For the most part, I gave up judging people about the same time I gave up perfectionism. When I finally got old enough—actually wise enough—to realize I’m not perfect, nor do I need to be, I also relinquished that expectation of others. With the freedom of being released from the shackles of trying to do right, be right, look right and act right all the time, I learned judging others, just like judging yourself, is usually premature and always unloving. In addition, it is binding to the persons on both sides of the bench.

Don’t be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin.
— Grace Hansen –

Life is full of surprises, and 2020 has been the ringmaster for them. For all you who have read “The Help,” or seen the movie, you will be able to relate to a funny, yet oh-so-true, meme I saw. It has a picture of Minny Jackson standing at Hilly Holbrook’s door with her famous chocolate s#!t pie. The meme reads: If 2020 were a pie!

Lord, Child, don’t you know it. Year 2020 has force fed us more than our fill of Minny’s secret ingredient. While we just ALL experienced one of the most jaw-dropping, unbelievable times in modern day history, I have to admit silver linings still abound. I also confess I have wished a time or two that the world would just stop for a week or two so I could catch up. Well, ain’t that a wish made in Heaven? Be careful what you ask for… and I didn’t catch up.

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!