When I started this little blog a bit over four years ago, the blogosphere was a different place. The pioneers of blogs were well-established and had created a viable vehicle to enhance communication of information and ideas, but the blogosphere was a much smaller place. My initial goal was simply to communicate more effectively with an eclectic email group that I had maintained for about five years that was comprised of about 100 friends and family members, mostly businesspeople, clients and former clients, academicians, lawyers, and doctors.

I initially informed no one about the blog other than the members of that email list and figured that, at best, most of them would take a look at it every week or two. Much to my surprise, hundreds and then thousands more began reading it almost immediately. As one sage regular reader apprised me, "Kirk, the success of your blog is conclusive proof that a large number of people don’t have enough to do."

As anyone reading this blog knows, the blogsophere has exploded over the past four years into a key information source and communication device that even few of the blog pioneers predicted. Specialized blogs in such diverse areas as law, business, economics, medicine, education and politics (among others) have fundamentally enhanced the distribution of information and the communication of ideas. As I mentioned in a presentation that I gave on blogs last year at the State Bar of Texas Bankruptcy Seminar, if a lawyer today is not at least periodically reading the specialized blawgs that are addressing the key issues, developments and ideas that are related to the matters on which he or she is providing service to clients, then that lawyer almost certainly is not providing the best quality of service to the clients that is currently available in the marketplace of legal services.

As with many things in life, my blogging over time fell into a rhythm of about 15-17 posts per week, usually three a day on weekdays and a single post on the weekend days. Inasmuch as I also maintain an active family life and a busy law practice, that output was sometimes challenging to maintain, but the benefits of doing so far outweighed the cost in time expended — I have made dozens of new friends through blogging and gained a far richer understanding of many issues and ideas through the blogospheric discussion of them.

Now, however, the time has come for my blogging season to change. Over the past couple of days, my family and I have had to confront a most difficult crisis in our lives. Please don’t be alarmed — the crisis does not involve my health, which continues to be blessedly excellent. Moreover, I am blessed with a wonderful wife, great children and a loving, supportive family who make dealing with these inevitable occurrences in life much easier and more manageable. My family and I will come through this chapter of our lives just fine.

But in the end, my time is finite and the two most important customers for that time are my family and my clients. My family needs more of that time now, and my clients don’t deserve any less, so I am gladly cutting down the time I previously used for blogging to accommodate my family. That’s not a tough call.

I won’t be leaving the blogosphere completely, though. I will continue to post on the topics that I have addressed over the past four years when I have the time and note an issue or idea that particularly stimulates my interest. My posts just won’t be as frequent as they have been. Thank you for making this blog such a fulfilling experience for me and please continue to check in on my little corner of the blogosphere sandbox when you have a moment. Hopefully, there will always be room in your life for a little clear thinking.