Awards

You Said It

January 21, 2013

Do you know how much I love reading comments? Whenever I put up a blog post, I eagerly wait to see what you have to say in response. I read every comment and try to respond to each one. It means a great deal to me when you say something nice about the post, of course, but I also love to hear your thoughts on the topic of the day. In return, I try to visit as many blogs as possible and leave my own comments—even if it’s just a sentence or two so the blogger knows someone has read and understood her (99% of the time it’s a her) words. We all like to be seen and acknowledged, don’t we?

For several months, I’ve been toying with the idea of writing a post quoting you, my wise and witty readers—and today’s the day. Since I’ve been blogging these past three years, you’ve followed my ups and downs and chipped in with your advice and encouragement. Below you’ll find just a few of the comments that have made a difference to me in the last three years, in no particular order. Comments have been edited for length, but not changed in meaning.


Sara: “A friend once told me to buy 5 x 7 cards and whenever you have ‘light’ moment or one that's happy and totally present, you write it down and keep them in one of those albums you can buy at a pharmacy for pictures.

Whenever you're feeling a loss of light, you look through it and remember the times when the ‘light’ was there.” 


Laure: “Some of my happiness busters are being overly tired, too much ‘news’ that I can't do anything about, and some of the ones you mention.

The words to one of the Eagles' songs, Already Gone, keep running through my mind,
‘...so oftentimes it happens we live our life in chains/That we never even know we have the key.....’

How often do we hold ourselves down, back, under, less than, not good enough, not enough and so on, when really…we are more than enough and far more? We just don't understand we are the key.”


Laure: “To my way of thinking there are seeds of bad in all good things that happen and seeds of good in all bad things that happen…it is up to us which we cultivate.”

Elizabeth: “I agree with Laure—there are seeds of both in every experience…and with Kathy and the story of the farmer—time will tell which is good or bad.

It seems to me that it is nearly always up to ME in how I choose to see an event. Sometimes stepping back to observe the big picture is all I need to adjust my thinking.”


Kathy M: “The older that I get, the less hard I am on myself and on others. I wish that I had done many things different, but, look, it has all turned out fine in spite of myself.

Long ago I heard that regret in a way insults the person that I was long ago, before I knew better. Life is a journey, and perhaps when we are better at forgiving ourselves we become better at forgiving others.”


Timaree: “Sometimes we get frozen in the litany of things happening all around of which we have little say. Mother Teresa used to tell people when they asked what they could do, to love and take care of their families. That's our first and most important job and when that is taken care of, we can branch out. Like you, I would love to see a world of people being kind to one another. It has to start somewhere and if taking care of ourselves gets us going then let's do it. I read on another post today about a smile that led to one thing and then another and another. That's something we should all be able to do—give a smile. They can be contagious as a yawn.”

And though I didn’t include quotes from you in this list, I deeply appreciate the continued friendship and input of Claire, Cheryl, and Danielle. (And I miss you, Meredith!) I thank you for all your encouraging, wise, funny and delightful comments. And because you all have made such a difference to me, I pass on the “Wonderful Team Member Award” to each one of you. (Thank you to Kathy of Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy who passed this on to me.) I know some bloggers aren’t big on awards, but I liked this one because it honors the thoughtfulness of blog readers. Feel free to accept and pass on if you wish. If otherwise, just know that I (and all bloggers) appreciate your taking the time to comment on our work.

If you choose to participate, the rules are as follows:
  1. Thank the nominator and link back to their site (Thanks, Kathy—see above).
  2. Display the award (see below).
  3. Nominate no more than 14 readers of your blog you appreciate and leave a comment on their blogs to let them know about the award.
  4. Finish this sentence: A great reader is…Someone who reads in a spirit of curiosity and openness, takes what she can from what she reads and lets the rest go. 

Awards

7 x 7

April 27, 2012


7x7award

Last week while I was out of town (more about that next week), Danielle at A Work in Progress tagged me with the 7 x 7 link award. So while I’m unpacking and organizing my photos and doing laundry, I’ll stop for a minute to complete this meme. Here are the instructions:

1. Tell everyone something about yourself that nobody else knows.
2. Link to a post you think fits the following categories: Most Beautiful Piece, Most Helpful Piece, Most Popular Piece, Most Controversial Piece, Most Surprisingly Successful Piece, Most Underrated Piece, Most Pride-worthy Piece.
3. Pass this on to seven fellow bloggers.

