“I need zest,” I tell my husband. He looks at me quizzically. “I think you have enough zest,” he smiles. “Oh, you know what I mean,” I say, nodding at the apple crisp I’m in the midst of making for friends we’re hosting tonight. “Hand me a lemon, please. Besides,” I counter, as I squeeze the juice of the now naked lemon into the mixture, “one can’t have too much zest!”
Zest is not only my secret ingredient for all things delicious; it is also, as Bertrand Russell said, “the secret of happiness and well-being.” Of course, he was talking about a different kind of zest: the zest of living, loving, and embracing all that life has to offer. And of those essential elements to a happy life, Russell also reminds us, the one ingredient we can most certainly count on is change. “Man needs for his happiness not only the enjoyment of this and that,” says Russell, “but hope, enterprise, and change.”
Change is in the air at Haynes Publishing Group. As we send this issue off to press, we find ourselves saying aloha to John Giordani, our creative director for the past eight years. If you have been following Maui Nō Ka ‘Oi during that time, you will have witnessed the gorgeous design and creative energy that have gone into each and every issue—telling our stories with beauty and sensitivity, always reflecting a respect for place and culture. John has been the creative force behind the national recognition we’ve received for design, photography, and storytelling.
As I write this, he is preparing to move back to New York to be closer to family and explore the next stage in his career. Bertrand Russell would approve; the philosopher contended that those who live fully embrace change. (John’s home state would also approve—its motto, Excelsior, is Latin for “ever upward.”) So we, too, will embrace change, and send John off with deep aloha, gratitude and appreciation.
Happily, we have the joy of welcoming our new art director, Paul Morris, who, in a sort of topsy-turvy balancing act, is relocating from New York to Maui. We applaud Paul for his adventurous spirit (talk about zest!), and could not be happier for the gain.
And there is more change . . . for the Haynes Woodburn family. I could not close this column without saying congratulations to Jon Haynes and my new daughter-in-law, Dr. Christi Gagner Haynes. Jon and Christi celebrated their wedding on May 11. And if we agree with Russell that zest is the secret to joy and well-being, Jon and Christi have a tight lock on a brilliant future. They sparkle with a joie de vivre that is both beautiful and contagious. Toward the end of their Hawaiian wedding ceremony, my sister and I had the opportunity to wrap the couple in my father’s prayer shawl for a moment of remembrance. “The ancestors are with us on this day,” Kimokeo Kapahulehua, our friend and officiant for the ceremony, told the guests. The mana (spirit) of those who came before us was palpable. In my son’s eyes, I recognized my father’s love. My father’s gift to us was an appreciation of life so great, that he could not, did not, differentiate the joy of loving from the joy of being. Perhaps that is the truest definition of zest. And the gift I wish for all of us.
Change is inevitable . . . embrace it with zest.
A hui hou,
Diane Haynes Woodburn, Publisher
