Facebook Publication Date: 8/17/2021 7:08
MID-AUGUST ASK
As I write this Mid-August Ask (which absolutely should have been the Early August Ask), we are in the midst of preparing for our upcoming celebrations which will start on August 19th!
That’s my birthday, and even if I weren’t revisiting (and savoring) past essays, my upcoming birthday would be placing me in a reflective and celebratory mood.
The past three plus years have indelibly changed me. I am a different woman than I was in 2018, when I first launched Lace on Race.
You all have changed me. So very much. Engaging with you all; writing with your faces in mind, walking up and down my driveway (whew!) thinking of what I want to impart, and the precise words to best enable you to ‘get it in, get it in, get it in’; reading your emails and messages, talking with you one on one–yes, including even the hard conversations, hearing of your challenges and successes as you endeavored to ‘live it out, live it out, live it out’–I wouldn’t change a moment. Not a single moment.
Every day, every week, every month is a rebirth and a re-commitment to North Star. Every day, every week, every month comes with a deep internal search of my psyche and soul.
Is my own praxis marrow deep? Am I being the woman I say I want to be? Who am I imitating and emulating? Whose examples are being etched into my very bones?
Am I a woman worth following today?
I ask that question to myself at least two times a day. In the morning–will I be a woman worth following today?
And as night falls and I put head to pillow, the final query: was I a woman worth following today? Did I live out the values I espouse? Did I employ Kind Candor? Did I manage my slosh? Did I see eye to eye?
That enough of you feel that I answer these queries in the affirmative both warms and galvanizes me. I want to be a woman who takes this organization to the next level–not just for pride of place or the bragging rights of scale, or as the kids say, of ‘leveling up’.
No. I want more for myself and this org–and more for each and every one of you–active; dormant, spectator, Cafe diners; Takeout gulpers–even detractors and those both hostile to me and to my theories and methods–oh yes; I want more.
Because the North Star is fueled by growth. Because there are still Black and brown people harmed by racism and white supremacy, who still endure what they should not.
Always: On my mind and embedded in my heart. Front and center.
I am betting that this is true for you too.
If you are here, I assume you affirm enough of what we do here to want it to continue. So–a pointed and direct and overt Ask. It’s the only way we can keep doing what we are doing, and continue to work behind the scenes to share our message and method and mission.
I need you. Not the person to the left or right of you. Nor behind you or in front.
But you. You specifically.
This month, my birthday month, my wish is to add 500 people who will partner with us and tangibly engage for the first time. I have said this before–it is hard to run an org like this on fumes. 500 out of 10k is a modest goal. We have not met it; certainly not since Holly in February. We have never stopped content and engagement either inside or outside the metaphorical living room and dining rooms. We need your help to continue to do so.
So! Belly up to the Takeout Window and engage a la carte.
For those of you who would like to become Sustainers or Sustainers in Training–who would like to commit to a reliable amount each month, so we can plan and dream and implement with our utmost, click the link below. Walking with us in this enhanced way is such an affirmation–beyond the administration and the programmatic. Saying yes to staying in the car is such a big deal. My birthday wish is to have no fewer than 200 new Sustainers willing to make six months to one year commitments to our Western Star–the long term health and sustainability of this space.
For those of you who want to plant still deeper roots, partnering with the Sonas Fund for planned giving, and strategic philanthropy (hate that term, but ya), do message us. I and my staff will speak with you personally. Funds can be unrestricted, or designated for specific projects: Mental Health Fund; Lace on Race Lives; curriculum and other resources; to ensure that anyone, absolutely anyone who wants or needs it can have one on one abiding and coaching, and so much more.
However you choose to financially and tangibly engage, we deeply thank you.
As always, we will steward your funds to the absolute best of our abilities. We will share with Firstfruits. My staff and Leadership Team are here to serve, and to teach how to serve–all in deep alignment to both the here and now and to legacy.
We invite you in.
All that we want to do and be can happen. But only with your financial engagement. Please consider partnering with us, either as a monthly sustainer, or a la carte. Our PayPal is paypal.me/LaceonRace. We deeply appreciate you and your choice to look to and partner with our Western Star; the health and long term stability of this space. I deeply thank you.
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