thinking blogger? me??

My dear friend Jules over at Maced with Grace, as well as my new pastor friend, pistolpete over at Necessary Therapy, have nominated me for a "Thinking Blogger" (Area 51?) award. I daresay I am humbled and honored and will most assuredly get over myself as soon as I hit "publish."

Thing is, I must nominate five (5) other bloggers that think and then they can put this cool widget on their blog and thus, pay it forward to five others. Cool idea, hard to pinpoint only five folks to pay it forward to; I am also going to try to name five who I've not seen mentioned elsewhere ;)

In no particular order, and all very different from each other, here we go:

Today at the Mission - my friend rwk or rhymeswithkerouac always has me thinking. Sometimes more than I would care to admit, with his vignettes and anecdotes from being the head cook/chaplain (sorry rwk, but you ARE!) at a rescue mission in Canada. He's one of the book sellers on my sidebar and I am honored to say, has also become a dear friend (and I am not just saying that because his mom reads my blog!) (Hi, Mom!!)

So I Go Now - Jeff's modern-day parables of Jesus on a Harley always leave me thinking about things in a bit of a different light. Again, I push his book encourage all of you to read his book, the proceeds of which go to a worthy cause.

luminousmiseries - Owen is another one who challenges me -- a once-Protestant-Minister-Turned-Devout-Catholic -- in his writings, in his drawings, in his sincere and sweet faith; he is my brother.

Coming to the Quiet - he is deep, he is profound, he is another one of my deep-rooted friends who always takes on so much and is honest and open in his journey and his attempt to go deeper. There are definitely times I leave his blog, scratching my head and scrambling for some sort of cliff notes :)

Swept Over - Scott - stay-at-home-writer-dad, devout convert to the Catholic Faith, this one is pretty assuredly responsible in part for my staying in the Catholic Church. He is clear, concise, sincere, and humorous (at times - anyone who refers to his minivan as his "sweet ride" ... well, you decide...) He sees things with clarity and points them out in ways that are easy to understand, even if I've been part of the Church for 11 years.

I must also say there is one blogger whose writings I adore but am afraid to give a nod to because she is a private soul...however, her contemplative writings inspire me and leave me failing to breathe most times because to do so would break the mood of what she has just written.

Yep, she is that good :) You know who you are, dear one...

Anyway, thank you again Sir Pete and Ms. Grace. Now everyone listed, pay it forward!