EDITOR’S LETTER

Greetings from the desk of Kate Coughlan

MY SPIRITS ARE RISING. In the way the ocean is pulled by a full-faced moon, the endless possibilities of summer are calling me in these closing days of the working year. I can barely concentrate on the job at hand with my daydreams already roaming the horizons of the holidays just ahead.

I can feel the setting sun on my shoulders as the family gathers to share stories of a day’s adventures.

I can hear a dawn chorus tempting me out of bed in anticipation of a day filled with the promise of summer.

I will swim in clear water and walk in the peaceful company of forest trees. I will dig in the sand with my granddaughter and splash beside her in the waves. I will watch her fall asleep happy and exhausted. I will listen to my whānau and hear their stories. I want to be part of their world and for them to know that they are everything to me.

These simple pleasures, these days of summer spent together, fill me with happiness and a positive charge for the year to come. Yet, we don’t do much except laze about reading, talking, swimming and going for walks. The kitchen gets busy before dinner when whoever is to cook our evening meal bustles about whipping up a feast. Then there are the lengthy debates over dinner as the world is assessed and judged according to our clan logic, and everyone retires to bed relieved. I don’t know how people without supportive and helpful families survive the remarkable journey of life. I admire the courage and strength it must take to battle alone as I’d be lost without the help of a larger, better whole.

Several people in this issue have made intentional decisions to create more for their families than they themselves had growing up. Intellect overcoming upbringing. They are to be admired indeed. Life can be rocky, so it’s good to be inspired by what these people have achieved and to be warmed by their humour.

As a nation, we’ve done well this year in following science, beating back the virus and standing shoulder to shoulder. We didn’t trust in dead toads to save us as did the poor souls trying to beat the bubonic plague in centuries past. We might have seen a few toads during the year, but mostly they have received their comeuppance and are fading from sight.

All of us at NZ Life & Leisure wish you, our readers, a well- deserved rest and the chance to charge your soul to the brim.

Here’s to a toad-free 2021.

As the sun sinks into the silvery waters of the bay, the conversation around the Coughlan family dinner table warms up. Here, we are looking towards Urupukapuka Island in the Bay of Islands.