We’ve found ourselves at Lace on Race because we know we need to do better. We stay because one woman believes we can, insists we do, points down our path, and walks with us along the way. Today is Lace’s 57th birthday! Please come to the website and post a love note. Let’s show her how much she means to us!
58 responses to “It’s Lace’s Birthday!”
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As “Peanuts” creator Charles Schulz said, “Just remember, once you’re over the hill you begin to pick up speed.” I witness you doing exactly this every day in every way. Happy Birthday, Lace!
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Happy birthday/week/month! (Who says we have to limit ourselves to one day? New People Doing New Things in New Ways can include extra reasons for treats too!)
I am so glad I was led to your warm, energetic, challenging and accountable learning community. Thank you for leading, prodding, saying things quietly or loudly as they need to be said.
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Dear Lace, congratulations on another completed trip around the sun! I’m grateful for your example of walking with integrity and transparency. I hope you are taking at least a week to celebrate you!
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I hope your birthday was as wonderful as you are. I am so happy that I found you and your space. You are a true example of grace and conviction. . . and how to be the best charlatan cult leader, MAGA hat wearing, Russian bot. I hope Tikka Rose gave you extra Birthday love.
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Happy belated birthday, Lace! I hope it was wonderful and filled with peace. You are an exceptional leader, and I am grateful for you. My apologies for being a bit late, but I wanted to make sure I sent you happy birthday wishes. I hope my belated wishes can maybe extend your birthday celebration too. You deserve to be celebrated. Thank you for being a guiding light in my world. I’m so very glad another trip around the sun, walking reliably this whole time. Happy 57!
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Happy Birthday, dear Lace! I so appreciate all you have taught me, and the beautiful community you have created. I especially want to thank you for showing me what it means to live in alignment with ones values. That you are able to do what you do in a virtual space speaks volumes about your skill in communicating and connecting with us. You are just so cool. (You’re kinda goofy too, which I LOVE about you!) Happy Birthday, Beautiful!
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Happy birthday Lace! Thank you for walking with with us and for helping me become a better person. You are an amazing person.
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So much love to you for your special day and throughout the year! Infinite acknowledgement and gratitude for who you are for the world, for us, for community, for me. Thank you for sharing yourself, your gifts, and your purpose so openly and freely, for your commitment, and for sharing your intelligence, love, and generosity.
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I didn’t put my full name and I’m sure there’s more than one!🥰
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Happy birthday, Lace! Thank you for the gifts and labour that you share and the example you set. Thank you for inviting others to walk toward that North Star. Thank you for your generosity and your encouragement to grow, for your belief in the fruit that is yet to be. (And I hope some fruit is to be rather quickly in the form of those chilled Costco beverages!) I hope you are celebrating and being celebrated and that you have a joyful, healthy year ahead!
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Happy Birthday Lace,
Your hard work and dedication has paid off and you deserve the best birthday ever. I hope you had a burrito from your favorite restaurant, chips ahoy, sour cream pringles and anything else your heart desired. Thank you for being you and I am so grateful to know you and walk with you. You have changed my life for the better .
Kind regards,
Kimberly Kelley -
In my mind’s eye I see you
Nestled into the coronavirus couch, Tikka curled beside.
Resting? No.
Engaged, deeply engaged: mind, heart, soul
Deeply engaged in the work that I have on good authority was in fact
Prepared in advance specifically for you, and you alone, to do.Engaged, deeply engaged,
there on the coronavirus couch, with the North Star always in your sites,
Helping me, our community, keep our eyes fixed on it, too, that you and your Black and Brown kindred will be safe(r) from the likes of me, of us.Happy Birthday, dear Lace.
I celebrate your life and witness–you shine so bright
And by your light I am finally able to see what LOVE lived out looks like…
And I’m becoming a wee bit less dangerous every day.
Deeply thankful for you. Deeply.Hope you are enjoying one of the best birthdays ever. Ever.
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Happy birthday, Lace! Today I’m reflecting on something you said to me a little while ago: “Amazing isn’t it? Who shakes out to be your people.” I feel deeply lucky that I get consider you among “my people.” I hope you take some extra time today to cherish your beautiful orange tree and to treat yourself to something special.
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Sending happiest birthday wishes to you, Lace! I am so grateful to have the opportunity to learn from you, walk with you, and be in community with you. Today we celebrate you being here on Earth for 57 years, and we are blessed to have your company.
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It’s a privilege to be part of the virtual birthday wishing. Lots of love and birthday joy to you, dear Lace. I hope you are sitting on your couch and having a glass of something cold, feeling our love for you. Thank you for your inspiring leadership and for your delightful sense of humor.
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Are you a fellow 21st-er?? Happy early birthday!
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Lace,–people born on August 19th are pretty awesome. (Almost as awesome as people born on August 21st.) It’s been really gratifying to get to know you and our fellow walkers–that’s been a sort of gift I get every day at Lace on Race. Thank you for that. Thank you for the honor of being able to be a guest in your virtual living room. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn and grow up. I haven’t been part of this community for a long time, but I can already see the difference it’s making in my life and in the life of my family and friends. Thank you for sharing yourself and your leadership. I hope you have a wonderful day, and I hope that this year is truly wonderful.
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Dear Lace:
You walk with such integrity, resolve, and dedication wherever you go. It can be hard to hear your words of kind candor sometimes, but even in the face of resistance to your words, you persevere. That must be so painful and difficult and demoralizing sometimes — maybe all the time? — yet still you walk. In the face of vitriol and personal attacks, still you walk with us.
