Diabetes Blessings Week on Hiatus

I mentioned in a tweet the other night that I was considering discontinuing the annual Diabetes Blessings Week blog carnival that I’ve hosted for the last few years. I mentioned a lack of participation, the abundance of advocacy efforts throughout November and the rest of the year and, most importantly, my struggles with burnout as the reasons.

I’ve given a lot of thought to the decision and the feedback I’ve received since posting those tweets. And rather than discontinuing the event all together, what I’m going to do is take a break from hosting it this year, and devote this Diabetes Awareness Month to focusing on the issues that I’m dealing with personally.

While it saddens me, I know that this is the best decision at this time. And, after the dust settles a bit, I’ll look toward planning for next year’s event.

My thanks to all of you who have supported Diabetes Blessings Week the last few years. I hope you all understand the need for this break, and I hope you’ll join the fun again next November.

Lots of love, DOC.

Mike.

2 Comments

Karen

11/02/2013 at 6:47 pm

I think putting yourself first and working on your own stuff is absolutely the right decision!! I will miss Diabetes Blessings Week, but I’m glad to hear it will be back in the future. (And also, it doesn’t necessarily have to be in November, right?)

Mike

11/04/2013 at 8:48 pm

Karen, thank you so much for being such strong supporter of Diabetes Blessings Week from the beginning, and for understand the need to step back this year. I truly appreciate it. No, the event doesn’t necessarily have to be in November. My reasoning behind having it during Thanksgiving week has always been that it’s a time when folks are traditionally thinking about the blessings in their lives. Seems only fitting that their diabetes blessings should be counted during that week as well. But, in the grand scheme of things, people should be counting their blessings all year long. So, perhaps a different time period wouldn’t be such a bad thing. We’ll see what happens. 🙂

Karen

11/02/2013 at 6:47 pm

I think putting yourself first and working on your own stuff is absolutely the right decision!! I will miss Diabetes Blessings Week, but I’m glad to hear it will be back in the future. (And also, it doesn’t necessarily have to be in November, right?)
- Mike
  
  11/04/2013 at 8:48 pm
  
  Karen, thank you so much for being such strong supporter of Diabetes Blessings Week from the beginning, and for understand the need to step back this year. I truly appreciate it. No, the event doesn’t necessarily have to be in November. My reasoning behind having it during Thanksgiving week has always been that it’s a time when folks are traditionally thinking about the blessings in their lives. Seems only fitting that their diabetes blessings should be counted during that week as well. But, in the grand scheme of things, people should be counting their blessings all year long. So, perhaps a different time period wouldn’t be such a bad thing. We’ll see what happens. 🙂