HELLO & WELCOME to ThisLife Online Magazine

AND WELCOME to Cape Town, South Africa, a regular on the world’s top cities lists (not that we’re ones to boast 😉 )

We’re thrilled you’ve landed on our stories of hope. We get so encouraged writing them down, and we hope you’ll get just as invigorated reading them.

Eek, how stressy life can be, even in this glorious city! Take the daily slog, add some tough relationships, health issues and a few curve balls, drizzle with a few global angsts of your choice (pandemics? war? bizarre politicians?), and voilà!  Your very own recipe for never getting out of bed again.

But (hallelujah) there’s a flip side. The good news, friends, is that instead of lying down and taking it, so many of you are rising up from your ashes and soaring (ok, there’s some intermittent staggering too, but forward you still go). Down here in Africa, wonderful things are happening daily, and we’ve got some diverse and lovely examples right here to inspire every one of you, whichever part of the globe you’re stashed in (cos if we can do it, so can you!)

Our list of people bravely eyeballing life’s challenges and health issues is as long as your arm, and we’ve just as many stories of everyday heroes making a difference to those around them. The people on our pages say God often helps them when the seas get stormy. Read on if you’d like to hear their stories, and email us yours from wherever you live.

Finished them all already? Try our authentic cinema page, made possible by students-on-the-rise at a film school in Manenberg, an area of Cape Town beset with challenges. This, people, is a smorgasbord of digital delights.

‘So often, in this land of contradictions, even in its darkest corners there are inspiring rays of light,’ wrote veteran South African journalist and Harvard Nieman fellow, Allister Sparks. Spot on, Allister. They make everything worthwhile.

Katy Mac
Ed

Ed having a worthwhile moment