Blog love

Cat Chapin-Bishop at Metapagan has nominated me for the “I Love Your Blog” meme/award/thingy. Thanks, Cat! I’m honored, as always, by the fact that you actually enjoy what I have to say.

The rules say that I’m supposed to nominate seven other blogs (man, that’s a lot! Too many, really) for the award. Fortunately, it doesn’t say that they have to be unique nominations… so I’m sure at least a couple of these will already have been nominated by someone else. I’m also going to take a tip from another award/meme blog post I saw recently, and talk a bit about *why* these blogs are my favorites. You will see some common themes here – I am drawn much more to personal reflection than elaborate theorizing (although I’m certainly more guilty of the latter than I would like). I like an ecumenical approach: not all of these bloggers are pagan (or not only pagan), but they are all – without exception, pagan or not – open to other perspectives and to the value of inter-religious dialogue. And given that I write more about the Hellenic side of my practice, I see that the list is surprisingly Druid-heavy.

I enjoy reading all the blogs on my blogroll, or they wouldn’t be there… but these below are the ones that I await most eagerly, the reason that I check Google Reader every morning before I go to work. (Well, these and my favorite webcomics, but that’s a different post :) ).

First up is… well, Cat and Peter’s blog – Quaker Pagan Reflections. I read blogs for quite a while before deciding to try my hand at writing one, and QP was one of the main influences that inspired me to jump in and start this blog. The depth of personal reflection, and the seriousness with which they both obviously take their faith(s?), continue to set the bar for me in my own work.

Druid Journal (Jeff Lilly) – I never know what Jeff is going write about next, but I know it’s going to be interesting! Jeff plays with a wide variety of deep and complex ideas, and does so with intelligence, wit and insight. Also, I’m a language junkie, and always enjoy the insights of a professional linguist.

Velveteen Rabbi (Rachel Barenblat) – I first came across Rachel’s blog via comments on Textual Arachne, and was intrigued with a rabbinic student commenting on a pagan blog. Reading further, I became captivated by her poetic voice and the honesty of her struggles with the harder bits of her scriptural tradition. She continually opens up new ways of looking at Torah for me, and I’m grateful for that.

Druid’s Apprentice (Nettle) – I hope she doesn’t mind the term, but I think of Nettle’s blog as “kitchen Druidry”… her focus is very much on the lived experience of nature and spirit where she is, rather than the capitalized theoretical versions, and this is something else that I am really working on cultivating in my own life and practice.

Ramblings of a Mad Sannion (Sannion) – Frequently deep Hellenic goodness; I appreciate the way he can describe and make me *feel* his experience of worshiping the Gods that we both honor. I also like the  music-for-worship mix lists that are a semi-regular feature, and his warped sense of humor (a lot like my own).

Meadowsweet and Myrrh (Ali) – Even if she wasn’t a great writer (which she is), it would be worth reading this blog to get a Christian perspective on Druid practice. Fortunately, there’s so much more here – again with the honest personal exploration, and with the poetry, and just go and read already.

Gospel Pagan (Sara Winn) – I suppose this is a eulogy, since the blog is no longer active; but I don’t care. Sara gave us all the incredible gift of showing us the wild, beating, dancing, singing heart of a paganism steeped in the love and mystery of Mama Nature… and I miss her.