Fall is here, bringing with it the cold and the dark, the return of school, the changing of the leaves and the rutting of the deer.

We have the good fortune to live in a climate where the seasons are varied and interesting, but without the extreme weather we currently see bearing down on much of the rest of the country.

We try to feel grateful every day for the beauty and the joy our island environment brings, even if putting it into words isn’t always easy. As Paul McCartney sings: “How can I explain what it means to be loved by you?”

Sometimes it’s enough just to walk outside in the dewy grass, watch a sunrise over the water, and re-commit to loving this place back.

Speaking of gratitude, congratulations are in order for Beachcomber reporter and former editor Liz Shepherd, who took home a dragon’s hoard of trophies this month in the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association contest.

Journalists love to dole out awards and pat each other on the back, and the WNPA contest is one of two that the Beachcomber regularly enters.

Traditionally, judges from another state decide what stories from Washington are worthy, so that they ideally have no bias or personal connections to any of the work they judge. That means we’re often surprised by which stories earn awards — an article we find crucially important to the island may not pique the interest of someone across the country. But in this case, the judges clearly recognized the importance of Liz’ journalism.

We know that no award can capture the value our journalism has in informing and uplifting our community.

But awards do fulfill one simple and important purpose: They’re positive feedback and external validation that our hard work matters. It’s easy to get lost in your own world and to fear that taking pride in your work will dull your desire to improve. But tuning out your successes and focusing only on the failures doesn’t give you the full picture.

Criticism is a useful source of data that says: “Something isn’t working here. Let’s fix it.”

And praise is a useful source of data that says: “Keep it up. This stuff, at least, is great.”

We’re grateful to you, our readers, for both — and for reading and supporting The Beachcomber. Thank you.