For the first time since my husband died, I have had a full night’s sleep. Not only that, after a brief period of consciousness in between the ringing of alarms and my eldest son leaving for school, I fell back into sleep again and luxury of luxuries, woke up at around 11 a.m.

I have lost my husband, but life has given me so much that I cannot and should not complain. Perhaps it’s a combination of a good long rest and meds, but my mind feels more settled. I can feel again that core inside me–that place where story comes from and where the vision to see things happen is born. This week, I’ll be updating PUSH with a conversation between four Filipino authors, Kate Osias, Dean Alfar, Paolo Chikiamco and Alessa Hinlo very kindly participated in a long process conversation and I’m excited to share that with the world. I also have work from participants to the workshop we did for Eschacon.

A lot of paperwork still needs to be dealt with, but I have the offer of helping hands. Even the clearing up of our attic and the realization of our attic project is coming to pass because of the helping hands being extended to us. My greatest joy though is the recovery of photos and files from the laptop that got destroyed. To be able to have those tangible things from the last year that we spent together brings me so much comfort and thankfulness and joy.