Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Writing Contest: The Results Show


Thank you to all of you who participated in my first writing contest. Each of you taught us (or reminded us about) something special about motherhood. There were so many wonderful essays submitted that I was glad that it was my marvelous mother-in-law's responsibility to choose the best, rather than mine! She spent a great deal of time poring over them and in the end chose a first, second, and third place winner. And they are simply wonderful.

Congratulations to Lei from My Many Colored Days, whose essay, "A-ha!" took first place. Her essay, if you haven't read it yet, was all about becoming the perfect mother through Christ, but letting go of the notion of being "the perfect mother." Myrna's (MIL/judge) comment on it was:
"This is a lesson that will stand you in good stead the rest of your life. We are all dependent on His grace and as women striving for perfection, we often get lost in the independence we think we have."
Lei has a beautiful and inspiring blog and I recommend that you meander over there and take a look. She has lots to say on the issues that affect mothers today.


Second place goes to Lizzy at My Ice Cream Diary for "Ah-ha!", which she amazingly wrote this when her newest baby, Cheeks, was less than one week old. Her epiphany had to do with appreciating her mother after all the years of criticizing her ways. It was funny, warm, and oh, so familiar. Here are Myrna's comments:
"I'm sorry. I have a little bias here as I am on now on the wise and wonderful side (even when I'm neither wise nor wonderful). But this is a time honored epiphany of motherhood. It's a safe bet that this time one generation ago your mother was calling your grandma and saying, 'She hates me!'"

Third place
goes to Lucy at An Ordinary Mom, with "The Duck Pond." She writes about learning to live in the moment and not always rushing on to the next thing. The judge said:
"This speaks to me even as a woman who is no longer focused on the busy-ness of motherhood anymore. I like the duck pond and I suspect there is another lesson in the distractions that made the rest of the walk peaceful. Hmmmm."

If you haven't already, go on over to their blogs and read them for yourself. You'll feel inspired, you'll enjoy a good laugh, and you may just decide to set a new goal for your mothering self.

To all who participated, please please send me an email with your postal address so that I can mail out these cookbooks. (Truth be told, I have yet to burn them for you--but I've only gotten two emails with addresses so far.) I will get them out to you very soon.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

You may send my cd to:

Ann Snider
4103 Fairacres Road
Kearney, NE 68845

It was a privledge to enter the contest! My wise and wonderful sister-in-law picked some very wonderful stories of "a-ha" moments in motherhood. She is a great choice for being able to do that! :) PS--Myrna, you can pay me later. :)))))

Lei said...

I am happy that I stumbled upon this... I love to write and I especially love any opportunity to share and learn more about motherhood. We have so much to offer each other, so thank you for the incentive to take a deeper look at motherhood together as women!

An Ordinary Mom said...

Thanks for hosting such a fabulous contest! I can't wait to read more of the entries.

Sonja said...

This really was a brilliant idea, Michal. I LOVED reading the entries. And the opportunity we all had to focus on and share something so dear to us. I think it helped us all to appreciate our roll as mother a little more. :)

Nana said...

Good choices, Myrna. You were brave to judge, as I loved all the entries.

daysease said...

did you get my address in an email? i did send it... let me know and i can get it to you... mrsdayseye@tiscali.it God bless...