Beautiful Kiwi Vocals

I love the sound of a good Kiwi accent. It reminds me of home. Some how it reminds me of the ocean. It's the cultural talk of a nation of people who share a few small mountainous strips of land somewhere far, far away from the 'rest of the world'. It changes from region to region - which is quite interesting to behold, Te reo Maori seems to have permeated the North Island dialect far more notably than down here in the country South. The West Coast of the South have a definite twang. Scots lingers in the south of the South. But this is some thing new... Apparently we're loosing a few vowels and constanants here and there. Yes indeed, our pronounciation is oozing into something else - how exciting! If it's edgy, well then that makes sense, we are an edgy bunch. We live on the edge of a vast ocean and our ancestors (or possibly we) took a huge leap of faith to a) get here and b) set up home. Here we are, at the 'bottom' of the blue Pacific and our accent is morphing quietly over time, as we grow and change and move with the masses of people who come and go. So we don't sound like Americans? Great! So we don't sound like the English anymore? How on earth could we expect to, given that we live on the opposite side of the planet and many English came here determined to begin a new life, and leave the class system behind? Who we are is people of Aotearoa and I'm proud of how we sound and what our language reflects.

Soooo Much Good News

Happyzine gets built around my parenting, and this week my son's been teething, which means broken nights and days of enforced 'taking it easy' as I feed my body with good food and jump on the 'sleep train' at every opportunity. OK, so that has nothing to do with the title of my blog but just humour me, I've been working hard and I felt the urge to share. So whilst we've been drowsily meandering through the week, the good-news has been appearing everywhere. In fact, this week this week Marty the fantastic Happyzine researcher found so much inspiring news that I have to choose only a small percentage of our 'harvest' and save the rest for future Happyzines. Working on a good news ezine has its advantages, I swear Marty's gotten happier as he's been researching. Sign up now to receive your good news fix from this Monday into the great foreverness.

Kate Winslet - Calling Her Dreams into Action

Did you hear her speech? I heard it three times on Radio NZ. She gushed with joy and used the word 'goddesses'. Now, I've gotta ask: What's the big deal about Kate getting excited (as commented on by some media personalities)? Go Kate! This woman had just achieved a life long dream, she'd been working at it since childhood in a roundabout way, talking into a shampoo bottle in front of a bathroom mirror as she imagined she was receiving an Oscar. Why wouldn't she rave? And why is it that as children our excitement is welcomed and appreciated, yet as adults, public displays of joy and enthusiasm aren't so well received? Guess what? It's OK to be and appear happy. In fact, I declare it a new fad, and very cool. I wonder if the masses will head my trend setting statement...

I could relate to Kate. I've had moments in my life where precious dreams have been realised, I remember the jubilation. I enjoyed being reminded of how it feels. Seeing celebs like Kate expressing their true emotions on the world stage sends out the message that it's OK to show happiness. It gives people permission to be themselves during moments of personal victory. And she wasn't jumping up and down, air punching and shouting 'yeah!' at the people who didn't win an Oscar. She was stumbling over her words, she had a lump in her throat, she was thankful and appreciative and she honoured the talent of all the other actress 'goddesses' - a term I use all the time because it implies the said 'goddess' women are powerful and capable of achieving anything. And we are.

I'm thankful to have heard her speech (accidentally) thrice. I will enjoy this new fad of cool happiness immensely.

Life Balance

I visited my friend Rachael over the weekend and was stunned at the life style she'd created. She works in the corporate sector three or four days per week and when she's not working, well this should give you an idea ... At Rachael's house we dined on home grown salad and a free-range egg omelet with home grown zucchini and hand made feta. There was home-made beetroot relish on offer. We drank the juice of apples and berries from friends. After lunch she gave me the tour of her raised bed garden. It sat on a north facing bank and had once been a blackberry patch, before she cleared it away and built terraced gardens. She sourced old wood and other materials to create the terraces from the tip and her previous home. She designed the garden so that her sprinkler could reach everything with its sweep of water. She grew watermelon, zucchinis, pumpkins, herbs, salad greens, tomatoes, everything and more she might need. She eats out of her garden. Before I left she loaded me up with more feta (she got the milk from her friend's Jersey Cow), preserves and enough salad greens to feed a family of twenty-five. I went home with fresh ideas for our wee plot of land in suburbia, contemplating chickens ...

