Welcome to Friday! I’m saying good-bye here for two weeks as we raise our heads and close our laptops (for longer periods than just overnight) and Rob and I reconnect with each other over the next little bit. As you may know, tomorrow marks four years since Lauren left us. The next day – well, you know what Sunday is. And if you’re celebrating it, I hope that you and/or your mom (if you’re lucky enough to have her with you) enjoy your day.
 

 
This year, our grief has been put to what I hope is the best possible practical application with the release of the print and audio versions of Mourning Has Broken. The awful events that stamp our hearts May 11, 2015 are the reason for that book. And all we can do is keep spreading the word of Love, Loss and Reclaiming Joy because those last two words are what Rob and I are attempting to do – especially from now until May 24.
 
In the next few days I will link here and in social media to some pretty special events we’ll be gearing up to in the first week of June: as you know from the What’s Up section, I’m at Indigo Mississauga June 3, at a very special event at the Flato Markham Theatre for An Evening of Reclaiming Joy (with host/interviewer Bev Thomson) on June 4, Indigo Kitchener June 5 and near Alliston at Tangle Creek Golf Club June 6 for a special fundraiser for Matthews House Hospice. 
 
I hope you and I will cross paths at one of these gatherings. I’m very excited to be coming back and connecting with everyone again. Best of all, it’s a Thelma and Louise week split between my friends Lisa Brandt and then Allan Bell. I get to spend time with two of my very favourite people. 
 
As I mentioned to you in my Mental Health Week journal on Monday, the past few months have been a particurly intense period in what was often a busy and full life. For ten weeks now, Mourning Has Broken has been on the Top 10 Bestsellers lists (Canadian Non-Fiction), sitting most recently at the #7 spot on both the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail lists. I tell you this not to boast (although if I don’t, I’m quite sure you won’t see it in anyone else’s blog LOL) but to give you a glimpse of just how surreal all of this has been for Rob and for me.
 
The tornado of activity that we’ve been caught up in after about two years of sitting and writing and just being has been quite a change of pace. I find myself cherishing days where I have nothing to do but gentle stretching Yin yoga. I’m very happy when the only beautification I have to do is shower, brush my hair and teeth and maybe put on some lip colour. Or not. Right now we’re still in search of whatever our daily norm is, four years after the world in our perfect little snow globe was shaken and smashed in some sort of screaming tantrum thrown by a child reacting in fury at the seeming perfection of our lives.
 
In the aftermath of those dark, early days, we didn’t dare dream that we’d come out the other side alive, never mind in the bright sunshine where we find ourselves today, both literally and figuratively. Rob and I are incredulous and elated over the response to the book that has been such a labour of love: not the sales per se, but the fact that so many people are reaching out to tell us that they relate to, they understand, they appreciate and they need the message within. That’s more than we could have hoped for.
 
Book sales? No one (save a rare few) gets rich from selling books, so let me disabuse you of that notion! But that was never our aim: the gratification for us is seeing our book in the hands of so many who might need it, whether they’re coming from a place of grief or just wanting to learn the language of loss. And we are hoping that the message of hope is one that is spreading.
 
I’ll be back here with you, refreshed and ready to roll, on Monday, May 27. Thank you to Cheryl for finding and then creating the very special picture above. It was taken by Rob in 2006 on a ship…the best way to hold a teen hostage so she has to spend time with her parents! Lauren was 15, that Katie Couric cut was one of my favourites and it just fits: mother, daughter, Mother’s Day. I’ll be sure to feature one with Rob in June – I promise.
 
Thank you for being here and I’ll be back with you soon.