I’ve been nominated for the “Very Inspiring Blogger Award.” This is a real honor because it comes from one whose blog is truly inspiring. Pat Garcia tells the stories of courageous and neglected heroes of history at http://garciaandwalkon.me/ I would nominate her first if she hadn’t already nominated me.
In accepting this award I am supposed to say seven things about myself and nominate fifteen other blogs.
Seven things:
1. I’m a poet who has not taken a class in poetry since seventh grade. I have, however, attended lots of workshops.
2. I’ve only lived in New Mexico for eight years; I’m still in love with desert and mountains.
3. I’m a member and past President of the Sacred Dance Guild.
4. My favorite color is green.
5. It took me seventeen years to write my biography, John Emerson Roberts: Kansas City’s “Up-to-date” Freethought Preacher.
6. To get that project started I earned a Ph. D. in American Religious Studies from Temple University.
7. My current project is a response in poems to William Paley’s Natural Theology (1802), the publication that made famous the metaphor of God as watchmaker. My response focuses on how much has changed.
It’s a stretch to find fifteen blogs to nominate when my predecessors have recently nominated many fine blogs that I also follow. Here are twelve.
The Needy Helper (Lee Davy) www.needyhelper.com/ Anyone who sets out to read 52 books in 52 weeks inspires me.
Twigs & Stones (http://twigsandstones-poems.blogspot.com/) Tanka and other short poems.
The One Earth Project (http://leevanham.com/blog/) Can we live with the reality that we have only one earth’s worth of resources, not five?
Dialogues on exploring the gap (http://explorethegap.wordpress.com/) “Where people of science, religion, faith and spirituality come to talk.”
Digest This (http://www.digest-this.com/) Addressed to the human constituency.
http://200newmexicopoems.wordpress.com/ A compendium of poems about New Mexico.
Things I Want To Tell My Mother (http://warnerwriting.wordpress.com/) On memories and dealing with dementia.
http://craighill.net/ Perspectives on news and history from Australia and China.
Ellis Nelson (http://ellisnelson.com/) Author of Into the Land of Snows.
http://houseboathouse.blogspot.com/#!/ Rose Mary Boehm, a woman of many talents, and a unique way with a website.
Carlos Navarro (http://breadnm.blogspot.com/) A blog supporting Bread for the World in New Mexico.
Lisa Michaels (http://lisa-michaels.com/blog/) Learn how to align your energy with the natural rhythms of the universe.
freethoughtandmetaphor 
Jan 23, 2013 @ 17:38:37
Congratulations, Ellen!
Jan 24, 2013 @ 03:25:27
Hi,
Many thanks for your praise and appreciation of my blog. Your blog is one that I enjoy reading because I am challenged to think, I learn new things and I like your style of writing. This morning I learned some great things about you that have deeply impressed me.
I wish you also all the best with your new book. Two of the blogs you picked, I follow and enjoy them also. The rest I am interested in and will take the time to visit them also.
Have a great day, Ellen and enjoy New Mexico. I don’t know whether I told you but I was in Albuquerque in 2008. My husband and I spent four nights and five days in that beautiful city and also drove throughout the state to catch the flavor of the land. It was a beautiful and we both admired landscapes within the state.
Ciao,
Patricia
Jan 26, 2013 @ 17:02:34
Hi. Thanks for including me in your list here!
I agree with what Patricia has said above, so I’ll use her words: “Your blog is one that I enjoy reading because I am challenged to think, I learn new things and I like your style of writing.”
I enjoyed reading your “Seven things.” You sound like an interesting, and busy, person! Your current project sounds intriguing.
Janet L. D.
Feb 10, 2013 @ 20:06:33
Thanks for letting me camp out in your blog for a little while today. I had a great time and tried to leave my campsite as good as when I arrived. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks!