Ten years of editorship

Dear readers,
the tone of this letter is bound to be personal, because it is my personal farewell to you.

In Holland we have a saying: “De kogel is door de kerk” or, literally translated, “The bullet is through the church.” (A very strange expression when I come to think of it.) It means that something that you've been wanting or needing to do for quite some time, and have been putting off, is now going to happen. I am signing off as Links Editor.

For the last couple of years I've felt the urge growing to follow the personal calling to write: not to be so involved in other peoples' writing any longer, but to write my own material and no, not about homeopathy this time! I have been writing from an early age - mainly poetry, short stories, essays and songs. Since I have been involved with homeopathy, that writing almost completely stopped, but it never fully disappeared from my life and certainly not the desire to write.

I have now come to a phase in my life and work where I do not wish to silence that voice any longer, for reasons such as not having time or not being in the right frame of mind for it. So I decided to take a two-year sabbatical to try to satisfy this inner desire. What is going to happen after those two years? Who knows?

So this is my goodbye letter to you and I want to thank all of you for the support you have given so generously: support in many ways, not only through sending your articles and letters, but also through years of, often, personal correspondence. We've met frequently during seminars and congresses all over the world and it was always a very special time. I hope we'll meet again in the future.

My last words are for Harry.

Harry, dear friend and colleague:

You will continue to carry the editorial flag and I want to wish you all the best in that. With the intelligence, elegance, patience and sure-footed touch you bring to the job, success is surely guaranteed.

I know, without a doubt in my heart, that during the time that I was one half of the Links' editorial team, those years were ones of great meaning, inspiration and tremendous humour, because you were the other half.

I'm happy that you live just around the corner and that nothing of our companionship is going to disappear!

Corrie Hiwat, editor

Dear Corrie, I do not need to write in Links to be able to reach you. You indeed will always be just around the corner, even if you were to physically move to a remote place. What I do want to do is to thank you on behalf of our colleagues and friends for your beautiful energy in these ten years. As editors we invited guest editors, compiled issues, reviewed and edited articles, but still had a limited influence on the contents because we depended largely on the quality of the articles we received. What we did have totally in our own hands was our cooperation. I thank you for your warm, open, honest and loyal presence in these ten years. Even though you have stopped your editorship your qualities will live on in the contents of Links, for I'm sure many authors and readers have taken you into their hearts.

Dear readers,
since Corrie has decided to stop being an editor of Links I feel the need to make some changes in the editing process. In the past we only occasionally asked others to review articles since we could discuss articles together and complement and correct each other. From now on I want to seek the opinion of reviewers much more often. I have already asked some colleagues to review articles on a regular basis, and want to invite other experienced homeopaths to join this team of reviewers. If you are interested in reviewing an article once or twice a year please send an e-mail to [e-mail] with a short CV. If there are subjects you would specifically like - or not like - to review, please mention these. When Corrie first mentioned her intention to withdraw from Links I regretted it personally; but I also felt strongly that if her decision was right for her it would be right for me as well. With your help it will be right for Links too, and we can keep improving the contents of our journal.

Harry van der Zee, editor