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Finding Silence in the Noise
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What I've Learned After Six Weeks Away From Facebook (and Why I Might Be Back Soon)

When I left Facebook and Twitter six weeks ago, I wrote a farewell blog post. Maybe social media doesn't play much of a role in your life, but for me it was a big deal - it felt like I was leaving some dear friends, and I wondered how in the world I would continue to expand my reach as an author without the tools of Facebook and Twitter.

But I also felt an immense sense of peace. Social media had grown into a time-consuming, distracting, noisy force in my life, and I needed a break. As I stepped away, it was with a strong sense that it would be a very long time before I returned. I certainly didn't think that a mere six weeks later I'd be reconsidering my decision.

The primary force in getting me back into the social media circus is the fact that I recently signed with a literary agent. I reached out to various agents, through a few close writer friends, with the hope that an agent might help me take that next step in my career as a co-writer/ghostwriter, linking me up with more and higher profile jobs. As my agent and I spoke, she expressed her conviction that she could do that for me - but she also wondered if I had any book ideas of my own that she could try to sell to publishers. That sounded exciting.

As we wrapped up our conversation, she said something that left me with the realization that I had a decision to make.

"Okay," she said, "Get working on your platform. Try to get your numbers back up."

* * * * *

Social media silence can be a very healthy thing. It can give you the space you need to reevaluate how you're interacting with the world. It can give you a quiet dwelling, the ability to actually hear and discern the driving voices in your head. But for some of us, either because of our careers or our personalities, social media can also be a huge tool, a wonderful way of staying in touch, or the thing that keeps us from becoming too isolated from the rest of the world.

Just as I was asking myself some tough questions ("Am I selling out by returning? But I miss my friends - wouldn't it be nice to be back on Facebook and Twitter? How will I keep it from taking over my life again?), I read this, one of my favorite passages from Thomas Merton's book New Seeds of Contemplation:

"But if you try to escape from this world merely by leaving the city and hiding yourself in solitude, you will only take the city with you into solitude; and yet you can be entirely out of the world while remaining in the midst of it, if you let God set you free from your own selfishness and if you live for love alone."

You know, there is a way for all of us to find the silence we need, even in the midst of social media's chaos, the 24-hour news cycle's din, the bickering of politics. We can take part in these things and still experience a life-giving practice of silence, if we can step away from our selfishness, if we can set our sights on living a life of love.

So I guess this is the next challenge for me. Returning from my solitude, yet somehow keeping the wonderful peace I found. I hope you'll keep traveling with me. I think we all still have a lot to learn when it comes to silence, solitude, and living the best life we can...even with Facebook's little red numbers flashing on our screens.

BIG QUESTION: What are social media's positive affects in your own life? How do you keep a balance between its noise and finding the silence we all need?
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A Peek Inside My Office (or, the Case of the Missing Prayer Beads)

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about things like perseverance, fear, and the power of time. I’ve examined my willingness to stick with something for the long haul. I wonder if my past failures (or non-successes) have affected my ability to start new things with passion and commitment.

You read the rest of this blog post HERE.


A New Podcast...About Death???

I'm starting a new podcast with Bryan Allain (humorist, podcast producer, and blogger at BryanAllain.com) and Caleb Wilde (blogger at Confessions of a Funeral Director). We're going to share poignant, compelling stories about death, hopefully bringing all of us together in our grief and our humanity. We're hoping to have the first episodes ready by November, so stay tuned for more about that.

Here it is: The Contract
 
Yesterday I signed a contract with a literary agent. Even though I've been moving more and more into the realm of self-publishing, having an agent is always something I've sort of dreamed about. Now, six years after my journey into full time writing began, I'm being represented. This will hopefully bring me more co-writing/ghostwriting work and may lead to the publication of a book idea that's near and dear to my heart.
 


What I've Read Recently:
Bandersnatch by Erica Morrison
Wild in the Hollow by Amber Haines
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

What I'm Reading Now:
Simply Tuesday by Emily P. Freeman
The Handmaid's Tale by Margarat Atwood

What I'm Looking Forward to Reading
Coming Clean by Seth Haines
Every Little Thing by Deidra Riggs

If you like to read, connect with me over at Goodreads.
I'd love to see what books you're into.

 

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"We do not go into the desert to escape people but to learn how to find them; we do not leave them in order to have nothing more to do with them, but to find out the way to do them the most good."

Thomas Merton,
New Seeds of Contemplation

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The Sights of Summer

We took a day and escaped with the kids to a local amusement park. This is Leo (1) and Abra (7) enjoying a ride together. It's been a good summer. For more pics like this, join me over at Instagram - you can find me @shawnsmucker.
 

You may be receiving this email after receiving a free copy of my book Building a Life Out of Words over at Noisetrade. I hope you'll hang around and join me as I explore silence, stillness, and all kinds of other things. Or maybe this email was forwarded to you by a friend and you'd like to subscribe. You can do that HERE. I normally send something out every two weeks, and your email address will never be given to a third party.

 
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Copyright © 2015 Shawn Smucker, All rights reserved.

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Lancaster, PA 17603

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