One Lovely Award

I was recently nominated for the One Lovely Blog Award. I confess that I hesitated about being involved. It once again felt a little like an online version of the chain letters I received as a child and in which I refused to participate (apologies to any school friends who were completely devastated when they didn’t receive the luck/love/wealth they thought was coming their way; it was probably my fault). However, I have decided to accept the One Lovely Blog Award in the manner I believe it was intended: to encourage and support new and/or emerging bloggers. So thank you to Margret over at Life…Love…Tears…Purpose, for taking the time to check out my blog and consider it worthy of recognition.

In accepting, I am supposed to:

• mention the person who nominated me
• add the award logo to my post
• list seven things about me
• nominate other blogs for the award and let them know I have done so

Seven Things About Me

1. I grew up in one of the remotest country towns in Australia, where I could walk home alone at midnight without fear – except when I came face to face with one of the wild buffalo that wandered through town. Unless you were a kid throwing rocks, they were actually pretty harmless, but still caused my heart rate to increase dramatically.
2. Until recently, I didn’t like chocolate. The first time I was old enough to enjoy Easter eggs, I made myself sick by eating too many. One year, I left my eggs and a copy of Charlotte’s Web out for Father Christmas. According to the note he left, he enjoyed both offerings.
3. When I was 11, I spent a year travelling around Australia with my family in a bright yellow Toyota land-cruiser.
4. My great-great uncle was a bush ranger on the Victorian goldfields. He was caught and sentenced to ten years hard labor.
5. During a routine ultrasound, doctors discovered that out our unborn daughter had severe heart defects. This was the beginning of a long journey in which uncertainty and hope co-existed. While it has undoubtedly been the most difficult experience of my life, it is also the one in which I learned what matters most.
6. One of the most joyous moments of my life was visiting my daughter after her open-heart surgery and noticing her lips were pink (instead of blue) for the first time since her birth.
7. When I was at uni, I worked in a pharmacy and ended up running their photo lab – this was in the days where you still had to use headache inducing chemicals to develop negatives and print the photographs.

The Nominations:

Rather than nominate 15 blogs, as the guidelines suggest, I’m listing about half a dozen blogs that I follow and can wholeheartedly recommend because of their thought provoking and well written posts. Furthermore, if I have nominated your blog, please to do not feel obligated to take part unless you want to – you will not suffer bad luck, poor health or poverty because of your choice –  this is just my opportunity to say I love what you do and think others should check it out too.

Cracked is a blog that combines exquisite writing and beautiful artwork about the journey to becoming your authentic self.

Michael Done writes eloquently and poetically about being imperfect in an imperfect world, but daring to journey towards authenticity and congruence. If you would like know what he means by this, head over to his blog now.

Jacquie Garton-Smith is a writer and doctor who has a ‘passion for writing, especially fiction writing, general practice/family medicine, health communication especially across the Hospital/GP interface and e-health, and improving health care.’

Nathan writes at The Annotations of Nathan Hobby and A Biographer in Perth, both of which have a literary bent, with a few other reflections on life and culture thrown into the mix.

Over on lovemylifeanyway, Lisa blogs about discovering ‘a new me and new style of living while learning to manage chronic illness.’

The Secret Files of an Uncomplicated Life is a combination of writing and visual images, which Jade uses to explore various aspects of her journey.

Keisha plays with the phrase ‘girl next door’ for the title of her blog, The Girl Next Door is Black . Her writing topics are eclectic, but well-informed and engaging to read.

So there you have it. What blogs would you recommend I take a look at?