10 Women

10 Women Spring/Summer 2021

The theme of this issue really was a question to myself. In this moment of so much change, with so much to overcome, I focused on where or what was my happy place. What I discovered, in the end, was that it wasn’t necessarily a place for me, although there are specific places in my world that make my heart soar: looking out at the ocean, surrounded by cypress trees, with the smell of pine filling the air, in Kefalonia; the beautiful landscapes of Norfolk and Suffolk that bring such inner peace and joy.

Although all these places bring an overwhelming sense of joy and freedom to my heart and mind, my ultimate happy place is actually in the arms of the people I love most in the world. As clichéd as this may sound, it is genuinely what I have come to understand and appreciate all the more since my illness.

So when we approached all our contributors with this theme, many also chose the people who brought this sense of joy. Friends and family represented for them their happy place, friends and family who supported them through the most challenging times.

Like me, so many of our contributors talked about who, rather than where, made them feel that they were in their happiest place. What this moment in time has taught us is to value our loved ones all the more.

So I hope this issue helps us show everyone’s own little slice of paradise, their nirvana, their happiest place of all. As for me, I treasure my happy place daily and hope to enjoy it for many, many years to come, in the arms of the people I love. My ultimate happy place.

UK cover price: £8.00