1. Most of the bloggers are skipping this one, and there’s not much that nobody else knows (that I care to reveal, anyway!), but let me think… how about: though I don’t know if my shoulder tendonitis would permit it, I would like to learn how to fence—en garde!

2. Posts for the following categories:
Most Beautiful Piece: Personally, I like the dreamy feel of After the Rain.

Most Helpful Piece: The Good Enough Blog Post.

Most Popular Piece: Judging by number of comments, I’d say So Much More has been the most popular. 

Most Controversial Piece: I don’t “do” controversial—but maybe this one comes close? 

Most Surprisingly Successful Piece: The reading challenge posts last year here and here seemed to attract a lot of interest and comments.

Most Underrated Piece: Life Lessons from a Panda.  Not everyone likes to take their life lessons from cartoons…

Most Pride-worthy Piece: Discovery: Ellen Glasgow. I loved reading Barren Ground and researching Glasgow, and was proud of how this piece turned out.

I had fun reviewing nearly two and a half years of posts. Do you agree with my choices?

The seven bloggers I tag are:


Elizabeth at More to Love

Kathy at Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy

Michelle at A Reader’s Footprints

Sage at The Path of Possibility

Kelly at Red and the Peanut

Elizabeth at A Nature Art Journal

Don’t worry if you don’t want to play, and if you’re not mentioned and this meme sounds fun to you, consider yourself tagged also!

Bloggers

Five Down, 95 to Go

March 01, 2011

I have a confession to make. I want to write a book. I’ve got a title, some chapter headings, an introduction and a vague idea of where I want to go with it. But I don’t really know anything about writing a book. Magazine articles, short pieces for the internet, blog posts, yes—books, no. So I’m educating myself, starting with a book called Chapter After Chapter. One of the recommendations the author makes is to read 100 books similar to the one you want to write. I’ve begun that project by exploring the world of blogger/authors. I thought I’d share with you five books by bloggers I’ve read recently:

My Formerly Hot Life, Stephanie Dolgoff. Blog: http://www.formerlyhot.com/. “You are not the young, relevant, in-the-mix woman you used to be. But neither are you old, or even what you think of as middle-aged. You are no longer what you were, but not quite sure what you are.” Dolgoff examines the major areas of a Formerly’s life, and how they have changed and are changing. Her conclusion: it’s not so bad to be a Formerly—but you won’t know that until you become one.

Living Oprah, Robyn Okrant. Blog: http://www.livingoprah.com/. Is it possible to discover one’s authentic self by following someone else’s ideal? Okrant attempts to answer this by doing everything Oprah says to do on her TV show, in O Magazine and on her Web site. This book entertained me, while making me glad I wasn’t taking on a project like this. (The control freak in me would have had a nervous breakdown.)

The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin. Blog: http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/. This is one of my favorite blogs, and I’ve mentioned the book here before.

It Sucked and Then I Cried, Heather B. Armstrong, otherwise known as Dooce. Blog: http://dooce.com/. Armstrong’s book chronicles her struggle with mental health issues while trying to care for her infant daughter. Dooce is incredibly successful as a blogger, and was featured this weekend in the New York Times Magazine.

Life is a Verb, Patti Digh. Digh is not primarily a blogger, though she does have one (http://37days.typepad.com/). I happened to finish her book right when I was preparing this post, and I loved it so much I wanted to share it with you. The 37-day time frame came from Digh’s experience of her stepfather’s death: he died 37 days after being diagnosed with lung cancer. She writes, “The time frame of thirty-seven days made an impression on me. We often live as if we have all the time in the world, but the definite-ness of thirty-seven days was striking. So short a time, as if all the regrets and joys of a life would barely have time to register before it was up…. What emerged was a commitment to ask myself this question every morning: What would I be doing today if I only had thirty-seven days to live?

These books give me hope. If they can do it, why can’t I?

I’m going to keep exploring the world of blogger/authors. Any recommendations?