Made From New Zealand - A Great Way for Kiwi Businesses to Support Each Other

I'm just discovering the Made From New Zealand website. Did any of you see that advert on TV recently where some Kiwis made a huge silver fern on a beach? I was interested in that ad, because I could feel the heart behind the message. And it was them: The Made From New Zealand team. What a discovery. These guys got together with Telecom and had a brainstorm session about how New Zealand business can navigate successfully through the next few years, and not only survive, but thrive. They set up a website inviting members of the business community - small, medium and large - to join up, for free, and so, every week, hundreds do. I'm quite excited to find this site, and this community, because the whole project shouts out HOPE. And 'hope' is one thing we most definitely need to hold onto here in Aotearoa so as to believe in happy future. This website invites blogs, press releases, general news about Kiwi business and far, far more. It reminds me of the power of the media, no, actually the huge responsibility of the media - as a means of quite simply sharing news - to help steer New Zealand towards a future we want. There has to be a forum for dreams and successes and ideas to be shared and this website is one such place.

Wanted: Roving Good News Reporters

That's right. I know you're out there - dotted about all over the country - living your lives, smiling at strangers, thinking kind thoughts about people ...


You know there's good happening out there, in fact you expect it, and life keeps proving it to you. You love to capture these inspiring and heart warming moments via word, or photo, or visual, or audio, or paint, or sketch ... you have your very own unique way of relaying back to the world how fantastic it is. And people appreciate your means of expressing the good in being human, in fact, they enjoy it and ask for more.


You're a strong personality in your own special way, you tend to ignore most of the media because it's not portraying the world you live in. You much prefer to focus on the aspects of life that feel good.


It's OK, Happyzine is here to gather you to its bosom (even though it's an ezine) and share your love with the world. We want to hear about your good news. We want to share it with our readers and inspire more good news. That's right: Roving Good News Reporters of New Zealand and beyond - Your Planet Needs You, Happyzine Needs You!!!


Email us if you'd like to share the good news.

Who are the Optimists of New Zealand?

Every community has them - the dreamers, the idealists, the one's who tend towards the bright side of life. These people find stuff to get excited about. They inspire change via inspiration. They make stuff happen, because they've got so much energy and passion that it seems impossible for them not to make progress. Who are our optimists? Two people who come to mind are: Mike Ward - the devoted Speights Coast to Coast competitor, Jeweler, ex-Green Party MP, ex-Nelson City Councilor; and Kevin Roberts - CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi - I subscribe to his fantastic blogs because he just keeps finding stuff to get excited about, and I find his enthusiasm and outlook on life infectious. Who else??? Let me know if you have any ideas ...

Imagine If .... Breastfeeding Rates Soar in 2029

February, 2029

Breast Feeding Hits New Highs in Aotearoa/New Zealand

If you've just given birth to a baby in New Zealand, chances are, you'll breast feed your new born until at least the age of one. Thanks to employment legislation set in place in 2015, designed to support mothers to breast feed for as long as possible, new laws designed to protect and encourage breast feeding in public, two decades of promotional marketing, and the formula health scares of 2008, a breast feeding craze has swept the nation.

"I smiled when I walked to lunch today, because I walked past a large group of mothers breastfeeding in a garden area especially created for Mums and babies. Believe it or not I remember a time when people perhaps breastfed for three months and then were forced to leave their babies and return to work," said Minister of Health - Ana Spooner.

Thanks to work-place policy that ensured Mothers could either take a year out on a Government sponsored Parent's Wage, work from home, or take their child to work and utilise the support of in-house parenting support, breastfeeding rates have soared and the health benefits are clearly obvious.

Some benefits of breast feeding for babies include reduced cholesterol levels, reduced blood pressure levels in their teens, lower levels of depression through life, less likelihood of respiratory illness and a general positive influence on mental development.

"We're certainly noticing these health benefits beginning to show up in statistics. New Zealand children and adolescents are among the healthiest in the world. I think this is playing a significant role in New Zealand's new status as one of the five 'happiest countries in the world'" commented Spooner.

Ends

Guest Blog - New Beginnings - by Life Coach Clem McGrath

How are those New Year's resolutions coming along? By now most of you will be back from the Summer Holiday, contemplating the beginning of another year. Here's Life Coach Clem McGrath with some encouraging words for those with great dreams for new beginnings...



