Fall 2014, Issue #77: Editor’s Note

Dear Readers,

I wanted first to follow up on my note to you from our last issue, where I shared my commitment to say no, to do less. No sooner did I declare this to the world than I learned my father was dying, and within a day, canceled all appointments, commitments, and hopped on a plane to be with him and the rest of my family. This allowed me to have the experience of saying no at a whole other level. More importantly, it made me realize I had left out an essential consideration as we move through life trying to navigate through such a busy world. And that is the question of “what matters most?” At the time, the decision to drop work, friends, and volunteer commitments was easy. There was no difficulty discerning what mattered most at that moment. I invite you to ask yourself the question of what matters the most, and to evaluate the degree to which what you do with your time leads you to what you value.

Spending several nights in the hospital with Dad was my first exposure to the amazing commitment of nurses. I got to know the night-shift crew and marveled at the caring, compassion, and emotional endurance it takes to work day after day on a floor filled with late-stage cancer patients, many of whom aren’t going to make it. In the circles I am in, so many of the conversations revolve around healthcare as a system; around the systemic inadequacies, the costs, the lack of openness to holistic methods. But very little do I hear honor and respect pour forth toward the compassionate nurses who care, day in and day out.

This brings us to our current issue, which I hope will ask us all to reflect on the relationship we have with the healthcare providers in our lives, and to acknowledge their generosity, knowledge, and capacity for giving. For those of us who feel a lack or a sense of disempowerment in these relationships, perhaps we can take the initiative to renew and strengthen our connection with our healthcare providers in a way that de-institutionalizes our healthcare system. After all, we are all just people, sharing this planet together.

This is the last issue in year nineteen! Next year, LILIPOH turns twenty and there are interesting topics in store for you—coverage of the emerging cultural creatives in China; green careers; family life; and a retrospective of LILIPOH favorites from the last two decades. The fact that this little publication is still going strong after so many years (and more importantly, through the 2008 downturn and shift to electronic publishing) is something of a publishing anomaly. We stayed focused on our mission, kept the overhead low, and continued to publish. For that stability I would like to give a shout-out to Claus Sproll, our publisher who cares for LILIPOH as a father looks after its child. I invite you to read his annual publisher’s note (p. 3). It will get you thinking about how we can take responsibility for social change. We also couldn’t do it without YOU, our wonderful advertisers and subscribers. This is how LILPOH pays the bills—it’s really that simple—so we are always extending invitations to join the LILIPOH community in one of those two ways!

LILIPOH may be an “old school” print quarterly, but our content is vibrant, evolving, and cutting edge.

We hope it brings you hope!

Christy Korrow, Editor