Blog love

Several days ago MOM-NOS passed a Thinking Blogger Award onto me.

I have a hard time with praise, so instead of mucking everything up, I'll just say a heart-felt 'thank you'. It really made my day. ( I was smiling and everything!)

I was in the middle of the contest, so I decided to wait until it was finished before I wrote about the blogs that make me think. (There are rules!)

I'm very happy that I waited, because as a result of the contest I found not one, but two blogs that make me think. With no further ado and in no particular order, I give you five blogs that make me think:

 

LesbianDad has a very fine blog that I have already become quite fond of. Except for the fact that I do not know her, have never met her, and indeed no nothing of her except what she has put forth, I feel as if I have known her, if not now, then in my past at some point. Her posts are universally thoughtful and well written, but there was one post in particular that spoke to me in a familiar way, and yet made me think about my own life in a new way. That boy in the blue sweater is a girl, is a post about gender more than sexuality, mostly. The diagram that she produces on a napkin to illustrate her point to her father is brilliant. I think that this particular post speaks to me because it illustrates perfectly what I have been trying to explain to people about my marriage for the longest time. You see she might as well have been diagramming my husband and I on that napkin. (I would be in the Moi position and he would be in the Toi.) You think I would have come across something like this, what with all the Gender Studies books I slept on in grad school. Brilliant.

 

A Mom, a Blog, and the Life In-Between is another blog that I was introduced to during the contest.  One of the first posts I read from her was, The Everglades are Burning and it is wonderfully evocative. The only thing I know about Florida is what I have read in National Geographic. But none of that was able to do what she did, which was; to make me feel as if I was there, walking along with her taking in the smell of the burning. She talks about the destruction of the Everglades and the corresponding sprawl of development and her own childhood in which the smell and the destruction was peripheral and yet the smoke would sometimes cause recess to end early because it made it difficult to breathe. I loved her ending and I loved the post because it made me think about those things which we take for granted, which just “are”. We believe that someone else will be there to protect our environment and our health, but motherhood has taught me that you can not count on someone else to look out for your best interest.

 

This Mom is a blog which consistently makes me think. Kyra writes about her life and her son with such sensitivity and insight that it is truly a joy to read. So often I read her posts and then ruminate on my own life and my interactions with Daniel. A recent post of note is A Love of Quadrillion ( I am unable to link to the post directly, but it is from Feb. 9th). Now besides being brilliantly titled, it is also brilliantly introspective. She talks about Fluffy's birthday and the particular phase he is in right now and their attempts to deal with the chaos it has wrought. She talks about asperger's and then she shares a few vignettes of her son, however it isn't so much that she shares what he says, but rather that she shares a piece of him with us. I know that I, and I am sure all her other readers, thank her very much for sharing such a wonderfully special boy with us.

Notes from the Cookie Jar is a blog that I have been reading since I started this blog. She has written many things that make me think and because her son seems so similar to Daniel and is older, I often read what she has written and then attempt to file it away in my brain for when Daniel gets bigger. She is often supportive and offers helpful comments. And recently she wrote Writer's Block, a post that really made me think. In it she writes about writing - About writing letters to pen pals as a child and about writing a blog today -  About the nature of being honest and anonymous and about being in trouble for writing from your heart. She also writes about courage and her decision to continue blogging, no apologies needed, from her heart.

 

Notes to self, is a blog I discovered not that long ago and she is a true poet, (not a metaphor, she is in Ireland reading her poetry – right now!). She is a talented writer and I consistently enjoy her posts. But on Valentine's Day she wrote a post that even my husband commented on. There is no title I can give this that doesn't invoke Sonny and Cher, is a post about the nature of partnership. She speaks intimately, yet without detail about the ten years she and her husband share and how hard and wonderful that time has been. She writes beautiful lines that I will share because they are perfect in  their imagery:

Some things slip away with the years. There's no getting around it. There will never be another first kiss. Our eyes don't quite devour each other in passing. In the trenches of childrearing, there aren't enough relaxed, uncluttered hours where we can just bask in each other's presence. There is compensation, in that shared history we've acquired, in the deeper familiarity, in the way our outer layers have worn down from rubbing against each other. I don't want to trade any of that back.

The bare and beautiful honesty of this post sparked a lovely discussion between my husband and I for we too, are happiest right now with our small family and our shared history.

 

And finally, because this is truly a much longer post than I had anticipated, I want to speak of MOM-NOS, because if it wasn't she who had passed the award along to me, then I surely would have put her on my own list of Thinking Blogs. In particular, I want to pay special tribute to her recent post, Poetry in Motion. In it she talks about going to see a poetry reading in her son, Bud's, classroom. She describes how the class has accommodated Bud and his needs in a way that is nurturing for both Bud and the rest of the class. I have read it several times and each time I want to cry (and sometimes I do), for the sensitivity that the teacher shows Bud and the true generosity of spirit of the other children. I have thought a lot about my reaction to this post, and I think it boils down to this... seeing such caring children and adults in Bud's life touches a cord with the child in me who longed for such acceptance. And, of course, it is beautifully written.

 

Thank you MOM-NOS for giving me a chance to thank those who make me think.

Comments

[kyra]

oh, thank you so much for the blog love! I LOVE THE BLOG LOVE!! it's wonderful to be included in this list. i'm honored. you've made my evening!

[Tere]

Thank you! This is very touching. I must say, I discovered you this week and have greatly enjoyed what I've read so far. To be included in your list - like Kyra said, I'm honored.

[Scatteredmom]

:) Thank you! Wow! I'm so happy to be included.

I love blog love too.

[Aliki]

I wanted to delurk to tell you that I have recently discovered your blog and have re-read through many entries...

My son has SID and we have just started down the road towards various other diagnoses--I am relatively new to all this. We're really struggling with his school now, and with trying to figure out how to help him cope. Your son reminds me much of my own and reading your experiences and struggles (feeling isolated, afraid) resonated with me.

I'm glad I found you!

[Kevin Charnas]

Congratulations! I'm enjoying getting to know you.

And by the way, thank you for the very kind comment that you left the other day. I truly appreciate it.

[Liesel Elliott]

Oh, the LOVE!
Thanks everyone.

And Aliki, I'm not sure exactly what's going on for you and your son, but my experience is that it gets BETTER. I was just at my son's school today, and honestly, I can't believe that he is able to function with so many things going on around him. I think for us there will always be issues, but probably not so many as time goes by. Good luck.

[Vicki Forman]

I was tagged by Mom-NOS in that same post and I'm delurking here to say, I'm honored to be in your company.

[Liesel Elliott]

Thanks, Vicki,

I was just over at your site too. Thanks so much for the link! Oh, and if I had a baby grand piano? It would be used for laundry too.

[kyran]

more than loving that my post might have made someone think, I love it that one made two people talk.

thanks for the appreciation. this goes straight to my "moral support" folder. :)

k.

[ilker]

Did you know? I recently got a brand new shiny dot com domain name! =)

Would you be so kind to change the links from ilkeryoldas.blogspot.com to www.thethinkingblog.com ?

Thanks a million!