Well I am so excited that Kara-Leah over at Be Conscious Now has graciously awarded me the Thinking Blogger’s Award. I have secretly hoped I would make someone think for months now. ;)

But in all seriousness it is a real honor, especially seeing as she placed me among such great company as the ever-insightful Slade Roberson and Jeff Lilly of Druid Journal fame .

There are some detractors, I know, but I happen to like blog memes. They force one to look at who has been valuable to you in your own little world whether through business development, blogging development or spiritual development, makes no matter. And memes also introduce both receiver and their readers to interesting blogs in arenas they might not have thought to read otherwise.

So many new blogs and bloggers have been introduced into my life recently, it was certainly a hard choice as to who to give these awards to. Every single one has made me think in one way or another.

The five blogs that I am going to pass my thinking blog award on to are:

1. Paula Kawal - A very well-written and easily navigated blog dealing with meditation, self-development, consciousness-raising and light-working. Paula is by far my best find to date! Readers who like my layout here will certainly love the very Zen quality, not only of her site design but of her digestible manner of writing. Paula speaks volumes in just a few lines and gets across her own feelings as well, instead of just pronouncing a wisdom and leaving it hanging. Her newest post Good Vibrations is a perfect example of the power of Paula’s thought-processes and written imagery. I feel so at home with her writings and with myself after I’ve read them. Often I find myself returning to read them again and again…not because I don’t understand them but because I do.

2. The Apartment Farm - Absolutely fantastic blog that features thought-provoking looks at topics as varied as sustainability, raising your own city chickens, window gardening and proper seed storage as well as scrumptious recipes and kitchen wisdoms. Can you be organic and agricultural and crafty and involved while living in…an apartment? You bet you can! Reading this blog takes me away to a place in my soul where all things are in perfect balance and warm-fuzzy is the only way to feel. I always find inspiration there for food and crafts and general mindfulness (through pie-baking, no less.) It sometimes makes me wish I had started that blog all about spinning different types of raw fiber into deliciously colored bouquets of yarn. (Oh well, maybe in another life.)

3. The Middle Way - If we are talking Zen then we are talking Buddhism and if we are talking Buddhism than one of the blogs we must be talking about is The Middle Way. On his about page, Wade states that his hope for the blog is that it allow others to see, practice, learn, and live. This is exactly what it does for me. His posts range from original conceptual pieces such as How to Develop Another Tool in the Belt of Wisdom, to short, reposted pieces that are designed to inspire, like Visual Guide on How To De-Stress. And with every new post, like the recent On Becoming a Person he gives the reader just one moment’s pause, just a little respite to inner peace. This site really offers the opportunity to expand your awareness.

4. Disjointed Intelligence - Becca is a real thinker. I don’t mean the “guy-resting-his-chin-on-his-fist” kind of thinker. I mean the “passionate, observant, life-can-be-anything-you-want-it-to-be” kind of thinker. I especially admire her boisterous mixture of real person and spiritual awareness. Her candid way of sharing her own ups, downs, ins and outs makes me feel so connected, not just to her or even just to myself per se, but to everyone and everything, everywhere. Inspired by Wonder Woman (And, really, who wouldn’t be?) and also by The Power of the Written Word she keeps it real by owning up to her own joys and occassional self-doubts. Two of my favorites on her blog are Friends Indeed and the recent Adventures of Inconvenience.

Last but most certainly NOT least….

5. The Absent Mind - As a guy who was a mathematician and now teaches at a medical school while also keeping his readers fully ensconced in the meditative world of his inner mind, Mike was most certainly being sarcastic when he named his blog. Perhaps his post Life on the Path: Absent Mindedness explains a little of why. I find so much fodder for the brain-pan here in this relatively new blog. I greatly enjoyed The Conditioned Mind and also Life on the Path: Working for a Living, a very applicable piece which all of you Lightworkers and spiritual seekers out there should read. His newest post Being Invisible, is a deeply moving missive about the oneness and “invisible” connection of all things.

Congrats to all the recipients for producing authentic, high-quality content! After all, isn’t that what this Grand Ole Blogosphere is all about?

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