October 5, 2011 
It’s live! A personal essay I wrote last month that won a contest with Unplug & Reconnect, “Forest Foursome,” has now been published. Regular blog readers will note it is a shortened rewrite of a post from late August on unplugging from the grid. Thoughtful author Jessica McCann directed me to the contest, and my family was kind enough to let me use the better part of a weekend performing what I believe is the soul of writing — revising, revising, revising.
If you like it, please feel free to leave a comment on their site!
FYI, I’m very proud of my 16-year-old visual-artist daughter. She has a photo credit on the essay.
Beautiful essay, Patrick! The contest win was well-deserved.
Yay – what an awesome accomplishment, congrats!
You won the contest! Cheers and fireworks!
Thoroughly enjoyed your revised version (great rewriting, Patrick, so yes, your hard work paid off) and I was thrilled to see Maria’s sunset photo on your post.
What an inspiration to follow your journey with this success here on your blog.
Congrats!
Thank you so much, Kathryn, Megan, Milli and Melissa!
I’d love for the site itself to get a few comments, don’t be shy about posting there or sending folks their way.
Hi Patrick -
I left a comment yesterday but looks like it hasn’t been released by the moderator yet.
Others have shared that as well. Perhaps the hosts of the site have chosen to unplug for a bit!
Congratulations Patrick! That’s awesome! (I left a comment on the site as well.)
I think you did a fine job of explaining the importance of both being unplugged and tuned into society.
And congratulations to your daughter, too!
Thank you, Callie! Yes, Marisa is quite excited.
I look forward to seeing your comment on that site. As Milli points out above, they apparently haven’t approved any yet.
Wonderful news! Congrats
Thank you, Carrie!
Congratulations Patrick, how exciting!
I’m sorry I have been missing these posts as they come out. For some reason they are going into my junk file now and I’m only checking that as it starts to fill up. I have not yet figured out how to stop it from going there. (I drag and drop them into my inbox … that USED to work …)
I’m excited for you, great work! (But I miss Mr. Bacon!
)
All my best,
Amy