#007: How do we support one another?

Silver linings, happiness fruit shakes, project revamps, and more tiny yet precious life moments

Hey, friend! Thank you for being here. This is a Sunday newsletter! It may be or may not be every Sunday, but this OK to BE email will arrive in your inbox anytime on a Sunday. At the moment, you will receive musings about relatable everyday adventures, more silly than serious stories, and some tiny yet precious moments of life (well, mine, mostly) in between. If anything here touches you in any way, I encourage you to write back or leave a comment—and I shall reply! Also, this is a public dispatch, so feel free to share with a friend or two. Enjoy! :) 

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Guilty as I feel whenever I think how selfish it is to say that this pandemic has its silver lining (“Kim, there’s people that are dying!”), I can’t deny that it does have its silver lining. Among many things, a lot of people I know and know about have been allowed time and privilege to journey through the layers of their core selves, reexamine the depths (or shallowness) of their interpersonal relationships, and explore opportunities they couldn’t have done so or even known about had we not gone through this isolation period, and I feel like these major strides do deserve recognition. 

Of course I’m not saying we should thank this global nightmare that has stolen a lot from us, but the fact that we remain to be here, and remain with the energy to keep finding the slightest glimmers of hope is something precious, and we shouldn’t lose that, ever. Right? At least, that’s my perspective as a more of a regret-avoiding, hopeful-to-a-fault kind of person—when life gives us lemons, we build a fruit stand, or when God closes a door, we check the knob if it’s locked or not, and all that.

Can this be the shake that brings all of us to the yard?

Now I still do have my power outage-afflicted moments, but call it growing old or whateva (my fellow #DopeOldPeople, please rise without straining your back or knee), some things have become much brighter and clearer in spite of. For one, I feel more certain about the things, people, and situations I feel comfortable saying “yes, thank you” to and feel confident saying “no, thank you, period” to. And because of that, detecting other sparks and helping keep them going is now easier.

That goes both ways. I am able to help other people because you found my light, so to speak, and decided to help me. The very fact you’re here reading these words already lifts me up, like seven-storey high, and I’ll be forever grateful that you help me pursue many of my creative Yes—from We Come of Age, Bookbed, #ProjectFlashPiction, my YouTube experiments, #KBookJo, my Ko-fi Shop, my Patreon, and this newsletter down to every hanash else. My silver lining is you, always coming through for me.

(All this is a “tell me you’re inviting people to the revamp of your Patreon without telling me you’re inviting people to the revamp of your Patreon.” LOL I’m kidding! But also not kidding~

If you got up to this point, please receive this happy news: I’ve been working on new tiers and benefits on my Patreon and releasing them starting this week, so if you want more streamlined and detailed content about everything I do—book recs, writing and reading tips, beta reading and editing experiences, personalized doodles and other art, among other things—or if you just want to support me further, then I hope to see you there. )

⭐ Featured

...Creators of the Week: Bibi Mangki, Bookbed contributors, authors I work with 

That’s it for now! Thank you for being here. I hope you picked up something fun or useful! See you in the next one. ☀️

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