Contentment - hopefully we all know what it is, even if we find it hard to define. We've tried hard this month to give you a sense of its meaning and I'm feeling it now as I sit writing at my favourite creative time - late afternoon with the autumn sun dappling the leaves of the avocado tree outside my window and music streaming from ABC Classic FM. Spanish guitar, Argentinian tango, that amazing instrument the oud, Bach - I love it all. The week's work is done, we've had some good laughs, nice people have come our way and more troublesome ones have detoured, the weekend beckons, the world seems a little more at ease than in recent months. It's peaceful, in this moment at least. Can we ask for anything more?

Perhaps the most obvious thing about contentment is that it's the reverse of the endless striving that dominates so many lives these days. In truth, probably all of us at least some of the time. More money, more friends (real or Facebook), a sexier body, happier kids, an overseas holiday when we have such a glorious country of our own to explore. Every visitor I've ever met to Australia raves about our endless space - they feel its power to liberate the soul. A vivid memory from my twenties is of driving north in Western Australia and crossing the 26th Parallel, the Tropic of Capricorn. The stresses of my media job just fell away, I felt totally free and at one with the universe. Even now, a trip through the King Leopold Ranges in the Kimberley is still up there on my "bucket list". It must be out of mobile range, surely.

One certain way to find that inner glow of contentment is in preparing and eating a beautiful meal - one that's taken your full attention from shopping through to sitting down to share it. This month we look at the growing(!!) movement towards eating seasonally and that inevitably means sourcing local, fresh, maybe even organic or biodynamic produce. The tragedy of Japan's ongoing radiation leak has brought the importance of a healthy food chain into the limelight (a terrible irony for a country that prides itself on fresh, untainted food). But a far greater threat is the processed variety we happily throw in the microwave (that afterschool ravenous appetite time is another vivid memory!) or pick up on a drivethrough. I don't pretend it's easy, but it's having a terrible effect on our country's waistline. Throw out your microwave and improvise. It's seat of the pants stuff but you'll survive.

At NOVA, we're enjoying our own special moment this month and that's our 200th issue. I know there are readers who'll remember the very first issue on the theme of Psychology back in March 1994(I have the cover on my wall to remind me of those simpler days) and many of you are with us still. Your support has been wonderful, as has that of our loyal advertisers over the past 18 years.

Thank you one and all for your love of NOVA and the holistic industry we all know to be vital to our future. Here's to number 201!

Margaret Evans
NOVA Editor
May 2011

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