Yes, it’s true. I’m back. This site is, once again, active! After about two months of absence, I decided it was time to call this blog back to life. I’m guessing a little explanation to my being away is on its place, so shall we start…

I’ve started Jurino.com last winter as a blog, depicting minimalism from a Christian point of view. I have always believed (and I still believe) that Christ calls His followers to live a life of being modest in every aspect and minimalism, to me, seems to be the perfect attitude to express that. Little did I know that this website would have hundreds of hits within the short period it has been online.

This tells me two things. First, that even though I didn’t think so at first, there is a demand for articles about minimalism from a Christian view. (I honestly thought it was all ‘Zen’ before I started) and secondly, that I should pay attention to what I claim darn well, because there are people reading what I write and associating it with my faith.

I guess it’s the last thing that pretty much scared me. Add to that the fact that I thoroughly detest the Narcissism that’s so prevalent in the world right now. (Seriously, do we really need to update all our acquaintances on the things we do on a daily basis? –> “status update: I’m having breakfast – I’m going shopping – Gee, I’m tired – I’m going to bed now, goodnight friends!“) Really, because even though I like to teach people about what I know and what I think words, I don’t want to be one that thinks much of himself.  Sometimes, the praises I got on this blog were a little too much for me.

Two days after I wrote my last post, I got interviewed for a radio programme. It was for a Dutch-Caribbean show about lifestyle. The interviewer apparently thought my pursuing minimalism was interesting enough to dedicate a programme to it. And even though I enjoyed giving the interview and speaking up about minimalism (and why I thinks it’s better than, say… its counterpart consumerism) I kinda felt irky about the whole thing. Surely, I wasn’t so important as to have your listener’s attention for an entire show? And if I was, what was it about me that was most interesting? My persona? My faith? My minimalism?

The interview turned out to be a nice conversation about the things we had in our home, the way we brought up our children and the philosophy behind wanting to own very little. It was fun, and I hope it helped people who listened, but somehow I felt a little dishonest for not explicitly mentioning the real reason behind my motives, which is my call from Christ to live a life of simplicity. Not that I didn’t want to mention it, but it was just that the readers were there for the ‘minimalism’, not the ‘Christianity’ part. Fair enough.

I’ve been absent from the ‘minimalist community’ since then, without announcing my break (because really, if you want to take a break because you fear Narcissism, announcing it only fuels that). I figured that I would lose all readers to this blog, or at least that I would see a serious decline in hits. But nothing of that. Apparently, there’s still a need out there and maybe Im’still able to contribute some useful information. So what can I say…? I’m back! And I promise not to leave without notice again… how’s that?

From now on, I’ll write a little less… with a little more meaning, and I hope we’ll have a little more fun! ;)