Editor’ s letter
When I was growing up, my cousins had two pet tortoises called Ernest and Celestine. They were fascinating creatures; their slow-mo movements as hypnotic to watch as sunlight on water and the ritual around their hibernation preparation even more so. My uncle was fastidious in ensuring each step was done correctly so that they entered and emerged from their winter-long dormancy the right way.
I feel like Celestine right now, only less prepared. Keen to emerge, yes, but also strangely institutionalised. Here in my carpeted front room, where I work every day, a strange sort of despondency has set in. I feel more like I’m in a Home than at home a lot of the time.
Which is why I found Domino Whisker’s words so invigorating. Something of a modern day poet-philosopher, she stitches and shares her “notes to self ” in the form of framed fabric prints, notes and pins. “I didn’t realise at the time that what I was stitching was going to resonate with so many people,” she says on page 41. Her hand-sewn messages, never more than four or five words, are poignant and powerful, lyrical and liquid. “It only hurt for a year” is sewn beside three seafront palm trees blown by a gale but standing strong – a piece at once dark but full of light; “keep swimming” – a favourite for obvious reasons, and of course, “sweet dreams ahead”.
It’s been the year of cancelled plans, but in Beckett’s unerring style, we’re ready to plan, plan again, plan better. And dream of the places we will go, the things we will do... and what we’ll wear while we’re at it. If anything’s going to shake off that Covidinduced ennui, it’s Marie Kelly’s pick of new season brights on page 33 and Sarah Rickard’s Brittas Bay (by way of Monterey) Denim Daze shoot on page 46.
Meanwhile, Galway girl Lisa Regan has used this lockdown lull to build herself up – in body and mind – and her happy list on page 124 is like a double espresso for the spirits as she lists the ordinary things that lift her mood. “Pounding the roads in an obscure part of Galway and being spotted by someone who I might kind of know and them giving me the thumbs up. Priceless.”
Now that has me perked up no end – ready to make a break for brighter days ahead.