I posted my first blog in MSN Spaces in August 2005.

Back then, it was a place to post about mission trips and conferences, Bible studies and youth ministry. I commented on events in the world and observations about everyday life.

It’s been almost eight years.

And I need an official break.

I’ve taken unofficial breaks of several weeks before. They’ve always been followed by breathless explanations of why I hadn’t blogged and a solemn promise to be more consistent.

Not this time. This time, I’m making no promises.

—

Being a writer, to me, is equal parts creation and consumption.

To be creative in my words, I have to consume the world around me in the best possible way. I see the way a Mom sends her Marine son off at the airport or the loving way an old man cuts his wife’s food at a restaurant. I read books to soak in another’s creativity, finding new inspiration in the images painted by the words. I listen to music to hear the poetry of the lyric fused against a rush of sound.

Since I returned to my first career love (the newspapers), creation has outpaced consumption – drastically.

I’m empty.

It’s time to be filled again.

So with this post, I’m giving permission.

Permission to myself to ignore the nagging voice telling me I have to post to keep readers.

Permission to readers to click away.

Permission to read a book without an obligation to write a review.

Permission to watch a well-written TV show without trying to write a blog post at the same time.

Permission to just live and not see events in terms of their blog potential.

Permission to take long walks with frequent stops to take pictures of flowers growing in the tough spaces.

—

“It’s no big deal, it’s just — we have to go away and … and dream it all up again.”

Bono said that. It was in December 1989 and U2 was playing a concert in Dublin. It was after the popularity of The Joshua Tree landed them on the cover of time and Rattle and Hum sent them to the critics’ dust bin.

It wasn’t meant to be the announcement of the break-up of the band – although that nearly happened. They knew they were headed in a different direction, but they just needed to find it.  It was tense in a German recording studio until The Edge started playing a chord progression that caught the attention of the other band members. In a flurry of creativity that lasted about 15 minutes, the band had a song that broke through their creative struggles.

The song was One, my favorite song from Achtung Baby, one of my favorite albums of all time.

I’m pretty sure my blog break isn’t going to give rise to a work of art like that, but I am going away to dream it all up again.

It may be that I decide not to return.

But maybe, just maybe I’ll have that breakthrough that renews my lost love for blogging.