From the Editor - Issue 41

THE SLAM OF THE OFFICE DOOR as work finishes and Christmas holidays gegin is one of the finest sounds in human history, if you ask me. The year's work is finished and nothing more can be done. It is time to unwind 12 months of accumulated knots, spread them out on the great beach towel of an Aotearoan summer and
see them drift away in the sea breeze.

Chilling out is very good for us and no one is more persuasive in this regard than NZ Life & Lesiure's new well-being columnist Dr Libby Weaver. We need to slow down, she says and switch off. Today's tenacious technology enslaves us to a 24-hour locked-and-loaded state of connection and preparedness. Reject it. Be unready and unavailable - and feel no guilt. I am giving it my all this summer - flat-out doing nothing.

It's been a busy year as we've reshaped our lives and our businesses to the new 'norm'. Cantabrians taught us so much about the power of acceptance and its usefulness when facing terrible ordeals. We're healthier and more effective by accepting life's vicissitudes and refusing victimhood. In the words of a friend trying to distil the essence of Buddhism into a pithy phrase: "Shit happens; don't take it too personally". Succinct if not pretty.

Sybille Hetet, our most efficient photo editor and I laughed about our frantic workload as we finished The Insider's Guide (yes, you can still buy it through mags4gifts.co.nz for $19.90 delivered). She says she's been in such a hurry that her emails have been signed 'regrads' as often as 'regards'. I had to admit that a couple of mine have recently escaped with the confusing sign-off "Armrest gerards" which, on a more relaxed day would be "Warmest regards".
While armrest gerards might symbolise my end-of-year pace - in the fast lane, hammer down and looking to overtake - it's not going to be that way over summer. I have absorbed the wisdom in these pages: the sanity of people who enjoy a casual summer life without needing all the frills and furbelows, without needing much more than a place to rest and good people to laugh with.

My niece Pippa has the finest laugh in town. It explodes out of her, often unanticipated, and with the velocity of a rabbit startled from the undergrowth. She loves most things in life and her laughter, pealing with such unrestrained joy, from the neat and elegant creature that she is, is a highlight of our summer family gatherings. Dr Libby says laughing is excellent for the health. So I am tossing the mobile into the undergrowth and going for a walk with Pippa.

Happy holidaying everyone,

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