It is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure that Deaf Pagan Crossroads announces that one of its posts has been selected as a finalist by DeafRead for its “Through Deaf Eyes” contest.
The post “A Hearing Person’s View of Through Deaf Eyes” written by Crystal Dolphin was selected by the DeafRead Human Editors from amongst 55 submissions as a Top Ten Blog Finalist.
You can read more about DeafRead’s contest and finalists here:
This post exemplifies what Deaf Pagan Crossroads is truly all about – a crossroads of diverse paths, cultures, backgrounds, beliefs, etc. meeting together to explore different worlds and learn about one another. Hopefully this can be just the beginning of taking those small steps in that bridge building process.
Deaf Pagan Crossroads would like to thank the editors of DeafRead for selecting this post as one of the finalists, and also extends its heartiest congratulations to all of the bloggers and vloggers who are finalists. We wish you all the very best, and thank you for sharing your messages with the world. Your thoughts are important to all of us as part of that whole process of creating bridges of knowledge, understanding, sensitivity, and acceptance.
Once again…congratulations Crystal, and the best of luck to you! Thank you for sharing your views, and helping us all to see things from a hearing person’s perspective.
Blessings,
~ Ocean
EDITORIAL UPDATE
Congratulations to BrownEyedGirl for winning the DeafRead Best Blog Entry and to Barb DiGi for winning the DeafRead Best Vlog Entry for their thoughts on the program “Through Deaf Eyes.”
In the end, we are all winners. This program served to help unite the Deaf Community, and to build bridges of understanding between the Deaf and Hearing Worlds. To that effect, we can all be thankful; we can all join together at the Crossroads and say…
IT’S GOOD TO BE DEAF.
Crystal Dolphin (the long haired lass on the left) resides in Massachusetts. When she’s not writing posts or commenting on other blogs, she can be found in the nearest Irish pub, downing a pint of Guiness and plotting governmental takeovers with her partner in crime, Ocean (the gal on the right, who insists this is one crappy picture of herself…)
This sculpture shows the sign for "connect"...and that is what Deaf Pagan Crossroads is all about - making connections. Connections between Deafhood and Paganism, connections between the Deaf Community and the Hearing Community, connections between myself as the writer and you as the reader. I hope you will take the time to read my various posts, some of which are listed below. Welcome to the Crossroads, and I hope you make some connections here!
Deaf Pagan Crossroads 
Congratulations, Crystal!
I read your post about Through Deaf Eyes and thought it was excellent. My experiences are similar to yours, and it was good to see that another hearing person thought and felt much the same way when watching the program as I did.
I’m glad the DeafRead editors picked you as a finalist. I agree with Ocean – this is one way of building those bridges.
Congrats Crystal 🙂
My thanks to our Crossroads readers, and also to the DeafRead editors. My congratulations to the other blog & vlog finalists as well!
And most especially, my sincere thank you to my “Spirit Sistah”, Ocean, who has been a guiding light in both my spiritual path, and in my gaining a better understanding of the Deaf community and communication.
And Sis…while I agree that neither one of us look our “best” in that photograph, I still love the picture…because of the fond memories it brings of our time together…(I could have done without the flat tire on the way to Salem that day though. HaHa) In our defense, it turned out to be a rather dreary and damp day, and I think we were both a little “wind blown”….but we warmed up nicely with some delicious New England Clam Chowdah and a couple of pints as pictured here. 🙂
OK, OK, okay… ***sipping*** on a pint of Guiness! 😛 Frankly I don’t care if you sip it, down it, drink it, gulp it, or snort it through your nose… it’s still vile, nasty stuff.
For those who don’t know, I dislike beer. You will practically never see me drinking it, and in all the years we have known each other, I don’t think Crystal has ever seen me “down” one – I might take a sip or two and then make a face, but as far as emptying the glass…nope!
NO…that’s not a beer I’m drinking in the picture – it’s actually a glass of Irish hard cider, which is basically apple cider that has been allowed to ferment and turn alcoholic. I do like my cider…Hornsby’s is a favorite.
But of course, anyone who knows me well knows that the beverage of choice is a glass of mead. Nectar of the Gods!
Ya know, sis… I COULD put up that pic of the two of us after we’d had a bottle or two… 😉
Ha! I teased Ocean in an email about the phrase “downing a guiness”, I tend to sip a couple of pints. Notice which glass is emptier in the picture, even though we got those pints at the same time? 😉
Oh, the picture of us after a couple of bottles of mead. That would have been at my friend Ted’s house, who is mentioned in my “Through Deaf Eyes” post! Yeah…no comment.
If only we could get our local Irish pubs to serve mead… 🙂
Okay, I can admit when I’m wrong….as my Sistah reminded me, I was starting my SECOND pint as she was finishing her FIRST in the pic. 😉
CHEER!!!!!!! Way to go. Good job!!!!!!!!
Ahhhh – first, second… who cares?
We had a good time cavorting around in Salem, even if the weather wasn’t so great. The pub was fun, the chowdah was delicious, and the brews definitely quenched our thirst.
Your tire is still sitting by the side of the road, by the way.
Now I just need to bring you out here and show you around the Midwest.
yay crys /////woooo hooooo
Hey, both of you need to get your hiney’s out to CA in my neck of the woods!!
We will certainly try, Wolf…but it might take us awhile.
My broom is currently in the shop, and I refuse to let Crystal drive – she tends to get flat tires. 😉
Congratulations Crystal! I read your article the first time around and just went back for a second read. I though it was excellent (during both reads).
I like the photo. 🙂 It’s a photo of two people obviously having a very good time.
P.S. To Osh…
I’m a homebrewer and one of my specialties is mead.
Ohhhhhhh Robin! 😀
Congratulations, you’ve just moved up a couple of notches on my friendship list 😉
And for those of you who are reading all this stuff and wondering “just what the heck ***IS*** mead anyway???” I am in the process of writing up a post about this wonderful beverage.
Stay tuned.
[…] Congratulations to Crystal […]
As seen in my Editorial Update above, Crystal didn’t win the contest, although she did garner one of the nine votes from the editorial board.
Nevertheless, to know that her post was considered amongst the many that were submitted, and selected as a finalist is a great honor.
What makes me proud isn’t whether or not she won or even was a finalist…
but that she wrote it in the first place.
Awwww, thanks Sis! Okay, so now, we need to go visit Wolf Wind in CA, but need to stop at Robin’s on the way so that we can sample some of her home brewed mead! Ooooh, I can almost taste it now! And we still have yet to take our trip to Ireland. One of us better win the lottery soon so we can afford to take all these trips! 😉 And if we take my car, we’d better have a couple of spare tires!
Again, thanks everyone for your support and feedback.
I was both surprised and honored to have been chosen as a finalist (I didn’t write the post specifically for the contest), but more importantly, as Ocean said, we are all winners, working together to build bridges of understanding.
Congrats to the contest winners!
[…] who were following the crazy conversation between me and my “spirit sistah” Crys on the Congratulations, Crystal post might have noticed us expressing our fondness for a beverage known as “mead” – which I […]
[…] Congratulations to Crystal […]