Yesterday I received this wonderful meassage from Diane at writerwaannabe763 and HomeToGo232.wordpress.com:

“Hi Russ… Hope you are well..I’ve nominated you for the Kreativ Blog Award Diane. Should you wish to see details and/or participate details are at http://hometogo232.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/humility-tested/ Diane

“The rules/suggestions for this award are:

1. Say something about the person who nominated you (if you’re so inclined)

2. Answer the 10 questions included about yourself.

3. Nominate bloggers for this award (or as determined by yourself)

4. Advise nominees you have done so.

5. Place logo on your site.

What’s your favorite song? “What A Wonderful World”

What’s your favorite dessert? Burgundy Cherry Ice Cream

What ticks you off? Unkindness, bullying, apathy.

What do you do when you’re upset? It depends on the situation. If someone has done something that I allow to upset me, I notice normally very quickly how I’m feeling and perhaps acting, then I count my blessings, think of times I’ve accidentally done the same or something similar to someone else, smile (I find it’s hard to stay mad when I smile), and/or watch a comedy, and forgive or forget the person and/or ask what the gift is and what I can learn from the situation. If I’m upset because someone I love is being threatened or harmed, then all bets are off and I do whatever it takes to protect them as best I can or die trying. I’ve discovered that I have a formidable fierceness and fearlessness at such times.

Which is your favorite pet? My constant companion, a Chocolate Lab named Duke.

Which do you prefer, black or white? The night sky is magnificent because it is full of both black and white. I love them both.

What’s your biggest fear? I answered this in a bit more detail in an earlier post, but some huge fears I have are wasting precious moments of life by not appreciating all the beauty and greatness all around me, not seizing opportunities to help others, forgetting to show everyone how much they mean to me, and wasting opportunities to inspire others to see their own greatness and potential.

What’s your attitude, mostly? Life is a gift and a miracle. It’s a learning adventure with a lot of little and large lessons available to me every moment of every day. If I’m not savoring every second, passionately experiencing that which is important to me, finding ways to help lift the spirits of others, and living every day as if it were my last, I’m literally wasting life.

What is perfection? Much of Nature’s beauty, the spirit in each of us when the layers/filters/blinders have been removed, the love and loyalty of a good dog, the knowledge of having a soul mate, the feeling of connectedness when a great kindness has been experienced, giving the last of one’s food to another when no more food is likely, pure love and kindness when no possibility of material gain will occur, giving anonomously, the chirping of birds in the morning, sunrises and sunsets, being there for someone without needing to be asked, ego-less love and kindness.

What’s your guilty pleasure? Eating junk food and not exercising enough.

Diane kindly and generously added: “Russ is not only a dedicated writer about many wonderful and inspirational topics but is a faithful reader of others’ blogs as well. Please visit him at his site https://russtowne.com/about/”

Thank you, Diane!

Russ