Christmas Message from the General Manager

I am not going to draw on cheer this year and instead take us back to some thoughtful moments.

So often, the call to reflection comes at extraordinary cost.

Here we are, just shy of Christmas and six children have died when they fell from a jumping castle flung ten metres into the air by an unexpected gust of wind.

One of the children had close ties to NWSS.

Sudden, untimely deaths like these, when close, throw a collective calm over the community and subdue us into quiet reflection.

We pull back from our hectic daily paces, ponder our vulnerability and fragility and spend time searching within our belief systems for some sense and reason for this; we are better people while this thoughtfulness lasts.

But, too soon, we are quickly back on our hectic, self-centred pathways, back to believing that luck has a special smile of protection for us.

What can we do in the memory of these children that didn’t get as far in life’s journey as we have, what legacy can we draw from their tragedy?

Let’s make a space for that reflective demeanour, bring it back into our day-to-day life to stay with us and keep us a little more thoughtful and gentler to each other.

Please take care, be careful with risks and treat each other as friends that we don’t want to lose.

Neal