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Here are the rules for this award:
1. Thank the blogger who nominated you for the award.
2. Display the banner/sticker/logo on your blog.
3. Share 7 facts or things about yourself.
4. Nominate 5 bloggers that you admire and inform nominees by commenting on their blog.

Thank you, IshmaImroz! You are the sunshine!

(I put the icon-logo on my blog.)

Seven things about me that I haven’t shared before:
1. I have curly hair. I guess the blog photo shows that. But, genetically speaking, the hair came from my father who got it from his mother. My grandmother (my father’s mother) I met once, when I was two. I never saw her again, for she died young. But when I came across a photo of her when she was a young adult and I was a young adult, I thought, My goodness, we could be twins. So my hair—maybe in a strange way—reminds me of family I never got to know.
2. I have scars from surgery. They are big and puffy and painful. And they itch!
3. I drive a small car in a big-car world that is the USA.
4. I have four siblings. I am in the middle of five.
5. My mother made me take a typing course in summer school. She was smart.
6. I love oral interpretation—reading texts aloud in a public setting. It’s not that I love the sound of my voice (I don’t, in fact, though others have told me that they do). It’s that this reading is a way for texts—poetry and short stories, say—to have the chance to live in a way that draws folk in, maybe into reading.
7. I live in a house that’s a hundred and fifty years old. In the USA that’s old. The house is haunted, though not my part. Or maybe the ghosts and I get along.
Nominate five bloggers. Only five? How about
What the Woman Wrote
Invisible World
mandibelle16
Jacki Kellum Juxtapositions
A Reading Writer
Okay, I’ll stop with five.  And I’ll contact you five.  Anyone reading here generally might do an easy search to find their blogs.  After all, who doesn’t enjoy the comforting glow of sunshine, literally or metaphorically speaking?  I guess returning the nomination to the originator is not bad form but more or less unnecessary (or I’d give the award to IshmaImroz). These folk (above) and their blogs are especially optimistic. I value pessimism, as I value skepticism. And cynicism is a smart quality to employ when analyzing things. But those who have optimism that’s unswerving—well, that’s appealing and inspiring.
And more you than me. You (six) bloggers rank me.
Thank you! Thank all!

I’ve been nominated for the Liebster Award.  What a cool name for an award.  Thanks,  Clarissa G at An Offbeat Blue Stocking!

Okay, following the rules, I next display the icon of the award.  Now it’s set as the featured image.  Trust that’s right.

Now I share eleven random facts about myself.  Here goes.

1. I’m left-handed.
2. I had a cat for nineteen years, a rescue who died recently. She was remarkable, conversational company.
3. I was born in Kentucky, which in Pennsylvania not so many realize. (Well, no one realizes ‘til I say.)
4. I have unreadable handwriting (even I can’t read it a while after writing it), and so I must be thankful for the computer. I have bad writer’s cramp, which is why I use initials for my working name and signature.  And because it’s gender-less.  (Interchangeable reasons.)
5. I am named Christopher because my mother really liked the Winnie-the-Pooh stories.
6. I am ecumenical in interest(s).
7. I respond to blogs, sites, and people who are feminist, campaigning for gender equality. I think men still don’t get it. I’m sure it took me a while.
8. I have a friend who calls me a “progressive conservative.” I guess that fits.
9. “I am, after all, a hobbit.”
10. Animals and I become friends. (Not only my cat.) I’ve made friends with dogs and horses and others—and afterward been told these charges don’t make friends with anyone.
11. Racism makes me angry.

There we go.  Eleven things.

Now, what’s next.  Answer eleven questions I was asked.

