1/4: coming out of my cocoon

I've been in a sort of cocoon between Christmas and New Year's:  I was resting from the semester, from the trip east, and from the difficulty of the first anniversary of my father's passing; I was also needing to finish grading and to bring a translation project to the next stage of its development.  So I kept mostly to myself.  But now I'm feeling ready for more contact.  I made arrangements to have lunch with a friend on Tuesday, Chris and I met up with our fellow Heron Tree editor for lunch today, and I had a nice email exchange with the editor of another literary journal.