the day: I have mentioned, I'm sure, that new book of essays I have been working on, a kind of sequel to Persist, whose success has encouraged me to believe that there are readers who would welcome another of its kind. The project has been sitting around in fairly complete manuscript form for a good while now, just begging for attention, and it needs time and patience to work through and bring to completion.

I have watched myself postpone that work from day to day and week to week and have reached the point where I know that I have to clear the head space and the time to get it done. So I need to put my ego-attachment to The Buddha Diaries aside and focus on this other commitment for the next couple of weeks at least. It may be that odd pieces emerge along the way that I'll want to post here, too, but my main thrust is going to have to be elsewhere.

I'm confident that those who are kind and interested enough to follow The Buddha Diaries will be back when I return to it. In the meantime, though, here's sending metta to all, a wish for good health and happiness--not to mention a national return to sanity in time for the election!