Strength: Editor’s Letter

You might have noticed, I’ve taken a beat since our JOY issue. I am hyper aware of producing content for content sake and I want this publication to really mean something. To all of you, but also to me. So it needs to feel right. It’s taken a few months to rediscover and evolve the purpose of The Slowdown Press, but all of a sudden, it has come in hard and fast.

How crazy, I wrote that before we all went into some form of isolation in a response to Covid-19…

We have all been forced into a collective slowdown of sorts over the last few weeks. It’s been a blood bath in terms of people losing their jobs, their livelihoods, their businesses overnight. There was no way any of us could have prepared for this, but it just feels so brutal. Everyone has been caught up in the carnage – most of us are working from home, many juggling our new role as teachers to our kids. But there are people still out there, trying to keep our society running – doctors, nurses, a handful of hospitality staff, those in the media and those ensuring we still have food, wine (thank god) and essentials.

It’s as an unsure a time as most of us have ever experienced and we really have no choice but to lean into whatever is next with love, grit and determination. Is it possible to find grace amidst this turbulence? I’m not sure, but I’m hopeful.

To everyone who is currently feeling the hardship, that tight grip of anxiety in their chests… I hope our aptly named STRENGTH issues helps you find yours over the next period in our lives.

Specifically, this one is for you my friend, who inspired this issue well before any of us had heard of Corona Virus…

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Kate Pascoe Squires
Editor, The Slowdown Press

Fin.