Back from a “wasn’t that a party” vacation up north (it was a “re-do” of a disastrous one a few weeks before) and all geeked out about unicorns and mermaids in the back-to-school free-for-all that is, I think, the biggest party of the year, I find that I’m a year older this month and that the end of summer feels like an end of a year.

May it be the end of sometimes-crippling grief and mourning. After my last major revision and the flurry of beta readings, all accomplished while my head was down and I refused to “live” in a world without Michael, my brother who died at Christmas. Isn’t it normal to go to one extreme, then the other, before finding balance again?

Well, I’ve been in the mood for being alive again, all right. For feeling something, even if it’s happy crying at movies (I’ve seen Mamma Mia 2 three times) or listening to loud music, a sharp contrast to all those months of silent hard work in solitude.

This is a year-end, in many ways. I sure didn’t feel like taking care of anything else while I wasn’t taking care of myself, so no growing things were added to my not-yet-a-cottage garden. I’m finally shrugging off the guilt.

May it be the end of heads-in-the-sand everywhere–as we send kids back to school, time to take a long, hard conscious look at the values we want our kids to share. Bullying doesn’t seem to go away, and I’ve lived and played in communities this year where racists somehow feel emboldened to share THEIR values. Time to be vigilant and warn your kids that this isn’t the world as we want it!

Bullying seems to be on the rise in cyber-world, too. Medievalists are being attacked by alt-right medievalists who can’t bear to allow POC into their sphere. Gamer-gate. People having to close up their cyber-shop and leave. Cocky-gate. It goes on.

Please be vocal so that these bullies can’t gain a foothold! Please help me usher in a year of dreams making reality something better. We can learn from the purity of unicorns, rainbow sparkles and all.