A time for every purpose under heaven

I've lived my entire life below the Mason-Dixon line, so I'm not used to a great deal of winter weather. In the towns and cities where I've lived - in Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina - you can usually expect autumn weather to extend to the end of November, with spring picking up sometime in mid-February. The "cold" months of December and January rarely see temperatures in the 30s lasting more than 2 or 3 days in a row.

That changed last weekend. We got about 7.5 inches of snow in Durham, and it is sticking around. Readers from more northern climes might read that sentence with a yawn, but Southern blood tends to be of a thinner sort. The pictures attached to this post are of our house and neighborhood on Saturday morning. It has felt bitterly cold.

It's nice, in a way, to see evidence of that elusive fourth season of the calendar year. It's a reminder that, as Ecclesiastes speaks about so eloquently, "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven" (3:1).

This blog is right at 3 1/2 years old. The writing that I began on it at the same time my wife and I moved to Durham has been profoundly enjoyable, and it has put me in touch with people from all over who I would never have known about otherwise.

But in blogging, too, there are seasons and times. And right now I'm entering a season where I need to turn my attention to some other tasks that will keep me from being able to post as much. I'm not going to shut the blog down, and I may pop up from time to time over the coming months. I do need to back away from writing in this medium as often, as a way of prioritizing my time. So keep me in your reader if you subscribe that way, or just drop by every now and again. I'll let you know when I can start posting again more regularly.

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Note: If you've been following my posts on Haiti, then you ought to take a look at this excellent story in the New York Times that gives some historical perspective on Haiti's struggles.