Yikes, Another Award!

Hearty thanks go out to Paula Tohline Calhoun for nominating me for the Sunshine Award.  I accept with heart-felt gratitude.  This particular award had absolute perfect timing for me, and I’ll tell you why.   Today, I was feeling somewhat useless and unappreciated (post started on March 22/12).  Since I don’t enjoy wallowing in negativity, I sent the wish out into the universe for something to help me out of the blue funk.

At a luncheon with friends, these ladies, one and all, expressed their appreciation for my past help in my role as spiritual wayshower a couple of years ago (I conducted some self-help classes that were apparently very helpful).  I did feel better after that, but then I thought, they did all the work…I just helped them to organize it, so maybe I didn’t really deserve their praise (see how a blue funk can eat positive energy?).  I was losing that glow and feeling a little desperate, when I came home and read my email.

 One of them directed me to the award and the neat things Paula had to say about my blogging, and especially about my comments.  THAT was the icing on the cake, which enabled me to neatly sidestep the dreaded blue funk..  So…Paula, thank you for being in the perfectly right place at the perfectly right time…at least for me.

And now on to the Sunshine Award.  The requirements include posting the Sunshine Award badge (see above image), passing the award along to ten other bloggers you feel are deserving of the award (see below, in no particular order), and sharing ten things about myself (see also below).  As emphasized by Paula in her acceptance speech, please don’t feel obligated to accept the award.  I know some people feel it a pain to carry out the requirements and don’t have enough time to do what they need to do.  But if you do have the time, please acept the award as the honor I intend it to be.

NEW SUNSHINE CANDIDATES

1. Enduring the Silence – Debbie Norman’s “blog about autism with acceptance, love, faith, and fight.” Debbie gives me sunshine with her every post because of the deep insights she provides and the cheerful way she accepts what she needs to do.  She is the perfect example of:  if life hands you a lemon, make lemonade.

2. The Water Witch’s Daughter – Suzicate’s wonderfully expressive blog about all things positive under the sun.  Along with being a great photographer, Suzicate just has a way with words that generally put a positive spin on just about any subject she tackles.  That’s sunshine, folks! 🙂

3. Miss Beehaven with Hobbit Queen – Beginners Luck with Honeybee Farming.  You might think that a blog about honeybee farming might be too technical or, frankly, boring for non-honeybee farmers.  Wrong!  Hobbit Queen has imbued her blog with freshness, great pictures, and an endearing look at both the honeybee and her travails and wet-behind-the-ears honeybee farmers who seem to make it fun AND a success.  Pure sunshine!

4. Rumpydog – “I’m a dog with a unique perspective.” Submitted by Rumpydog’s mom, Jennifer Threet, this blog is from Rumpydog’s perspective.  Rumpy, a beautiful black and white Malemute and a rescue dog, conducts interviews with various animals (and once with Santa Claus himself), offers opinions and tales of his adventures.  Frequently amusing and always interesting, Rumpydog puts an insider’s spin on kindness to animals and the world they live in.  Good sunshine.

5. Out of the Woods – “My journey into authorhood.” An Eastern New Yorker transplanted to the UK nine years ago, Billie Jo Woods is working towards authorhood and letting us watch alongside her.  What sets Billie Jo apart from many of the thousands of wannabe authors is that she writes from the heart and very often gives valuable insight and advice on the process as she goes along.  She also writes about facets of her life, interesting in her easy-to-read style.  More sunshine.

6. The Painted Universe – “Tales from a technicolor life.”  Anna is the hilarious writer of this blog, which has become one of my very favorite spirit blogs.  She writes about her invisible boyfriend Daniel in a way that not only lifts the hair on my arms but often gives me a hearty chuckle as well.  Having had experiences along these lines myself, Anna helps reassure me that I’m not crazy and that communicating with a centuries-dead-boyfriend is not the least bit unusual.  Yup, sunshine!

7. aNTibakTeRiYeL – I’d cite the quote from this site, but I can’t because it’s not in English. Thus, I don’t usually go to Tarkan F’s blog for the text posts (although often he translates them from Turkish (I think) into English).  However, his photographs are stunning, and he usually has an English translation of the text that accompanies them.  I defy you to go to his current photograph of an unusual leaf and his meaningful text, and not feel some sunshine entering your heart! 🙂

8. Inspired Vision – “Cecilia Futch’s Blog” – The first thing I noticed about Cecilia’s blog was the photograph of the adorable little girl from possibly the ’50s or ’60s.  I loved that pic and would return to the blog, just to look at the pic.  Well, Cecilia’s posts are like that pic–happy, sometimes not-so-happy but still inspirational, funny, and/or from the heart, and accompanied by gorgeous photos.  Take a look at today’s (Mar. 25/12) photo and see if it doesn’t lift your spirit.  That’s sunshine!

9. Huffygirl’s Blog – “Laugh. Cry. Think. Learn. Light-hearted musings about wellness and life.” In this particular series of awards, I tried to give it to people I follow who haven’t received an award from me before.  Obviously they provide me sunshine, since I still follow them (I am a sunshine sort of person :P).  However, there are two bloggers who consistently give me a good ration of sunshine every time I visit their blogs.  Huffygirl is one of them, and her own caption says it all.  Thanks, HG!

10. Spirit Lights the Way – You knew this one would be on the list, right?  Nancy Hatch offers a potpourri of everything–humor, inspirational, investigative, recreatonal, personal–you name it.  But each post carries her own brand of thoughtfulness and caring.  Some of her posts have made me think, others have inspired me in my own life.  And each one carries its own brand of sunshine.

Well, folks, that’s all for now.  I’m going to have to do another post another day to list the 10 unusual things about me.  Thanks for reading along this far.

Related articles

• The Sunshine Blog Award (meaningfulwesternlife.com)
• Sunday Sunshine Award (postadaychallenge2011.com)
• Sunshine Award (russelllindsey.wordpress.com)
• Sunshine Award (heartwhispers.co.uk)
• Monday Joy (paulatohlinecalhoun1951.wordpress.com)