SuziCate, thank you! It has been a huge gift just watching your blog and writing blossom over this past year. Because of you, I’ve been compelled to get out of my own pages and into everyone else’s and it’s opened up a whole new world of fellow writers, bloggers and friends. That’s pretty good for someone who moved to a town where she basically knows – um – nobody – and realized yesterday that the only person she could list on her yoga class emergency contact sheet was her landlord, don’t you think!? (My landlord is awesome, by the way!)

I’ll get into why I write and how it all started at another time. For now, I want to pass along the Best Blog Award to the five writers listed below. I’m just starting to move though the labyrinth of creative, funny, serious, mundane, thoughtful and consistently passionate bunch of writers out there. These are 5 I’ve grown to love.

Becky Blanton at BeckyBlanton.com. This woman rocks. She’s currently living out of her van, traveling across country with her Rottie to interview people for her latest book project. Becky sees a story in every person she meets and she meets every type of person imaginable. Her desire to live free from the constraints of the 4 walls and a desk and her ability to convey the universal oneness that we all share keeps me coming back again and again.

Dlloyd at 20milesfromnowhere. New to the blogging world but oh my GOD what a talented writer and artist. His comment on my blog, Definitely Someday, Just Not Today, in regards to all the tears I was shedding that day, ahh, wow, hand me another tissue. Dude has insight, humor and eloquence. Please write more.

Genie Alisa at . . . in a Bottle. Aside from the fact that if it weren’t for her I probably wouldn’t be blogging at all, GenieAlisa has the ability to write about her crotch mishaps and other bodily experiences while pregnant and not bat an eyelash.  She has served as entertainment, sounding board and encouragement as I get braver at throwing whatever it is out there. The Living Out Loud Project is worthy of an award all its own for the barriers and inhibitions and pigeon-holes it sweeps away on a monthly basis.

Jimmy at Just My Opinion. A writer with true Southern style and a knack for tellin’ it like it is, (at least in his opinion), Jimmy is the breath of Southern sunshine in my new So Cal digs. He’s like a cool glass of lemonade on a hot summer day.

Rachel from Crunchy Turtle describes herself as a “crunchy aka hippy-type individual” and yes, she’s another Southerner. I am not trying to be biased, really. But her blog covers a range of topics and interests, and in particular I enjoy her posts on paganism and her relationship to nature and the universe. It speaks to my hippy-dippy side, which is starting, I happily think, to comfortably overtake the rest of me. I also love her food and travel entries, and guess what? I found her through the aforementioned Living Out Loud project.

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