Liebster Award: Life’s Little Adventures

Laura Venturini of Lauravent69 has nominated me for a Liebster Award

Thank you very much, Laura! 😀 Grazie mille per la bella sorpresa! You rock!!!

What is the Liebster Award?

The Liebster Award is an award that exists only on the internet and is given to bloggers by other bloggers. The earliest case of the award goes as far back as 2011.

Liebster in German means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.

The award is a way to be discovered but also to connect and support the blogging community. A great idea in promoting your own blog and others.

For more about the Liebster Award, and the competition Jack runs which goes with the nomination, please visit – The Global Aussie: The Official Rules of the Liebster Award 2019

The (slightly modified) rules:

1 – Thank the person who nominated you, and add a link to their blog.

2 – Add the logo of the award to your post and a link to the creator of this blog award – The Global Aussie: The Official Rules of the Liebster Award 2019

3 – Write a paragraph about what motivates you in life (not just in blogging).

4 – Answer the 5 questions given to you.

5 – Nominate 2 – 6 blogs that you feel would enjoy receiving the award.

6 – Create 5 questions for your nominees.

What motivates me in life:

My mind.

That part of the mind which is intensely curious. If something catches my interest, I will focus all of my attention on that subject, obsessively, and investigate it thoroughly, not resting until my curiosity is sated.

That part of my mind which loves solving puzzles. Give me a puzzle and I will keep going until all the pieces are in place and the image has been revealed.

Life is a question – I enjoy seeking answers to that question.

“It’s the questions we can’t answer that teach us the most. They teach us how to think. If you give a man an answer, all he gains is a little fact. But give him a question and he’ll look for his own answers.”

― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man’s Fear

Laura’s Questions:

1 – Do you find it difficult to open up about yourself on your blog?

No. Not at all. Not since I realised just how liberating it is to just say it as I think it, feel it, see it, live it.

Being open about myself on my blog has freed me up to be more open about myself offline, in my interactions, in all areas of my life. That has changed my experience of being and living, interacting, made it more exhilarating, fun, spontaneous, interesting.

Every now and then I get asked by those who read my posts how I can be as open as I am, especially about traits, behaviours, experiences which may be embarrassing, painful, unpleasant, may show me in a negative and unflattering light, might make people dislike me, hate me, think I’m a whatever.

I grew up in an environment which made me secretive, paranoid, anxious, afraid to be, do, say, share anything. Everything about me was used against me, to manipulate, control, restrict, hurt, and so on. It was suffocating living like that and it made me regularly wish I was dead because I didn’t see any point in being alive.

One of the things which helped me to break free from that cage was other people who shared themselves and their life, the good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful, their living and being human experiences openly.

They shared themselves as is – so I’m sharing myself as is.

For those who find it difficult to share themselves openly, here’s something I’ve learned along the blogging way which might help:

Most people won’t read all of your posts no matter how much they may love your blog, the ones who do will only hear a portion of what you’ve said, they’ll forget most of it… what they don’t forget is the parts they relate to, which means something to them, which answers a question they have, which helped them solve their own puzzles, inspires them in some manner, which they absorb into the tapestry of themselves.

2 – Tell me something about yourself that your friends and family might know but not the blogger community.

One of the things which often surprises people who know me in person is how physically strong I am.

It still astounds my partner and he’s known me for 20+ years.

I can lift and move heavy objects on my own which most people tend to ask someone else to help them lift and move.

Men are usually the ones who get most surprised by my physical strength because I don’t look like I’m strong, and I’m female so I shouldn’t be able to do such things.

I’ve always been physically strong. I don’t work out or lift weights – I’m too lazy for that. I can’t lift a car up if a wheel needs changing – I’m not that kind of strong. A lot of my physical strength isn’t brawn as much as it is brain – knowing how to lift and move a heavy object.

This is the sort of thing you can’t really tell people about, they have to witness it. Even when I mention I’m strong to people they don’t get it until they see it and are surprised by it.