1. What got you started with your blog?
My spiritual director thought I should have a blog. So I went through the motions of starting one this past summer. But I didn’t do much with it. Then I got in (I don’t remember how) a poetry-writing class through Bloging U. at WordPress. The course had daily lessons and tasks, and the interaction with writer was extraordinary. I’d taken on-line courses that were supposed to be interactive, though were not. The course here is over, and the interaction goes on. I am thankful.
2. Post a link to your favorite blog post you have written and explain why it is your favorite.
Uh-oh, I’m not sure how to do this. I’ve been writing series of psalms—contemporary, naturally enough. I’ve been enjoying that, even when the subject’s hard. I’ve been impressed and am appreciative of the response to the series so far.
3. What is your favorite color?
Blue, light blue. The light blue of an Oxford-cloth shirt.
4. Where do you get inspiration to blog?
Current events and current thoughts.
5. Where would you like to travel that you haven’t travelled to yet?
I have a bucket list, so-called, with three items on it. One item has been met, a trip to an extraordinary store in New York City. The third item is to get off North America, at least once. Puerto Rico, as a commonwealth, might not count. Bermuda would or the British Bahamas or Cuba. Since my father’s father’s family is English and my mother’s mother’s family is Irish, I’d pick the United Kingdom. If I could (or had) to pick one place, it might be Bath. My sister said she was impressed with her time there, which was brief.
6. What was your favorite book or movie as a child?
My favorite book as a child was A Journey to the Center of the Earth. I read it more than once (a first). As a terrible reader, even a frightened reader, this novel got me to relax, engage, and enjoy reading.
7. What is your favorite season and why?
Autumn. The colors and the coolness. The chill and thrill of Hallowe’en. My birthday and my sister’s. As a teacher, I found the first day of the school year exciting, too. I’m sure I don’t know why. (Technically, the school year began in late summer, but it was called “Fall Term.”) It’s a time of change, beautifully done by nature. Oh, Bilbo Baggins’s birthday as well.
8. Any goals for your blog?
I’d like to continue growing through the blog. More so through the blogging—the interaction with others and the growth from that. I’d also like to start a blog that becomes a conversation about spiritual things. I don’t know how to do that yet.
9. Do you have a bucket list? What is number 1?
Number one was visiting the Strand Bookstore in New York. Nine storeys with all categories and kinds of books. That item was realized when friends to me to New York and the store as a birthday gift. Wow, am I thankful!
10. Favorite thing to blog about?
Reaction to things happening and how they affect us all.
11. What’s your dream job?
Writing and performing, probably teaching. When I write something, the world makes sense for a while. When I perform (acting, singing, or reading), I tend to feel joy. When I went to graduate school, it was to study literature.  Then I discovered that I enjoyed creating text more than critiquing it.  I also found out about something my college advisors had never told me about: an MFA in creative writing.  It’s not only about what I love; it’s a terminal degree.  Meaning that I can get a secure job at a school and (perhaps more importantly) have professional cachet.  Having paid off my graduate degree costs and a good deal of time passing, I don’t see how I could pursue the MFA now.  But I’ll keep writing and performing, anyway.

And those are the questions and responses.  Now I nominate other bloggers, too (in no particular order–again, random):

1. An Offbeat Blue Stocking (who’s been nominated, so I guess you don’t have to do all that again, unless you’d like)
2. angieinspired
3. I Would Rather Read
4. MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO
5. What the Woman Wrote
6. A Reading Writer
7. Ishmalmroz
8. Gradmama2011
9. Stray Coffee Breaks
10. mandibelle16
11. Invisible World

Now I may apologize for two things.  I’m supposed to stop at eleven.  And I’m supposed to set down names of blogs that have less than two hundred followers.  I don’t know who has how many followers.  I don’t know how many I have.  So if you’re hugely numerous in followings, then I’m sorry to have stepped on that.  Mainly, I went with the criterion of my own sense of quality and meaning.  And only eleven blogs.

I don’t know if typing blog names turns those names into links.  But I’ll be contacting the bloggers, anyway; and if you’re reading this generally, I’m sure you could use the names above for tag-word (tag-name) searching.

So I’ll be in touch with nominating, and I’ll send the rules for the award.

Thanks again, Clarissa G!

Below are the rules for the Liebster Award:

1. Thank the person who nominated and link back to their blog.
2. Display the Liebster Award on your blog.
3. Share 11 random facts about yourself.
4. Answer the 11 questions you were asked.
5. Nominate 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers for the award by asking them 11 new questions (or having them answer the questions you were asked).
6. Make sure to let the bloggers know you’ve nominated them!
7. And don’t forget to copy the rules into your post!
and the questions to ask–
1. What got you started with your blog?
2. Post a link to your favorite blog post you have written and explain why it is your favorite.
3. What is your favorite color?
4. Where do you get inspiration to blog?
5. Where would you like to travel that you haven’t travelled to yet?
6. What was your favorite book or movie as a child?
7. What is your favorite season and why?
8. Any goals for your blog?
9. Do you have a bucket list? What is number 1?
10. Favorite thing to blog about?
11. What’s your dream job?