I have received showers of blessings. Friendlyfairytales has received so many lovely comments, praise, support and attention, that awards seem like icing. Of course, I’ve always liked icing. 🙂

The rules are partly about sharing yourself. I’m sharing something very personal today.

The Psalms were some of the earliest spoken poetry I ever remember hearing. My beloved mother passed away when I was four years old. Perhaps my imagination provided me this, but if I have any memories of her voice left, it would be of her saying these words, giving me an abiding love of poetry and also a sense of security beyond my own family:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul…

My current quest for combining poetry, nature and stories harkens back to those early, peaceful memories of safety. In the spirit of thankfulness for blessings, past and present, I want to, yet again, share a brand new movie (my third ever!! I hope they are improving!!), made by my kids and I, called Water of Life:

Thanks to the Mobius Strip for the Super Sweet Blogging Award. Dreamwalkeramrita is a great artist and writer, and her blog is worth a visit.

Thanks to White Rabbit’s Gallery and The Mother of Nine9 for a new Sunshine Award. Both of these bloggers add sunshine to my life, and would add sunshine to yours, too!

Thanks to Reocochran for gifting friendlyfairytales a whole bouquet of awards from which I could choose, and she told a lovely story about the bouquet she carried at her first wedding. Since I already have received all these awards, instead of gathering up those tokens, in her honor, I’ve made this acceptance token:

Thanks to Ajaytao, who visited me with a Super-Sized Award Portion, and I’ll put the icons up because they are new to me!! Many bloggers already know Ajaytao, but if you don’t, you are in for a real treat. He has a loving, wise vibe surrounded always by beauty in thought and nature.

Notes on Awards: Liebster means dearest in German, and this is given to newer bloggers. Semper Fidelis means always faithful in latin and represents fidelity and love between blogging friends. The others are pretty self-explanatory.

Thanks to Terry1954, whose goodness shines through in every post, during the good days and the bad, while caring for her brother Al. I’m honored to receive an award she has created, the Excellence Award:

If I follow all the rules, I would be posting awards, sometimes several a day, and I would have no time for writing and creating, and soon I would be sad, and getting awards would feel burdensome. Plus I would bore all of you with the minutiae of my life answering all the questions. I do want to share the love with other great bloggers who have given generously to me of time and attention, and who daily make my cup runneth over with joy and love. If I haven’t named you, it is simply dinner time and I ran out of time. I also can’t name over 600!!

To all the lovely and talented bloggers nominated below, I give any awards they have not received above, and I also give my own created award, the You are a Miracle Award, because you are! To me, you have been the most amazing, encouraging and talented community. I could not have imagined a better world to join.

Without further ado, the very deserving nominees:

busymindthinking
anelephantcant
Old News
mrsbearfoot
Glorialana
Jon Petruschke
petitemagique
Ola Ciezak
lauralistar
Professor VJ Duke
belsbror
Mona
Paula Williams
Jessica Hagan
ksbeth
Oldest Daughter …
beingnenne
Eva PoeteX
cindy knoke
The Hook
jacquelinemhadel

If you maintain an award-free blog, don’t feel any regrets, this is just my wish to share the love with you. No obligations need accrue, no dire events follow from not accepting. Please do share the love with others if that is your way. And have the loveliest of lovely days!

A few flowers from my wanderings to thank all my readers, near and far:

May kindness and mercy follow you all the days of your life and may you live happily ever after. 😀

The End (for today)

With great affection, Brenda

Copyright 2013 Brenda Davis Harsham

Note: The video Water of Life is dedicated to my mom, who I believe would have loved my blog.