Well, this has been a big year for me in my writing. One of the biggest blessings of the year has been seeing my readership grow and discovering some wonderful, like-minded bloggers who have helped make this feel more like a community project than just one guy tapping away at his computer. To everyone who regularly checks in here and encourages me, thanks so much. It means a lot to me.
I’d also like to thank Tony Roberts of awaywithwordsblog.com for his very kind gesture nominating me for a Blog-of-the-Year award. In an orderly manner befitting the blogosphere, the conditions for accepting the award are as follows:
1-Select the blog(s) you think deserve the Blog Of The Year 2013 Award.
2-Write a blog post and tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen- there are no minimum or maximum number of blogs required- and ‘present’ the blog(s) with their award.
3-Let the blog(s) that you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the instructions with them- (please don’t alter the instructions or the badges!)
4-Come over and say hello to the originator of the Blog Of The Year 2013 Award via this link :http://thethoughtpalette.co.uk/blog-awards-2-/blog-of-the-year-2013-award/
5-You can now also join the Blog Of The Year Award Facebook Page. Click the link here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BlogoftheYear
Share your blog posts with an even wider audience.
6-And as a winner of the award- please add a link back to the blog that presented you with this award-and then proudly display the award on your blog- and start collecting stars!
Firstly, I would like to nominate two blogs for this award. I must admit that my blog reading is not as wide as it should be, but there are two blogs in particular which have blessed me greatly this year. The first is my nominating blog, awaywithwordsblog.com, a wonderful place for finding “delight in disorder” – a wide-reaching, eloquent excursion into the tougher matters of faith and the beauty found therein. The second blog is A Devoted Life: Practical Daily Devotions for the Real World. Every time I go there, I find wonderfully expressed reflections on faith which are simultaneously down-to-earth and profound – no small feat. To both of these bloggers, thank you for blessing me and others with your words!
The Consolations of Writing 
Thank you so much, Matthew, for gracious acceptance and generous acknowledgement.