It’s hard not to re-look at your life after you could’ve lost the most important person in the world to you.

(That opening’s a bit of a downer, I know, but keep reading. I swear it gets better.)

Within this last week, a number of things have pissed me off. None of which, however, made me angrier than I was at god or the universe or fate when Nadia first told me she had a mass on one of her ovaries.

I know I’m allowed to be angry at things that aren’t as life-changing, but the rage I felt in the hospital that day has put my more negative feelings into perspective. Of those things that pissed me off this last week, how many of them deserved that much anger? How many of them weren’t even terrible, but were instead born out of my own insecurities?

Asking these questions made me realise that I live with an anger in my heart that’s always waiting to burst out at the first opportunity. I’m not getting pissed off at things. I’m already pissed off and need to direct it at something. And because I’m not great at confrontation, that anger festers, turning into a bitterness that takes root deep within me.

Understanding this, I’m trying to be better. I avoid triggers, yes, but I also try to remember that many of these triggers aren’t inherently negative either, or certainly not as negative as I perceive them to be.

Plus, my wife’s alive. It’s hard to get mad at the little things when I can say that every day.

I’ll speak about my Perth trip next time—really. Since I broke my promise though, here are two photos of Luca instead, one slightly ruder than the other.

Before I bring this edition to a close, just a reminder that you can order Work-Life Balance, the award-winning prose/comics hybrid by Benjamin Chee and myself, anywhere in the world. Visit the outlets linked on this page of my site, or direct your bookstore to this Edelweiss page.

And that’s it for now. This was a shorter one, but I felt like I needed to write all of this down and put it out there. (Don’t worry. I go to therapy too, so the fate of my mental health doesn’t depend on my subscriber count.)

As always, take care—and I hope that you find a way to look at yourself through the eyes of the person who loves you the most.

See you when I see you, folks.