In the summer of 2010, I started my very first blog, Another Ascending Lark. For the next four years I would write often on apologetics, theology, personal events, and anything else that felt like writing about. I would also write a ton of music reviews, and in 2014 I pivoted Another Ascending Lark from being a diverse personal blog to one specifically focused on music and entertainment. I began a podcast called The Closing Track, built a comprehensive website, and even recruited a base of writers and editors who could (and did) contribute their own content – only to shutter it all barely a year later.
In 2018, after a few years of writing as a guest contributor of other blogs and a brief revival of a personal blog, I began a podcast called Breaking the Digital Spell. Initially conceived to be only a podcast, I eventually got the idea to repeat my grandiose ambitions with Another Ascending Lark, and in the summer of 2019 I built a comprehensive website and recruited a writer who contributed his own content (and even hosted me at his church to speak once), only to shutter it all barely a year later.
I have always enjoyed writing. I do not consider myself to be a good writer, but I find it beneficial for me and, amazingly, sometimes my writing is beneficial to others. When I began my first blog a decade ago, I had no ambitions other than to write and to enjoy writing. I had no desire for platforms or podcasts, but in time I came to associate writing as means to the end of building a platform or accompanying a podcast. Writing simply for the sake of writing became a foreign concept, and the burnout that often ensued from everything other than writing would keep me from doing the one thing I actually wanted to do.
The Preacher once said that there is a time to build and a time to tear down (Ecc 3:3), and after the past five or six years of attempting to build something bigger than writing, I believe it is now time to tear those ambitions down and focus solely on writing. Breaking the Digital Spell, my podcast, remains on hiatus and I look forward to producing a second season someday, but I will not let the maintenance and upkeep of a platform drain my time and creative energy anymore. Instead of a complicated website, here is a simple WordPress blog. Instead of producing content on meticulous schedules, I will write when I have time and the conviction to say something. Instead of writing as a means to other ends, writing will be the end itself – as it should have been all along.
And so, here we find ourselves again. Ten years ago I began a blog, and ten years later I would return to blogging after years of attempting to do everything else. It feels good to be home.
That Gravley Guy 