Miss Marilla, la femme athlète by Jules Cheret

3 – Name your top 3 favorite actors and actresses.

I always find these sort of questions difficult to answer, usually because my mind suddenly goes blank and I can’t recall anyone.

I watch a lot of films and TV shows. I tend to get into a specific genre and watch loads of that type of film until I’m fed up with it, then I’ll move on to a different genre. At the moment I’m overdosing on South Korean dramas.

I tend to be more interested in the story rather than those playing the characters in the story.

I’ve decided to go with actors and actresses who, if I see their name in the cast, might sway me to watch what they’re in even if the story sounds uninteresting.

Actors – Cha Seung-won. Javier Bardem. John Malkovich.

Actresses – Gong Hyo-jin. Greta Gerwig. Isabelle Huppert.

Cha Seung-won as Woo Ma-Wang (bull demon king) in A Korean Odyssey (Hwayugi)

4 – What would be your dream vacation?

Staying at home and using magic powers to fix everything, with a wave of the hand and an idea in the mind, that needs fixing as well as what doesn’t need fixing but since I have magic powers… might as well have some fun with them.

It’d also be nice to teleport anywhere in the world. I’d visit all those places I’m curious about, and wander around exploring and learning about it for the day.

5 – Do you feel you take the time you need for yourself?

I do. I’m an introvert. Time for myself is vital for my sanity and thus also for the sanity of others.

If I don’t get enough me-time it brings out the primal homicidal in me.

“I need to be alone. I need to ponder my shame and my despair in seclusion; I need the sunshine and the paving stones of the streets without companions, without conversation, face to face with myself, with only the music of my heart for company.”

― Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer

My Nominees:

Melanie of Sparks From A Combustible Mind

Pensitivity 101

Rory of A Guy Called Bloke And K9 Doodlepip

Sadje of Keeping It Alive

All of these bloggers regularly get nominated for blog awards, and they all seem to enjoy receiving them and passing them on.

When you open yourself up to an experience, the universe gives you more of it.

I’m also going to nominate a blogger who blogs about blogging and gives great advice, because I’m curious to see how he handles a blog award nomination. And he’s from Trinidad and Tobago… my grandmother loved, lived, died and is buried there.

Renard of Renard’s World

Thank you for being such inspiring bloggers! Keep on keeping on!

My Questions for my nominees and anyone else who would like to answer them:

1 – If I gave you control of my blog for a day, what would you do with it? Would you change anything about it, such as the theme, the header, my gravatar? Would you rewrite the About page? Add something which you think is missing? Would you write a blog post as An Upturned Soul – if yes, and you were able to say in that post what you can’t say as yourself on your blog, what would you write about?

2 – If you found out tomorrow that you’d been gifted with immortality as well as agelessness, how would you react, what would you do, and how would that change the experience of living and being for you?

3 – If you could create a new country with you as its founder, what would be the motto of your country, what would your country be like, what would be the most important elements of life in your country?

4 – If you suddenly became famous – what would be the reason for your sudden fame?

5 – What is the biggest surprise you’ve had about yourself since you started blogging? What have you discovered through blogging which you didn’t know about yourself before?

Optional extra: I’m going to add an exercise just for fun, it’s something bloggers do sometimes when they run out of ideas for posts, and it is also a good way of getting to know your readership and your blog better.

I’m using a laptop, so instructions may be different for those using other devices.

Go to your Dashboard. Click on Stats. Click on Search Terms. Click on All Time in the Search Terms. What are the top searches which led people to your blog?

This is what it looks like when I do that.

Write a post which includes the search terms, and pop a link in the comments on this post so I can read it. Thank you!

Have fun with it – stats are not the devil, they’re part of your relationship with your blog and those who visit it.

Okay…

I think I’ve reach the limits of my crazy for today… at least the portion of crazy reserved for blogging.

That’s it from me…

Over to you!