Astonished!

I've been tagged again - this time, I sheepishly admit, with a blog award. Toby at Astonished, Yet at Home! has very kindly given me the Premio Dardo (which, if you've sung any eigthteenth-century Italian opera, you'll know means "arrow prize") Award, which "acknowledges the effort of a particular blogger to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values in his or her writing." Toby explains his choice of me among fourteen other bloggers thus:

"Pentimento is a doctor of music whose posts are deeply spiritual and intellectually informed. The grace with which she writes about abortion is unparallelled in the Catholic blogosphere."

I'm humbled by this. Thank you, Toby.

Now . . . the rules of the award require that I accept the award and post about it, along with the name and blog link of the colleague who's granted it. But then there is another rule which I am going to violate, requiring that I pass the award along to fifteen other bloggers "worthy of this acknowledgment." I don't think I actually know fifteen other bloggers who are treading these waters, and, though there are some widely-read blogs that no doubt deserve the acknowledgment, I'd rather pass it on to some of my favorite "smaller" blogs, so my list is going to be short and simple.

1. Retired Waif, who writes with sensitivity, grace, and wit about the ethics of illness, disability, and motherhood, as well as the spiritual quest and other not-so-everyday matters.

2. Brenda at The Crazy Stable, a Catholic Brooklynite feminist for life. I love her politics, her aesthetics, and her literary sensibility, which calls to mind that of a Catholic Laurie Colwin. What the heck, I love huh.

3. Fallen Sparrow, who I think of as a brother blogger. Fallen writes about the dark road he's traveled (and still is traveling) to satisfy his deep thirst for God with a beauty that's disarming and an honesty that can be excruciating.

4. Pat McNamara at McNamara's Blog, a historian whose blog is a reverent treasure trove of lore about Catholic life in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century America.

5. Mrs. T at Fine Old Famly, a poet, essayist, and homeschooling mother. There are so many reasons I would like to give the award to her blog, and I feel inadequate to the task of describing them all; you'll have to read her yourself to understand. Not only does she write superlatively, but the ethos of her blog combines a deeply compassionate humanity, a love for and ease within the intellectual life, and a devotion to God, her vocation, and her family that I greatly admire.

I also want to acknowledge all my blogging colleagues, both known and unknown to me, who are working to create a culture of love and beauty on the web.