It’s all about perspective.

Have you ever read an article and said to yourself, “Yeah, yeah, I know all that!”? If there has been a lot written about a subject and the concepts have entered our everyday vocabulary, it is easy to think we’ve ‘got it all down’. Self-esteem is one topic that we might feel we know all about. Janice Davies tackles the subject of building one’s self-esteem from another angle in her article, Being Nice to Everyone Doesn’t Bring You Happiness. I encourage you to read it, not to get a mind-expanding, totally new revelation, but with a view to checking up on how you actually think about yourself. Are your thoughts about yourself encouraging or critical? If you thought about your best friend in that way, would you be comfortable telling them what you were thinking? If the answer is, “No way!” then there are some adjustments to be made. You need to start being nice to yourself.

You’ll either laugh or cringe, probably both, when you read Sandy Myhre’s article, Petrosexuals. Judging by the experiences of our own Emma Gilmour, New Zealand petrosexuals are a more advanced and much friendlier species than their US counterparts. And Emma could well become the second female ever to win a stage in the World Rally Car Championships.

Singleminded Julie’s passionate appeal to parents to put the welfare of their children first is also a reminder that life is precious, it could be taken away and we should therefore keep our problems in perspective.

Whether you’re in a thoughtful mood, or ready to learn a couple of new facts about caring for that marvellous ‘home’, the human body, or needing a little entertainment, there is something here for you.