Just a few days ago this small blog was nominated to the Versatile Blogger Award –and so, recognized with it!– by fellow blogger Cheynoeas’ Thoughts. I feel deeply grateful to her for it; her kindness and her appreciation of my work –and very promptly indeed, since she, Tonya, is one of my most recent followers; just a three weeks old one.

This is the very first award I obtain as a blogger, I still do not know what does it really mean and how it affects or may affect my decreasing blogging activity, this summer (a decrease or distancing imposed by the weight of other, more imperative tasks and the lack of time due to them); I did not even know how to react to it, either, beyond showing my gratitude and humble fondness to this person. I have already done this to a point, but I repeat it now, more formally, here: Thank you, Tonya, with all my heart 💙 ! (A blue heart, yes… 🙂 )

As for the reasons she had to nominate/award me, they are still a bit of a mystery… Just look at the qualities or merits required:

When nominating a fellow blogger for the Versatile Blogger Award, consider the quality of the writing, the uniqueness of the subjects covered, the level of love displayed in the words on the virtual page. Or, of course, the quality of the photographs and the level of love displayed in the taking of them.

The single thing I might frankly agree with is the one about some “level of love displayed”… Love is my main interest in life; love received and love given, love sought for and love lost, love as the only force in life that transcends time (let me say spacetime, since I am a physicist –mainly signifying that I was one once in life; I do not work now as a physicist)… In other words: love as a goal. I have tried all the time to show as much of it as I am able to; when writing and editing and when relating with other bloggers. The very blog itself originated out of love, to pay due homage to a darling person lost to death, and to her own blog interrupted less than a year after its creation.

With respect to the rules for the nominees: there are quite a few; some much easier to follow than others:

• You share a link to the Versatile Blogger award. (Done just here.)
• You thank the person who nominated you. Link them into your “Versatile Blogger Award” response. (See above, at the very beginning.)
• Nominate 15 bloggers for this award and don’t forget to let them know. (I will try to nominate some bloggers which I fairly think deserve this award, but they will not –they cannot!– be as many as 15… Even if I am nominally following 103 blogs, I lack the time to read most of them. It would be impossible even if I had all day long to spend on this task.)
• Share seven facts about yourself. (See below.)
• Share the logo of Versatile Blogger as your Featured Image in your post and display the rules for the next nominees. (A work in progress right now 🙂 )
  

7 Things About Me

1. I’m a Catalan with Romani descent from my father’s side (two nationalities without state, even if the first one is now very close to recover the one it had until the beginning of the 18th century; the second one: Roma –the Romani people – or “Gypsies”, as many still call us– has not even had its own territory since our ancestors left Northern India a thousand years ago, fleeing the Muslim invasions) .
2. I lost my younger sister past August and my mourning for her will last to my own death –of course, my love to her will last through death(s), forever.
3. Aside of the rest of my tiny family, my closest beings use to be trees. As I live in the forests, at the foot of the Pyrenees, I have thousands upon thousands of friends.
4. I also love quietness, books, old movies, classical music, chess, conversation and quite a broad spectrum of creative activities. Nevertheless, my first and greatest interest is –and always has been– spiritual evolution; the rest seems to me rather accessory –and growingly so.
5. Genetically, I am a man, but androgynous; my gender identity being dual and somewhat fluid; anyway, increasingly feminine these last years (especially the last two years, since my sister fell seriously ill). So, I belong (proudly!) to the LGBTQ+ community.
6. In a list of my favourite movies, half of them, if not more, would be by Charlie Chaplin (beginning with “City Lights”, “The Kid”, “The Gold Rush”, “Modern Times”…)
7. I have entirely finished a long novel (997 pages), but after presenting it unsuccessfully to a couple of contests, and just prior to put it in the hands of a literary agent, I deeply realized that I did not wish to publish it in the language I had written it (Spanish)… Thus I began to translate (or better, rewrite) it to one of my own parental (and much smaller) tongues; that is, to Catalan. I am not yet half way through this additional, overwhelming, depleting, but inescapable, work. (After more than twenty years of work well done –honestly!–, to engage in this monumental new task is not, for sure, very clever from my part; but I am a very emotional person, and my increasing disaffection to Spain and Spanish ways and culture ending up in entire disengagement (to say it softly), obliges me.)

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My Nominees

• Edge of Humanity Magazine – An amazing blog, very extensive and plenty of love for art, for folklore, for life, for diversity and most especially, for all the humblest and least fortunate people in this harsh world.
• Knut Arne Gjertsen Photography – Photographer – preserving nice moments – His are really nice moments, preserved with utmost skill and much love as well. A perfect site to find the true feeling of the North (among other several places around the world).
• Roger’s Gleanings – Roger W. Smith’s writings: personal essays and reminiscences; views; literature; culture; day to day jottings; people and places – A trove of memories, musings and stories exquisitely (and most honestly) written by a man of high culture – and a lover of baseball, as he, himself tells us.
• A Russian Affair – my love affair with Russian literature – A cosy, well-pondered –but passionate– and most reliable site dedicated to Russian writers and writings; a must read for everyone interested in this great literature between Orient and Occident.
• Vicent Partal – Mails per a Hipàtia – A blog in Catalan by one of the best journalists in our small homeland and director of VilaWeb (a Catalan-language daily news outlet that he co-founded with his wife –the first online medium produced completely in Catalan, and nowadays the leading Catalan digital newspaper). His personal blog deals with politics, history, journalism, travelling, private memories and all things related to the several Catalan-speaking countries. — I am very aware I will be disturbing him with this nomination, since he is an extremely busy person, with never ending chores and lots of responsibilities; and so, I did not include him in my first list (“Si us plau, no cal pas que me contesteu, Vicent; he dubtat molt abans d’incloure-us just per la por de dar-vos la gaita!”). However, I honestly could not keep his blog aside of it. I like “Mails per Hipàtia” too much for this.
• Something Beyond – Poetry, Death, Deviant Life – I feel this may seem nepotism, since this is my late sister’s blog; and even worse, I have been contributing to it many times since her death (always with drafts left unfinished by her, notes from her diaries, translations made by her or, otherwise, some of my memories of her and small tributes to her). — Anyway, since my personal blog is a sort of follow up of Ari’s, if I get an award, whatever it is, Ari’s blog deserves it more. To end this justification, let me say, that “Something Beyond” does really meet all requirements demanded for this Versatile Blogger Award; beginning with versatility.

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I have been reading now and then (even quite often) a few other blogs which undoubtedly deserve this award, but some of them already hold several, if not many, awards and have hundreds of faithful followers; also I do not wish to abuse my attributions nominating as many as fifteen bloggers; so, nine more!; without knowing their blogs thoroughly. Last, but not least, I have run out of time, by far, to elaborate this post of acceptance and thanksgiving.

To finally close it, I just want to thank again very dearly Cheynoeas’ Thoughts for nominating me. Best wishes, Tonya, and a big warm hug from beyond the ocean  ❤ 💐 💋 ✨ !

Li Fontrodona

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Paper couple (‘Invisible Forms’ Logo)

VBA Logo-1

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