Blog #200: Resurrection and Renewal

 On August 24, 2025, I pressed “publish” on the first post of my newly repurposed blog, The Examined Life. Truth be told, this blog has been around since the early 2000s, like an old tree that loses leaves in winter and blooms again in spring. Seasons of energy… seasons of neglect… and occasional reinvention. At one point, I even had to rename it Ex4minedl1fe, not out of creativity, but because memory had become more sieve than trap (I forgot my password).

And now… #200. Two hundred posts. Hundreds of reflections. Countless lessons.

The last two months have been a microcosm of this journey. I stepped away for a bit—ND retreat at Scottsdale, fulfilling civic duty on a Federal Grand Jury, clearing cobwebs over Spring and Easter break. I drafted teacher summatives for hours, preparing for our yearly accreditation—work that felt more like a meditation than a chore. And through it all, the itch returned. The urge to tickle the keys, to write, to examine.

Why now? The Triduum. The Passion of the Lord. His death. His rising from the tomb. Easter isn’t just a date on the calendar. It’s a declaration: life triumphs over dormancy. Light breaks through darkness. Renewal is always possible.

In these last 200 posts, I’ve written about curiosity that flows like water, about confronting uncomfortable truths, about relationships, heritage, faith, and the quiet work of aligning heart and mind. I’ve written about lighter things too—words, history, nursery rhymes, Christmas traditions—because life is a tapestry, heavy threads and light threads intertwined.

Through it all, my audience has been small, faithful, and steadfast. Ten followers. Sixty. Maybe a hundred quietly checking in. You are not numbers. You are my encouragement. You are my inspiration. You are the major reason I keep typing.

Blogging has always been less about applause and more about alignment. Less about virality, more about depth. Less about surface, more about root.

As Easter lilies emerge in my backyard, I see the metaphor in full bloom. Dormant bulbs, buried under soil, rising again with light, rain, and warmth. Death to life. Silence to song. Dormancy to action.

Blog #200 isn’t just a number. It’s a resurrection. It’s a reminder that even when life pauses—through retreat, civic duty, busyness, or doubt—renewal waits for us, quietly, patiently, like the Lord waiting outside the tomb.

So here we are. Two hundred posts later. Still asking. Still thinking. Still examining. Still learning. Still growing. Still rising. And yes… still writing.

Because life and faith are never static. Here’s to the next 200.