New Beginnings
At this time of the year we often hear comments like, “We’ll see what the new year brings.” or “Let’s hope it is better than last year.” Such statements refer to the sense of having a new beginning with the New Year, a sense that we can start all over and do things differently, or get another chance. We also have the tradition of making a New Year resolution as we determine to change a habit, give up an addiction, or try something new.
Humans have a psychological and spiritual need to experience new beginnings because then we can also access two very important spiritual states:
The state of transcendence
The state of redemption
Transcendence helps us to lift our awareness above the business-as-usual life that is bound to our sense of local identity. Being caught up in surviving in this material world it is easy for our lives to become narrowed down to the extent that we end up just repeating the same old stuff year in, year out waiting till we grow old and “retire.”
A new beginning enables us to rise above this; to set our sights on a vision or a dream that will fulfil who we are and enable us to live a more dynamic life of value and purpose. A new beginning allows us to harvest whatever strength, wisdom and grace we have developed and bring that to a new path that we now more consciously choose.
New beginnings can also bring redemption. Who has not done things they regret, or are ashamed of? Who has not messed up in some way? With a new beginning we get the chance to do it differently. We cannot change the past but we can choose to change the present and the future. A new beginning reminds us that our past need not equal our future. We can redeem our so-called mistakes and, again, create a life of conscious value and purpose.
So, what creates a new beginning? The first thing is that taking a break over the summer holiday period does not necessarily constitute a new beginning. Hopefully, after your annual holiday you will feel physically rested and psychologically ready to embrace the New Year. But this R. & R. is very different from a true new beginning, which is a spiritual experience of release and renewal.
A true new beginning requires a new sense of identity and new awareness. A New Year’s resolution to get fit or improve your diet, or stop smoking usually comes from a genuine desire to change or improve, but does it spring from a release of the old sense of self that lived with those patterns. If you continue to define yourself in the same old ways, except now a little fitter or healthier, then nothing has really changed. You are still living with the same old stale attachments, perceptions, patterns and attitudes. You are trying to force a new pattern onto the old you. It will not work.
The life that throbs in your body is renewing itself constantly. Every day 10 million old cells die and 10 million new cells are created to replace them. Within 9 months your body has been completely renewed. And yet do you renew your mind and spirit in the same way? Or do you continue to hold onto the same opinions, judgements, fears and patterns. And then wonder why your life has lost the sense of joy and adventure that you once enjoyed as a child.
If you were able to wake tomorrow morning and see the world as if for the first time then that would be a true new beginning. If you could let go of your opinions and brittle certainties and be open to what this moment has to offer you, then that would be a true new beginning. If you could regain the enthusiasm for each new day that a child has, that would be a new beginning. If you could be profoundly moved by the wonder and beauty of a roadside flower then that would be a new beginning.
At this time of the year we think about new beginnings yet we can live in that state every day, and even every moment of our lives. We can learn so much about this from the world around us. See how excited your dog gets about going for the same walk every day. For the dog it is a new moment, a new beginning, a new adventure. I get woken most mornings about 4.30 by a thrush that sings its heart out, instinctively celebrating the new day, the new beginning.
Every tradition tells us that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. If you feel ready for the challenge I invite you to consider that as your New Year resolution – the renewing of your mind. This may seem like a huge and daunting task but there are many resources available to support you. Start the journey
Abundant blessings always
Clement McGrath
http://www.lifecoachassociates.co.nz/

Hope for a Nation of Treaty Partners

Tena Koutou, Tena Koutou, Tena Koutou, Katoa.
Ko Takaka Te Maunga
Ko Maitai Te Awa
Ko Waikourupupu Te Puna
Ko Charlotte Squire taku ingoa.

We've just celebrated Waitangi Day here in Aotearoa. For those based overseas, back in 1840 the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between some Maori chiefs of New Zealand and the Crown, thus becoming New Zealand's 'founding document'. Unfortanately the Maori and English versions of 'Te Tiriti' were somewhat different and rather than walking hand in hand in partnership from that point on, Maori came off second best. Over time some land has been returned to Maori and a huge effort has been made by both Maori and Pakeha to heal, appologise and let go of the past.

