Looking at our December cover reminds me of looking at my kids when they are asleep. It's not just that the scene makes me feel peaceful and calm, but also that the holiday season is so much like child raising— a time when it is so very challenging to pay attention to what really matters, avoid getting sidetracked by countless messages urging us to do more and to find our unique way to experience peace and contentment rather than guilt and exhaustion. In this issue, writer Cheryl Murfin tells us how several families in our community craft a holiday season that nourishes rather than depletes.
Local children's book illustrator Sara Anderson has drawn a Seattle holiday scene for our cover for the last three years. We always leave the headlines off in December because we figure you have enough things calling for your attention. This time Sara captured the view looking west from Volunteer Park – a scene only blocks from our house and very familiar to me because I walk there often with our dogs. I like to sit on that very bench in the illustration and gaze out to the mountains – my way of settling down and refueling.
I need lots of fuel these days because in November I once again became owner of Seattle's Child. Having started the magazine in 1979 when my oldest child was a one-year-old, I sold it in 2000 and was hired back as publisher/editor when the Washington Post/Daily Herald bought Seattle's Child in the spring of 2007. At the time of the purchase the magazine was struggling but with their usual high standards of professionalism and commitment to good journalism the Post/Herald revived the business and it is thriving again..So when the opportunity arose for me to become the "parent" of Seattle's Child again, I jumped at it.
It seems only right that just days after I signed the agreement to make Seattle's Child "my baby" once again, my oldest child Sarah, the one who inspired me to start the business and tugged at my leg as a toddler when I sat at my desk writing an Editor's Note over 30 years ago, announced that she's pregnant. That news sent a jolt of happiness from my head to my toes.
I hope you can find a "bench" to rest and revive over the coming busy weeks and that your holiday season brings you much joy and that rarest of gifts for a parent – peace and quiet.
Ann Bergman
