There are some amazing thinkers, feelers, artists and writers on the Virtual Tea House (VTH). Here is Part 1 of the 'best of 2008' posts from each of them. (My personal posts will be in Part II.)
Since this is not a popularity contest, we looked at several factors--how many readers the posts had, how many comments/what sort of dialogue happened, how many trackbacks...and...how much we liked it! Pretty objective standards.
For 2009, we have at least 2 new voices joining this 'stable of thoroughbred bloggers'. One is Maria Hodkins, who is a nature journalist and artist. The other new blogger is a writer who likes a little mystery--stay tuned!
Remember that because each of these authors have individual blogs on the VTH, you can RSS or Atom feed their blogs, or have email notifications sent when they post, if you have an account on the VTH. The info about how to do this is in the right hand column next to their posts.
Without further to-do, but with all good hope that you have an aromatic pot of lovely Earl Gray steeping...
Ann Turner 4 posts in 2008
Ann is a prolific author of children's books, a mother, and a ne'er-content spiritual explorer!
How did I reach this place?
Bill Ellis 10 posts in 2008
Bill is an Episcopal priest, deep thinker and idea integrator. He also is ne'er-content, but always pushing into new frontiers. Hm, sort of a pattern going, here.
Spiritual Leadership and the Re-humanizing of the World
Ok, let's try this one more time from the top
Holly Holbrooks-Kuratek 8 posts in 2008
Holly entered medical school this year. Her posts are about 'Medicine Woman Walking...' She has only posted once since starting in the fall, but I hear through Facebook, that she's a little busy.
Acceptance
Resistance--love it
Krayna Castelbaum 11 posts in 2008
Krayna is an artist, spiritual director, therapist, and general raconteur! Plus she's a lot of fun and a bit of a wild-woman.
She has a box out front of her home in which each month she deposits a favorite found poem...the poem of the month. These lucky poems come from all over the universe to sit in that box and be discovered by the innocent walker-by. In 2008, we added a blog on the VTH to expand the vision of the Poem of the Month!
Abd el hadi fights a superpower
The little duck
Michelle Meech 8 posts in 2008
Michelle is an Episcopalian seminary student in the Bay Area. This is her second career. She started blogging in 2007 as she prepared for attending seminary. It's been a joy watching her go through the joys and rigors of this training. Here are two posts from Michelle's 'Pilgrimage Series'.
Idealism
Daemon
Rita Clagett 3 posts in 2008
Rita is a well-socialized hermit of sorts who lives off the grid in western Colorado. She is a biologist by training and has many animals and plants and lovely cups of tea. She writes about sleeping with dogs--and she's lost two of her beloveds in the last twelve months...
Three Trees
Women who sleep with dogs
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer 16 posts in early2008...and then she and Eric birthed baby Vivian in July!
Rosemerry and her husband Eric are organic orchardists in Colorado. Rosemerry has published several books, and is a well-respected writing teacher. She travels widely and brings back nuggets for us more earth-bound beings...
Why we complain
Emotions 101: How to poetry-ize them!
Hope you enjoy these offerings to the greater good--the spirituality of everyday, mundane (in a good way) life!
Part II will be my posts and a revisiting of the 'Where's Home' contest.