Welcome to 2010

I ended the year on a wonderful high when Dennis, on bended knee under a Pohutukawa Tree proposed.  It was all very romantic and hearts and flowery and wonderful.  Then the children went to spend Christmas with their father and their grandparents from Portugal, while Dennis, the labradors and I spent a few days with my mum.  Keep in mind that it is summer here in New Zealand so we spent much of our time lazing under the trees and reading, stopping only to cool off in the pool or to throw shell fish on the barbecue and wash it down with icy Pinot Gris.  We followed this up with more lazing with Den's parents before picking up the children and returning home.

Our ducks, hens and cats were pleased to see us home - but none of us know what happened to the eggs our Indian Runner ducks were nesting on.  There is no sign of eggs or ducklings and both the runners have rejoined The Henny Penny Gang in the main coop.  I can only assume cats or rodents got to them and I suspect Dennis is actually relieved we will not have the pitter patter of tiny webbed feet around the place.

We saw the New Year in with the kids and their Portugese grandparents (my ex-parents in law) which was lovely.  Instead of giving the kids gifts on Christmas Day we kept them and did it at New Year.  The Grandparents loved it - getting to share two Christmases in one year with the kids.

During the time off I've rediscovered poetry and fallen in love with it all over again.  I especially love Deena Metzger, Maya Angelou, and Thich Nhat Hahn - and I'm even trying to write a bit of poetry again.  I've also taken up painting - and have done a couple of passable watercolours of waterlilies and tulips.  A bit cliched perhaps but very enjoyable.

One is not born a woman, one becomes one.  ~Simone de Beauvoir

Every day women get up and go to work - in our homes, in our offices, in our businesses.  We are partners, wives, daughters, sisters,mothers, employers, employees.  And some days are harder than others.  Some days it's hard to hang out one more load of laundry, attend one more meeting, make one more phone call, do one more thing.  At those moments most of us look to other women for inspiration - forgetting that we are ourselves inspiring. 

This  is a collection of interviews with women from around the world - women of different cultures, nationalities, faiths, upbringings.  The one thing they have in common is they are, each in their own way inspiring.   

From stay at home mums to film makers - and every possible variation in between - they are all ordinary women who lead extraordinary lives.

They are Women of Inspiration.

by Kimberley Patterson

Dr Paul Butler’s decision to give his life to medicine came from a singular epiphany when he was 17 years old. He was at the end of what was then known as Sixth Form, on school holidays and working with his father, a farmer and contractor.

It was a hot, dry day and as Paul guided the tractor in ever decreasing spirals of mowing he became aware of the timeless nature of life; that the world was essentially one whole and that all people and all things were interconnected. It was a deeply transcendent hour of awareness.
Until that day Paul considered he would spend his working life outdoors in the country. Yet from that hour on, he knew love and compassion was the essential thing in life and that he needed a job that would allow him to work with that focus. Medicine seemed the thing.

Dr Paul Butler’s decision to give his life to medicine came from a singular epiphany when he was 17 years old. He was at the end of what was then known as Sixth Form, on school holidays and working with his father, a farmer and contractor.
It was a hot, dry day and as Paul guided the tractor in ever decreasing spirals of mowing he became aware of the timeless nature of life; that the world was essentially one whole and that all people and all things were interconnected. It was a deeply transcendent hour of awareness.
Until that day Paul considered he would spend his working life outdoors in the country. Yet from that hour on, he knew love and compassion was the essential thing in life and that he needed a job that would allow him to work with that focus. Medicine seemed the thing.
He returned to the Seventh Form, began studying biology and entered medical school. From that day to this he became a trailblazer in doctoring.
Today Paul is at the forefront of a new type of medicine in New Zealand: spanning the old and new worlds, the orthodox and the alternative.
He has just been appointed chairman of the Auckland Faculty of the College of General Practitioners – and is a newly appointed Trustee of the Wellpark College of Natural Therapies, a natural health training institute.
Dr Butler is at the forefront of `integrative medicine’ in this country, medical doctors who equally encompass conventional medicine and natural therapies.
“General practitioners seem to be much more aware of the interest in natural therapies amongst the public,” Paul says .
“Doctors working in secondary care (hospitals) and specialists – apart from a few I’ve met – are lagging in their awareness of the potentially very positive role combining natural therapies with conventional care.”
At his Milford general practice, Paul works alongside a diverse team including general practitioners, psychologists, naturopaths, nutritionists, cranio osteopaths, massage therapists, hypnotherapists, yoga practitioners and soon an acupuncturist and breast thermography.
During medical school Paul helped drive innovations including medical training being opened to more diverse and mature students and students being able to take a gap year. He also organised environmentalists and peace activists to talk with students.
Later he was on the executive of an environmental group at the College of GPs, helped set up the group Physicians and Scientists for Responsible Genetics and the Fred Hollows Foundation in New Zealand.
He has formed the Integrative Medicine Foundation alongside Allison Roe and helped fight the trans-Tasman harmonisation medicine bill which would have seen natural therapy sales restricted.
Dr Butler believes natural therapies could be a strong economic driver for New Zealand.
In his work Paul has mentored both medical students – and Wellpark natural health students (www.wellpark.co.nz). 
“New Zealand has the ability to model wellness to the whole world. We have the mandate of historical leadership – and it’s almost as though the world expects it of us.
“From the health point of view, being well is a holographic thing. My late wife Paula died of breast cancer and I saw it then: how can a woman have healthy breasts, if the air she breathes and the water she drinks and food she eats aren’t truly healthy?
“Health is the ultimate `sustainability’ issue. How can humans ever be well, if the environment they live in isn’t?”
Dr Butler’s ultimate big picture dream – that New Zealand take the bold step of becoming a whole country modelling wellness of both humans and the environment to the world.