Well, isn’t life full of surprises? If someone would have told any one of us on New Years Eve what lay ahead for 2020, we would have thought they were out of their mind. “Really” we would have said in a tone more like a judgement than a question. All the stores closed? Schools and colleges shut down? Everyone staying at home? Millions of lost jobs? We would have discounted it as poppycock and claimed the messenger to be drunk. But nonetheless, it’s all true, and here we are, slowly and thankfully getting back to normal, which is the new bad word.

Gratitude turns what we have into enough.
— Melody Beattie

This issue is one of the most special issues we ever published. In the16 years Pink and 12 years Paisley have been in business, this month was the first time I truly did not know if we would be able to go to press. In fact, I wasn’t sure if we would be able to go on at all. We have been through hard times—the economic down turn and Hurricane Matthew, but Covid-19 is the worst yet.

Going to press is something I am not taking for granted this month, or ever again. These magazines are more than a business, they are a passion. I gave birth to both of them from an idea, and I have had terrific staff throughout the years who believe in the mission, and together we all make it work.

Think out of the box is a phrase that has been pulverized into eye-rollable corporate jargon.
According to most meetings, and I hope I get your buy-in, at the end of the day, everyone needs to think out of the box. Unfortunately, many people voluntarily put their brains in the box, inadvertently shrinking their world. Basically, those not thinking out of the box on a regular basis have tampered with, not their ability, but their willingness, to even peek outside.

The “box” definitely has your buy-in, and thinking outside of it is hard and scary and opens one up to the unknown. So why would anyone want to even consider thinking outside the box? One reason: Life! Only one delivery comes in a box, and life should be filled with lots and lots of deliveries—even surprise deliveries!

What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
— Plutarch –

It’s easy to feel lost in the times we are going through, and feeling lost is scary. Did you ever get separated from your mother in a store, at a theme park, or wherever, when you were a child? Remember how terrifying that felt? Suddenly, everything looked unfamiliar and seemed so much bigger than you. Panic overwhelmed you as you raced around trying to find the security of your mom. As a child, we cried as we desperately searched. It was those tears that made another mom, or a clerk, stop to help us find our mommy.

The other night, as I was sitting in bed reading, something caught my attention.
It stirred emotion deep within me, bringing back special memories.
It was merely a sound, one I have heard thousands of times.
The sound was simply the quiet rustle of the page as I turned it to read on.

I had been reading almost 20 minutes when this sound aroused my senses. I’m still not sure what it was about this particular turn of the page that interrupted my focus and turned my attention to the book itself. For a brief moment, I relished the book I was holding in my hands, and without another thought continued reading.