Welcome to a new week. As you look at the forecast (or the temperature) today, keep in mind that January is just about over. Soon it’ll be wrong-headed rodents predicting early spring, hearts on sleeves (and everywhere else), pitchers and catchers reporting for duty; hang in there.
 
There is this magic in the way that we are able to communicate, to stay in touch with each other in 2019. Just yesterday, I suggested to a friend at my alma mater that perhaps we would be able to have a Facetime chat about my book (she wanted me to come by Loyalist College in Belleville, something that is just not going to be possible this time around, as I’m not even taking the highway from Oshawa to Ottawa; we’ll be flying instead). I marvel at the options and opportunities that a few simple clicks offer us at every turn.
 
Sure, there are downfalls: the spread of false information, like warnings about vaccines that can be directly linked to an outbreak of measles in the US, and other arguments to science that are not only refutable but can be researched – again – with a few simple clicks. (One easy reminder: weather is not climate and vice versa.)
 
Today I thought, why not start off the week with some beautiful inspiration that I got from a journal visitor named Jill? It made my day when it came in and, with the snow and cold that so many are finding themselves bracing for and battling today, this might be just what you need. She writes: 

Thought you would like to know that when I went on my 3M Cloud Library site, your ebook, Mourning Has Broken is on the top line under New and Coming Soon. So I placed a hold on it. As well, I was able to order it on my Brampton and Bruce County e-library sites that I belong to. So you are getting traction already and I truly wish you success with this new chapter you are embarking on.
 
There is a line in our closing ritual our Beta Sigma Phi members repeat at each Sorority meeting: “if the road we take seems obscured with dust, give us the skill and grace to pave it with stars, to transmute the dust into stardust” and I believe you are doing just that. We always close our meetings repeating “may the Lord watch between me and thee, while we are absent, one from the other.”
 
I do not think of the word Lord in a religious sense, more as a guardian angel. As you often relate in your Blog, Lauren finds meaningful ways to show you she is close by your side, always watching over you and your husband Rob. I am sure she is both smiling and proud, smiling at your strength to make life adjustments and proud of the courage it has taken for you to write about the most difficult, emotional and personal time of your lives.
 
Best wishes on your book launch. I am sure the book will be a great help to a lot of people, just as I am sure it had been very helpful for you. Kind regards, Jill.

I asked Jill’s permission to share that with you, not so I could simply copy and paste kind words about me, but perhaps so that you could take to heart the words in the sorority closing ritual. It’s a lovely little prayer for care and togetherness, to remind us all that we’re all part of something so much bigger than just ourselves and our lives. At times we’re reminded of that by simply sitting back and looking at the vastness of the social media that we are a part of, or on a more basic level, the social fabric of which we are each but a tiny thread.
 
Either way, I loved these words. And may they give you warmth today, too. 
 
Talk to you here tomorrow with a few angel winks that were loud and clear, but that were clearly just coincidences. We think.