A year of the strange, the beautiful and the ugly

 

In the year that's passed, I can truly say it's been as I've titled this blog post. It's been the strange, the beautiful and the ugly all rolled into one tumultuous year.

To say it's been a bad year? I can't truly call it that. A challenging year but also a good year as well. Having no car for a while made me appreciate my surroundings more. It made me realise that the isolation at times can be a wonderful thing. For me, in paradise, I can truly admit it was something that made me fall in love with my land even more than I had ever before. 

The strange was the Covid Level 4 lockdown that came in early March. Suddenly we were facing a pandemic and the next our entire population was restricted for an extended period of time. No longer could anyone just get in the car and go anywhere they wanted. Suddenly the media company I work for couldn't publish a newspaper. Everyone had to work from home and we had to innovate. Thanks to the government's wage subsidy I remained employed. Others around the country were less fortunate including the staff at Bauer Media who suddenly found themselves unemployed and no way of getting their jobs back.  

For far too long New Zealand's flagship publications had been owned by overseas interests including the outstanding publications North and South and its sister Metro Magazine. Overnight along with a host of other well-known titles they all but vanished. 

However, something good came out of it all. Those publications are now back in New Zealand ownership instead of overseas media giants only looking for maximum profit from their investments. They swallowed up our grassroots publications and spat them out again under the guise of falling advertising revenue. 

While the big players in the publishing industry shut down their print media something profound happened in the company I work for. Instead of reducing the stable of mastheads one more was added and launched in July this year as The Weekend Lifestyler. It was a chance taken to launch a lifestyle magazine format newspaper to give the readers in the Kaipara District a different kind of read. It worked and I am proud to be part of that team that helped see it happen. It was a team effort all-round. It changed the way we all worked. I now work full-time from home on the farm and I love it. No going back now only forward.

The beautiful? That can only be the people I've encountered during this past year strangers and otherwise. I've had people checking on me, making sure I'm OK and asking if I need anything. The kindness that has shown in more ways than I can describe. I can only count my blessings at the incredible people I know and call family and friends and then some. You know who you are.

As for the ugly - I can only say that too has been people. Ugly people showing their true colours through their fear and insecurities. In the end, those people find suddenly there's no one there to give them the support they need - because they burned all their bridges and yes I've had my share of ugly people during the year. It doesn't mean I'm bitter or angry about it. I just move on and leave it behind.

It's been a year of change for me - more than I expected - it's been an amazing year. As for new year's resolutions - just one - to be kind always. Here's to 2021 and what may be. 

Arohanui ~ Liz