We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the Gundungurra land on which WinWin is created.
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Letter from the Editor.
Recently, I had the opportunity to travel to Paris to celebrate a (big) birthday. The trip was for some time out, and to spend some QT with a couple of best friends who moved there last year. I have two little kids so the opportunity for this holiday — with all that time on my own — was both an incredible treat, and somewhat daunting. A 36hr transit! Goodbyes – train – flight – layover – flight – metro – metro – Bonjours. All that time on my own? Would I read? Watch films? Sleep? Just sit? It wasn’t a problem, more an interesting decision I haven’t had for a while.
I’d never thought about time in that way. In the past I’ve certainly given myself a hard time for ‘wasting time’ or ‘procrastinating’… but what about a positive way of thinking? How you can be selective, and choose to make more of the minutes you have. Not always, of course — there are many outside factors that determine our waking hours. But the idea of grabbing a spare minute and thinking about how to squeeze out the best drop of it? Nice.
As well as filling my cup with the company of some special mates, this slightly-new way of thinking was a big refreshing drink that I’m trying to make last.
The company I keep.
After Edition One, I was thinking a lot about how the magazine — and people — are the sum of many parts. WinWin is the result of true collaboration and excellent, generous contributions by talented writers, artists and helpers. Myself, I’m the sum of many parts — my family, friendships, work, happy moments, dreams, ambitions, anxieties, blue periods — it is all in the mix and forms who I am.
To continue the Paris imagery, perhaps there’s an idea that all these things might be a bit like a really large, fantastically intricate carousel.
Like a carousel, life swirls around with a lot of moving parts. Work goals and career stuff move up and down (amiright), of course friends and relationships do as well. When it is all working well and the music plays — the rhythm is in sync, the speed is right — we have a wonderful, impressive machine. People will buy tickets to hop aboard! Of course sometimes broken parts need to be repaired or removed altogether, but that’s relatively straightforward if the problem is looked at objectively and picked up early on.
At the core of each carousel is the most impressive bit — the complicated machinery that makes the thing run.
In Paris, it is astonishing how many unique and beautiful carousels there are. Parisians love their parks! Because they are so different, and often pretty antique, I imagine that each carousel is a completely custom-built thing, and has its own astonishing machinery within. Regardless, this mechanism needs to be oiled and maintained, and cared for. You get where I’m going with this, right?
This Edition is dedicated to the idea of tending to all parts of our awesome carousel. The Company I Keep is the choices we can make about the things, people, products and ideas we can bring into our life.
Ultimately, though, The Company I Keep is ourselves. We need to pay attention to our selves. We have a fundamental core that is uniquely ‘us’. It might not always feel like the machinery is working well, and in fact often it feels like others have a much better mechanism than us…
But this is true of all of us: who we are within is beautiful, complicated, different to everyone else, requiring attention and care.
The Company I Keep is the brief I gave to WinWin’s writers and artists, and WinWin Edition Two is the result. You’ll see the theme threading throughout the Edition in the most wonderful ways. Isn’t it remarkable how people pick things up and run?
Enjoy!
Jo x
This Edition is dedicated to my daughter Rosie, who is 3 today (launch) and the most unique, colourful and spirited mechanism I know! She keeps very good company, too.
Cover artwork, lettering and painterly swatch above by Minna Gilligan.
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This Edition is a bit different to last. We’ve changed the structure a little and redistributed the ‘Image’ content into the other sections. As always, we’d love your feedback…
Another change: we’ve put some ads in the mag, to see if we can raise a little monez! It shouldn’t affect your reading experience, so just let us know if anything bothers you!
Send a note to hello@winwinmag.com with what you’d like to see for Edition Three!