I don’t intend to shirk responsibilities, truly I don’t… But here we have it. I seem to be a bona fide, certified Shirker.

Shame!

I sent off my bundle of deadline-writing this afternoon (including an article—I’m not making this up!—on the assigned topic: “Can my dog get me pregnant?” OH. MY. GOD) and thought I’d reward myself, as usual, by writing-for-fun HERE… And experienced the nearly-unprecedented sensation of realizing I didn’t know what the next blog would be. I usually have half a dozen thoughts queued up in my head and elbowing each other to get to the front of the line…

And then I remembered… That I have been gifted with a responsibility that I haven’t yet fulfilled.

Well, actually a couple.

Well… maybe kind of a…  list. (Did I mention shame?)

Here’s the deal. The Blogging-World is, above all, a community experience. The joys of sharing our work—our writing, our stories, our photography, our Art, our Lives—are multiplied and enhanced by the interactions with our fellow-bloggers. In this World we are not only Bloggers, but Readers—because at it’s best, blogging is a two-way street! Or… a multi-road intersection… Or maybe… a roundabout? Okay, I don’t know what the best traffic-analogy would be, but it’s Community I’m angling at here.

Some of my blogging-compatriots have done me the honor of entrusting this blog with awards.  I use that word (entrust) deliberately, because I feel a sense of accountability, both to acknowledge the recognition, and also to pay it forward. That’s how these things work in a Community. With apologies for the lengthy interval (six months on a few of these, cringe)  between the Award and the acceptance, I would like to thank and acknowledge:

• allaboutwordswa, for the Beautiful Blogger Award
• Maarit-Johanna at History of the Ancient World, and Robin at My Own Private Universe, for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award
• Only Spartan Women, and Jemmy Farmer at The Daily Sonnet, for the Kreativ Blogger Award
• Penny Coho at The Why About This, P.C. Zick, and Miss Zari at Travel. Culture. Food. for the One Lovely Blog Award
• Francine in Retirement, for the Sisterhood of the World Blogger Award
• Sylver Blaque, for the Illuminating Blogger Award
• Judith Atwood at Diabetic Redemption, for the Versatile Blogger Award
• Make Believe Boutique, for the Sunshine Award
• Squirrel Circus, for the Reader Appreciation Award

My most heartfelt thanks to all of you for being a part of my Blogging-Experience, and for reaching out to me the way you have!

Standard Operating Procedure for any blogging-award indicates that I should:

1. Not wait six months before I get around to acknowledgments. Crap.
2. Offer thanks and links to those bloggers who conferred recognition on this blog. (See above.)
3. Share seven (or three, or ten, or some number) of informational bits about myself. I refer you to the “Chronicles” link above, given that I share pretty much everything a person wouldn’t want to know about me, right here on the pages of this blog. (Hence the earlier “TMI” award, ahem…)
4. Share the awards by conferring recognition on some of the awesome bloggers I’ve been fortunate to discover.

For that last bit, I’m going to be a bit unorthodox (please try to stifle your yelp of surprise) by listing some of the amazing bloggers whose work hits my Inbox, and asking each of them please to select which of these awards they would like to accept. In no particular order…

Wait. One more thing I’ve gotta say. One of my favorite things about other people’s “Award” posts is the ready-made lists of bloggers-to-follow. I go blog-trolling regularly by tags and topics, and come across great discoveries from time to time—but when bloggers I already enjoy hand me a list? I’m all over that shit. I invite the rest of you to enjoy these guys too!

• First… Each blogger listed above! And now, in no particular order…
• A Clown on Fire
• Dan4Kent
• Writing: A Conversation Without Interruptions
• Reinventing the Event Horizon
• Scattering Moments
• Professions for PEACE
• Aimless and Purposeful
• Sweet Mother
• Mirth and Motivation
• Simply Charming
• Running Naked With Scissors
• Legion Writer
• A Coalescence
• Vector Charley
• Widdershins Worlds
• The Flight of Reason
• JannaTWrites
• i mayfly
• Lois Elsden
• Eliza Shane
• Richard Parks
• maureenlermer
• Guapola
• How the Cookie Crumbles
• Trask Avenue
• Slightly More Than Necessary
• Where the Grey Matter Pours Out
• Believe Anyway
• Creating Reciprocity

Blogging-Love to all! Thanks for being part of my experience here.