Incidently, as a Pakeha (English/Scots born in New Zealand), I've had my own journey with my very own Maori partner - check out my song 'Sorry'. I've gone through shock at realising I descended from the 'Colonisers', then guilt, then feeling truly sorry, then letting go, moving on and just feeling grateful to have spent some time within the realms of te ao Maori. I've had my own taste of life in the midst of some Maori tribes and I remember thinking 'I never want to go back!' The most beautiful thing for me about spending a little time on Marae (in the North Island) was realising the deep connection between land and people, so ingrained in Maori tikanga (custom and ways), that I'd never before known as 'normal'. I discovered an attitude that I wanted MY people to adopt - and I think they are, slowly.

Over the years, Maori activists have used Waitangi day as an oppertune day to express their anger and pain over treaty issues. However, I recently heard a Radio New Zealand commentator say that ever since the Maori Party swept into power, Maori have had more of a channel for their feelings. So this year, the only action at Waitangi was a small scuffle between two men and our new Prime Minister.

I was happy to note that co-leader of the Maori Party Tariana Turia feels positive about Treaty relations here. She said “I am optimistic that we are moving to a time when all New Zealanders will live up to the Treaty promise of a respectful and honourable partnership”. According to the latest research, the Treaty is held in high regard.
“Our experience of New Zealanders confirms what the latest UMR research reported, that the majority believe the Treaty to be New Zealand’s founding document (73% of Maori respondents, and 59% of all)".
”This is a fantastic result, right on the eve of Waitangi Day, that indicates the level of understanding New Zealanders have that te kawanata – the sacred compact of the Waitangi agreement – unites us all”.
“Just as our ancestors regarded the Treaty with integrity and honour, we must all lift our sights to work towards the promise of a strong and unified nation” said Mrs Turia.
These are inspiring words from the female co-leader of the Maori Party. Words that can lift a nation towards a greater sense of togetherness and hope for a strong, vibrant future.

Dancing in the Supermarket

Dancing in a supermarket. Ever done it? Have you been inspired to groove absentmindedly down isles of food as you hunt and gather for the clan? I'm doing it right now. And I'm not alone. Others I've spoken to come here because of the great music. My son's sitting in the trolley people-watching as I linger at all the good spots. There are many because I'm in my favorite shopping experience. There's organic food as far as the eye can see, intermingled with the so-called 'normal' food, and the good news is that the organic food's quite affordable. Here, they offset the price of organics by slightly increasing the price of the 'normal' food. But it's not price that's drawn me here, it's ... the vibe. The term 'vibe' is an old, underused one, perhaps relegated to the sixties, but I don't care. I like THE VIBE here. This supermarket attracts the most interesting people, and I always feel as if we're at a social function where we shop happily together, rather than chat, as a form of mingling. There are the waves of oldies tricking through, some smile at my one year old son and engage in chitchat with him, which I love. And there are the bare footed vegan types – who buy two kumara and one onion. Then there are the grown up love-children, still wearing vibrant colour, who take their time and examine ingredients. There are the suits – who rush through. There are us Mums, we generally take our time, unless we're trying to shop with more than one child in which case, it's a matter beyond my expertise and appears to be a speedier mission. We are many and varied. But we're in these isles together.
Another thing I like about this supermarket is the buy local component. There are signs every where saying 'This item has traveled less than 200kms' – how reassuring is that? It's very cool to know this, and I occasionally even choose buying local over buying organic – this was once a huge dilemma for me, but I have since let go and relaxed about the matter taking it one case at a time. My favourite organic beer – a Founders Long Black is here, it costs $5.50 per bottle, which is the cheapest I've encountered and I'm always pleased to see the rows of Tall Blacks are good and depleted. Also, they sell organic bananas, seemingly by the truckload, which I, along with many others, snap up immediately because organic bananas seem to be greater in demand than in supply. And, and, and ... they not only sell affordable organic meat, but they also sell wild-game meat, just like my father used to bring home, only wrapped in plastic, not an old sack.
We're at the checkout now. My son is beaming at the checkout person, waiting for his smile to be returned and I'm smiling at him, 'cause he's son and I think he's gorgeous. It's been fun, there's always a great VIBE in here. Meet you just outside the front door next time for a shance (shop/dance).

PS the supermarket is Fresh Choice on Collingwood Street, Nelson, New Zealand.