Editor-in-chief Lucy Purdy introduces the latest issue of Positive News magazine, which is out now
As we head into a new year, we’re faced with a fresh choice. What will we focus on, and from where will we take our compass in 2025?
It would be easy to look to the abuse of power and the anguish it causes, to the climate breakdown or to the dominance of technology, and the myriad, uneasy ways it’s impacting our lives. But what about taking your steer, instead, this year from our steadfast power to care, to create, to contribute, to overcome obstacles and to move forward with hope?
If that’s your intention, you’re in the right place, as this issue features an energising collection of inspiring people and projects. For our cover story, we capture a positive trend that has gone largely under the radar: modern dads are spending much more time with their children compared to previous generations of fathers. Parenting today is by no means easy or straightforward, but the positive repercussions of this shift are potentially huge.
I’m excited by the bold ambition of Home Kitchen: a fine-dining restaurant in London that’s staffed by people who have experienced homelessness. I’m full of admiration for the ‘ghost-hunters’, the volunteer divers who plunge into the UK’s unforgiving coastal waters to clear up abandoned fishing gear. I’m gleeful at the momentum that fizzes from our focus on nature rights, the theory that gives ecosystems and species inherent rights. (Any project that likens a skylark’s song to “liquid drum and bass” has me intrigued).
It’s the easiest thing in the world to keep on grumbling about the status quo. What makes me feel fired up about 2025 is the people who are choosing to use their power and wisdom for positive change. Amanda Knox and Anthony Ray Hinton, who we meet this issue, are two such people. They’ve both served time for, and eventually been acquitted of, crimes they didn’t commit – in Hinton’s case, after almost 30 years on death row.
What about taking your steer this year from our steadfast power to care, to create, to contribute, to overcome obstacles and to move forward with hope?
Knox’s words about how she enlisted practices like meditation to try to empower herself while locked in an Italian prison cell will stay with me. “Grounding ourselves firmly in reality,” she says, “opens us up to possibilities we wouldn’t recognise when we’re focused on the obstacles that make us feel helpless and trapped.”
I’m pleased to be sharing the stories of some of those who have chosen to focus on what’s positive and worth cherishing: the parts of their lives from where they can anchor their hope and act. I hope their words resonate with you too, and stand you in good stead for the months to come.
Cover photography: Laurie Fletcher