Share the love, give gratitude and forge new friendships

Today I’m both honoured and privileged to be posting about award nominations bestowed by the amazingly generous WordPress community.  So I want to share the love, give gratitude and forge new friendships because when all is said and done what else is life really about?

• I give thanks to my dear friend Ajaytao for the Liebster – Share the Love – Award.  Ajaytao is both wise and heartening. Take a look at his blog because you’ll find a wealth of treasures there.

• I found friendship and hold much love for Cancer in my Thirties who nominated me for the Reality Blog Award. Please visit her, share your love with a truly amazing and valiant lady. She is an inspiration for us all.

• Much appreciation and admiration goes to Glorious Mettle for the Wonderful Team Member Readership Award.  Friendship is, after all, about being a team. Glorious Mettle is a creative gem in this world so go see what she does because it’s very impressive.

The bestowal of these awards comes with a small ‘to do’ list:

Answer the following questions:

1. What makes you happiest?  Seeing the sun rise, knowing it offers the opportunity to embrace another brand new day.

2. Do you love the Ocean or the Mountains more? Always loved the mountains and the oceans are beautiful too.

3. What has been your favourite moment of 2012?  Seeing my son smile, most recently after being offered the part-time job he wanted.

4. What is your favourite quote and why? I have several – two from Richard Bach come to mind: “Can miles truly separate you from friends… If you want to be with someone you love, aren’t you already there?” ― because I was physically separated from many of those dear to me in 2012 and “The meaning I picked, the one that changed my life: Overcome fear, behold wonder” – because when faced with adversity there is no other way to live.

5. Do you like yourself?  Yes, it took a while but I do and I think you have to be comfortable with yourself in order to truly appreciate the beauty of others.

6. Do you stay up till the Stroke of Midnight on New Years Eve?  Yes, I usually do.

7. Something you wish you get it done ASAP?  I try not to put anything off because tomorrow might not come.

8. What was your favourite class while still in school?  Chemistry

9. What musical instrument have you tried to learn to play? Many – guitar, saxophone, piano, recorder, harmonica, lute, mandolin…. and flute (it remains my nemesis!)

10. Anything you wish you had learned earlier? That life is short so it’s important to appreciate everything (people, places, nature) you love every day.

11. Do you like to do crafts or draw or even paint?  Yes, I love art in all its forms, especially pottery.

Pass on the award to 11 of my friends whom I love and adore:

I’m still breathing

Pulling on the pity strings

Canadian hiking photography

A new free life

Mia Blunt

Moms-opinions

Mae’s Day

Positive potential medicine

Thoughts of a lunatic

Of Mind or Matter

Nirvanatrails

I’m told no rules for this one and as someone who isn’t always good at sticking to them that’s no bad thing!

• Thank the nominator and link back to their site – Thanks again Glorious Mettle 🙂
• Display the award logo on your blog.
• Nominate no more than fourteen readers of your blog you appreciate and leave a comment to let them know about the award.

Gemmerzz.me

Memoirs of a Dragon

Lump

Marty’s Place

Russian recipes from the self-cooking tablecloth

• Finish this sentence:  “A great reader is…      ”

 Someone who sees the words, hears their intent, feels their meaning and imagines beyond them….

Something beautiful

When I woke up this morning I found a visitor in the garden. I love these little creatures and find them very endearing.  I thought hedgehogs were nocturnal but it turns out they do forage during the day and this one was busily munching his way through seeds dropped by the birds.  We don’t have many wild mammals in the UK and the ones that remain tend to be small. They’re still beautiful.

Something beautiful has happened since I began blogging.

I wasn’t expecting it and I’ve been surprised, amazed and very touched.  The support, thoughts, encouragement and kindness of the blogging community has reached me from all over the world.  Connections have been forged that it would be impossible to create in any other way and I’ve received the most amazing gifts. People have written poetry, added heart-warming comments and given award nominations. It’s more than I ever expected from a blog designed to keep a small group of family and friends up to date with my continually evolving life during and after breast cancer treatment.

I want to say thank you, everyone, for all that you do.  The support I receive here is amazing and it sees me through the darkest of days… it’s true I’m usually optimistic but like everyone else I have the odd moments of doubt.  I now wake up every morning and like discovering the hedgehog in the garden, I find there’s something beautiful awaiting me.  A comment, a like, a new follow.  So special and so kind.

I have very little to offer you in return except my ramblings and some photos but I want you to know I appreciate your support and am glad we’ve been able to meet each other in this virtual world. Long may we be friends because friendship is something very beautiful 🙂

Forgive my tardiness, it’s been strange…. and hectic.

Dawny the Little Beut over at Random Spillages from a Reportedly Strange Mind nominated me for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award before Christmas and I’m only just getting around to saying thank you. I apologise for my tardiness Dawny, my only excuse is that it’s been strange and hectic and I’m not as organised as I could be!

This is the second nomination I’ve received for very inspirational blogger and I’m a little lost for words.  I never expected to write about cancer, life and the other things that pop into my somewhat cluttered mind in a way that might inspire others.  I am so grateful for your support and kindness.

Tina at Eyes for Gaia nominated me for this award a little earlier in December; here’s a link to that post which includes, as per the rules, seven things about me.

There are so many deserving bloggers (and blog supporters who don’t blog themselves) out there. I really would like to nominate them all. But this time, as per the rules, I’ve chosen 15 great blogs and the very inspiring people who create them:

• sarah cosgrove gaumond

• Sophia’s voice

• Inner Soul Guidance

• Just a Brit with a Camera

• cHeErX!!

• Fish of Gold

• gonzarro

• Surviving in this very moment

• Endless Light and Love

• Purnimodo

• My eyes are up here

• Oyia Brown

• rarasaur

• My mom’s cancer

• knixie.net

Now I’m off to prepare for chemo tomorrow.

Namaste.

 

 

All my Christmases are coming at once :-)

Yesterday I mentioned that Created~Create.it kindly nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award and I’m truly honoured.

I created FEC-THis to keep friends and family up to date with my journey through breast cancer and as a way to prevent myself becoming sane in the process.  I didn’t expect my writing to have meaning for others and I’m very touched.

So down to business. The rules for accepting this award are:

• Display the award certificate on your website.
• Announce your win with a post and include a link to whoever presented your award.
• Present 15 awards to deserving bloggers. 
• Create a post linking to them and drop them a comment to tip them off.
• Post 7 interesting facts about yourself

I find it hard to nominate other blogs because there are so many versatile, creative folks out there and choosing between them is an almost impossible task.  Hopefully I will get the chance to nominate everyone over the next few years but for 2012, here are my Versatile Blogger nominations:

Letters for Michael   –   Talk about Cheesecake  –   Moms-opinions

Smell my paw  –   Live Someday  –  Efrata Denny Saputra Tunus

The Winter bites my Bones   –  Add Grain On Earth  –  Czech the Flip

A Word in Your Ear  –   Manningtree Archive  –  Chris Hampton

Lian Trowers  –  Renato Vasconcellos David  – Prettyonpurposeblog

 

Seven interesting things about me…. well they may or may not be interesting:

 

1. My Western star sign is Leo
2. My Chinese sign is Earth Rooster
3. My eyelashes are growing back
4. I helped my son with a part-time job application yesterday, today he’s been invited for interview 🙂
5. The bruise from my last blood test (3rd December) is still there
6. I trained as a mini and juniors rugby coach
7. I love berries