Welcome to our August / September “Back to School” Issue — Lessons and New Beginnings.

By Neil & Andrea

Well, the events leading up to the completion of this issue provided us with a valuable refresher course. For the very first time, we were without the services of our long-time Associate Publisher, Lainie, who has been dealing with a serious health condition. Lainie has been with Creations Magazine since before Andrea and I acquired this publication 19 years ago, and we have been blessed that she has stayed with us all these years.

As our prime production person, Lainie has quite simply been our “rock.” Each issue, we gather the materials (articles, ads, artwork) and then throw them her way. She then collects all the loose pieces and efficiently assembles them into the finished product you are now reading.

To “replace” Lainie, we stayed in-house and enlisted Robin, our ad designer / graphic artist. Allowing for a learning curve, the process naturally became more “involved.” 

A couple of weeks later, feeling fairly comfortable that we had gotten past this hurdle, Robin became unavailable. Sadly, her dad unexpectedly passed away. 

Big life events happen. At some point in our lives, they visit all of us. And when they happen, this is a reminder (lesson) that people must come before business. In the publication business, it’s deadlines. 

With the process put on hold for several days, we abandoned any attachments to the “schedule.” We needed to step back for a bit before moving on to “Plan C.” Deadlines be damned, the work eventually got done. The priority was, and is, allowing healing space for our colleagues and friends. To reverse the classic line from the film, The Godfather, “It’s not business, it’s personal.”

Peace All-ways,

Neil & Andrea