Mutual Admiration Society

Deborah Godin, who writes a beautiful blog called The Cloud Messenger, has nominated me for the Brilliant Weblog Award. Thank you, Deborah. It is only recently that I have found your blog, and it has already become one of my top favorites.
And then there is Bear, whose blog Bear Naked is so very entertaining as well as informative. She has presented me with a whole Bouquet of Bears. Thanks to you, Bear. You are so creative, and I do enjoy your blog so very much.

I have received a few awards recently, and they have started me thinking.

The first time I received an award it took me by surprise. I was stunned. Me? Why would anyone think my blog was worthy of an award? I had seen them on other blogs, given to people whose writing I admired and who had things to say really worth hearing.

As the months went by, new people started to comment on my posts and I went to their blogs. I have two blogrolls: one of those I feel I want to read every day without fail; the other of those I read whenever I find the time. As time passed, both of those lists grew longer and longer. Today I should just consolidate them, because I really want to read them all every day. That would be impossible of course, because by now the list is far too long to even put it onto my sidebar. My list of personal favorites that I have bookmarked contains dozens of blogs, most of which I can't possibly read more than about once a month, and I spend waaaay too much time sitting in front of my computer.

I think our blogging community has become a large group of close friends. We read one another's posts and feel we know these people and love them, and feel support and validation from them. It has become a mutual admiration society in the truest sense of the words. And we all feel the need to tell one another how we feel. We give one another awards in an attempt to do this. Bear Naked said it. She offered her appreciation to all of her readers. Perhaps that's what we all should do. One BIG AWARD! I love you all. You have all done so much for me, knowingly or not. And you're a lot of fun to have around.