A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose

The ever-thoughtful and generous Luna has given me a pink rose!

The Pink Rose Awards were inaugurated by Kymberli, who blogs over at I'm a Smart One. She explains why she started this fantastic initiative:

In this blogosphere we read and feel each other's joys and pains. When people can't hope for themselves, we try to have hope for them, even if we feel that all hope is lost on our own situations. No matter how we express it, what I think we feel but do not often say about hope is this: we hope will have the strength to live through whatever is handed to us, and that come what may, we will be alright. How many times have you wanted to let someone know that they are appreciated and that you find them and their words beautiful? How many times have you wanted to lift someone up and said a silent prayer that she or he would be able to heal? How many times have you felt a fellow blogger's isolation and wanted reach out to let them know they weren't alone? Here's your chance. Give the Pink Rose Award to those who inspire you or need to be inspired, to those who have encouraged you or those who need encouragement.

The rules are as follows:

1. On your blog, copy and paste the award, these rules, a link back to the person who selected you, and a link to this post: http://smartone.typepad.com/smartone/2008/05/pink-is-my-favo.html. You will find the story behind the Pink Rose Award and other graphics to choose from there.

2. Select as many award recipients as you would like, link to their blogs (if they have one), and explain why you have chosen them.

3. Let them know that you have selected them for an award by commenting on one of their posts.

4. If you are selected, pass it on by giving the Pink Rose Award to others.

5. If you find that someone you want to nominate has already been selected by someone else, you can still honor them by posting a comment on their award post stating your reasons for wishing to grant them the award.

6. You do not have to wait until someone nominates you to nominate someone else.

I would like to send a whole bouquet of pink roses right back to Luna, not least because today is her birthday. Luna has been through so much over the past six years, and I wish with all my heart that things could have turned out differently for her. She writes so movingly and yet so beautifully about the intense pain of infertility, and I feel that I have learnt a great deal from her wise meditations on grief and loss.

I'd also like to send a rose to Pamela Jeanne: another brave woman who tried and tried. On her blog Coming2Terms, Pamela Jeanne explores how infertility continues to take its toll long after treatment has stopped. As motherhood begins to seem an increasingly remote possibility, I am grateful to Pamela Jeanne for reminding me that life can and does go on, even if that positive pregnancy test never happens. PJ is a wonderful writer, and I hope that she finds a publisher for her book very soon.

Finally, I'd like to send some roses to two other bloggers who are having a tough time at the moment: Malloryn and the Babychaser. Malloryn had a particularly difficult Mother's Day, yet responded with tact and dignity to some highly insensitive comments made to her by her mother and aunt. The Babychaser recently received a negative from her third IVF cycle, and is struggling to remain positive as she heads towards a FET. I think that both of them deserve a bouquet of flowers.