One month until my parental leave ends!! As a very work focused mama of one, I could never imagine being a super busy, senior executive mother of three but HERE WE ARE and I am feel so grateful, blessed and joyous in the present and optimistic, motivated and excited about the future. As @dialoguebooks grows to become a bigger entity so did my family and this year has taught me that exponential growth can lead to future adventures, greater collaboration, unexpected inspiration, incredible teamwork, enhanced strategic solutions, agility and excellent planning, I’ve personally grown so much in the last year, partly as parental leave isn’t easy when you’re so senior but I have loved more than I thought capable, I have listened more carefully and created solutions to things I never knew could be an issue and I have loved taking it all on and dealing with it. My biggest hate is being told Dialogue is my baby. My children are my babies, please do not conflate them. I am winded every time someone says it - it’s a total misunderstanding of my ability to compartmentalise and my desire for a family above all. I see Dialogue as my creative and cultural outlet that is a response to my activism, self-belief (which you need a lot of when you leave home with just a bag of books & clothes at 16), commitment to the arts, a devoted passion for great literature and a keen interest in business and success. Motherhood is something sacred between my children, husband and I. As the brood gets bigger, my instincts sharpen, my laughter is more frequent, my eyes are everywhere and love multiplies and stretches in unimaginable ways. Our family explodes with other people, all 6 of us (including Ochi) have friends and those friends have families and that proliferation of people and experiences is exhilarating and energising to me. Next month, I start to juggle, properly, not just phone calls everyday like now but millions of emails, thousands of pages of editing, acquiring and turning down books, hiring people, publishing and building a whole new business... The children have all they need and that gives me confidence to progress further, for them, my biggest inspiration.