“It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.” – Mother Teresa

I’m not one for awards.  My entire blog is a labor of love for me. Something I spend countless hours on, penniless, yet receive more joy and happiness from doing than any paying job would ever give me. Simply, I love to write and use my voice.

However, when two of my favorites bloggers nominated me last week I felt truly honored not so much by the award but by the comments they used to nominate me! It made all this hard work seem like the greatest gift of all….For what could be better than impacting other people’s lives by my words and bringing on inspiration or a smile? Not much.

“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” ― Winston Churchill 

Thanks to lovely Jennifer Avventura over at My Sardinian Life and Jo over at Restless Jo for the nominations. I truly appreciate it! Thanks for giving me the gift of your kind words and the Blog of the Year Award.

The rules are simple:

1. Select the blog(s) you think deserve the ‘Blog Of the Year 2012‘ Award.
2. Write a blog post and tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen – there’s no minimum or maximum number of blogs required – and ‘present’ them with their award.
3. Please include a link back to this page ‘Blog of the Year 2012 Award @ the Thought Palette and include these ‘rules’ in your post (please don’t alter the rules or the badges!)
4. Let the blog(s) you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the ‘rules’ with them.
5. You can now also join our Facebook page – click the link here ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award Facebook page and then you can share your blog with an even wider audience.
6. As a winner of the award – please add a link back to the blog that presented you with the award – and then proudly display the award on your blog and sidebar … and start collecting stars.

With one very shiny star!
Because unlike other awards which you can only add to your blog once – this award is different! You begin with the ‘1 star’ award – and every time you are given the award by another blog – you can add another star!

There are a total of 6 stars to collect.

“For it is in giving that we receive.”  - St. Francis of Assisi

Now for the best part of all….the GIVING!

I have so many wonderful blogs I follow that inspire me, make me laugh, teach me something new and make my life just a little bit richer. There are two in particular that I find truly inspiring, enriching and unique that have been following down a similar road as I in promoting social good.

1. Mirth and Motivation: I have been following Elizabeth’s inspiring blog for awhile now and had the absolute pleasure of meeting her in person in NYC at the Social Good Summit last September. Her words are powerful, poetic and touching. She has written several informative posts on social good issues as well as inspiration. I am honored to pass this award over to her fantastic blog.

2. Hike. Blog. Love. Lauren is the mother of two adopted children and writes with me at World Moms Blog and for the Global Team of 200. She has brought a lot of important issues to light in her beautiful blog such as parenting a special needs child, adopting overseas, and ways to give back. It has been a pleasure to work with her and read her blog. I hope to meet her someday too!

To all the rest of you that make me smile and comment on my blog, a heartfelt thanks to keeping me going and inspired!