This, as I’ve heard you say, is a BIG DEAL.
And I see it, for whatever that’s worth.
I truly hope that your birthday brings you all the joy and love that you deserve (and that’s a lot, just to clarify)!
Happy Birthday, and may you have many more!
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Happy birthday! May your birthday be as bright as your smile, as warm as your heart, and may it bring you as much happiness as you give. You deserve it!
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Happiest of birthdays, Lace! Thanks for being YOU!
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Happiest of birthdays to you, Lace! Hoping you’ve had a great day and an even better year. Your love and kindness is second to none and your genuine concern for others and for others to learn are amazing. Thank you for being YOU.
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Happiest of birthdays to you, Lace! You have planted a garden of good fruit: joy, kind candor, hesed love, right relationship, and so much more. May you spend today reaping the blessings you have sown!
(I hope there were chunky Chips Ahoy in your day!)
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Happy Birthday Lace!!! Treat yourself well and enjoy the day to make it as special as you are.
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Lace, you are such a breath of fresh air. Thank you for your guidance and your model walk. I’ve always thought our greatest purpose in this world is to leave it better than we found it. Welp, dearest charlatan cult leader, you have done that. Each and every of your 57 years. Thank you for being you and letting me walk with you and for seeing me eye-to-eye. Love ya!
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Happy birthday Lace. Thank you for sharing with all of us your knowledge, approach, patience. I greatly appreciate your direct kindness, and look forward to continuing to walk with you and the others in this space.
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Happy Birthday, Lace!! I am happy to celebrate your existence today because I am so grateful for you – who you are and what you do make the world a better place to live in. May you have many more years in which to make a difference.
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Happy birthday Lace!! I am so glad to have met you, and so grateful for the ways you lead by example, encouraging me to do better and grow and be the person I want to be, but also the person I need to be. ❤️
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Happy birthday, Lace! Like your Aunt Cathy, you are a person to emulate. Despite being ignorant of 19/20 personal details (I only knew the tire-mailbox), I am certain this is true. Even if you were working a standard 40-hour week, I am confident this would still be true, because you have built and live a life overflowing with humanity and love and determination. Thank you for working overtime to pilot this space to bring more people into the steady journey to the North Star. Love and good wishes, Christina
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I hope you have a wonderful birthday! And many more to come! The world needs you and your commitment to lessen the harm to black and brown people perpetuated by white people (such as myself). Today of all days, I wish peace and love and healing and hope for you.
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Happy, happy birthday, Lace! It’s been a pleasure and an honor to have gotten to know you a bit through Lace on Race. I appreciate how you push me to think more deeply about my own choices, words and actions. I hope you are surrounded by things and people you love today and every day (including and especially cookies!).
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I’ve long wanted to be able to reinforce the work you do not by praising myself or other white women but by letting you know that what I’ve learned from you has had cascading effects in the world. Your work makes a difference (you make a difference). Thank you for working to make this world more loving and kind. I hope you have such a lovely birthday doing exactly what you want to do. Cheers!
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Happy, happy birthday to you, Lace! I’m so grateful to have found this space, and this community, and to learn from you. I have learned so much in my short time and I look forward to growing with you and everyone here.
Take today to relax and enjoy all that life has brought your way, you have earned it!
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A day belated because I went to Yosemite. I thought of you, Lace, as I drove into the valley. I thought of our conversation on Sunday and how much I want you to truly feel (and know that it is truey) *safe* and
welcomed in our national parks and any other public space. Your work has inspired me to get off my butt and no longer be passively dismayed by the lack of diversity (especially black and brown WOMEN) in my field but instead be actively dismayed and then DO SOMETHING about it. I am unsure of my steps, but I am taking them and trying to take them with All Deliberate Speed. Thank you for being you and for having created this community. I hope you and Tikka Rose had a lovely birthday day and I hope it continues through this birthday week and birthday month. -
Happy Birthday, Lace! I am inspired by your relentless determination to live your praxis, and your generosity with your time and your energy to guide others in doing the same. I am grateful for your honesty and kind candor, and I learn all the time from how you are consistent in your interactions and model following through on the your values in every step. My relationships have been transformed through my short time walking with you and your team, and I believe I am lessening the harm I perpetuate against Black and Brown women. If I see these impacts just in my own life, it makes me reflect in awe on the scope of the change you are facilitating in the world around us. I hope you have a wonderful day.
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Dearest Lace,
I could never craft a love note that comes close to showing how much you mean to me and my family, how loved you are…but I won’t let that stop me from writing a love note anyways.
I see you walk up to each person you encounter and look at them eye-to-eye.
I see your face dance with laughter and joy when Tikka climbs into your lap to demand attention.
I see your determined eyes when life gets difficult once again.
I see your loving attention as you respond to each of us stumbling about.I hear your stern, gentle reminder that I can do more to live into who I say I am.
I hear your concern when I share my worries and fear.
I hear your mirth when we joke about frozen appendages and inappropriate innuendos.
I hear your vision to bring healing and wholeness to any who need it.I feel your incredible Hesed for me, for us, for anyone who you stand next to.
I feel your hope, that this world can be changed.
I feel your determined faith in living a life of action and orange trees.
I feel your arms hugging me tight when I am lost and tired.
I feel the community you have and are cultivating, lessening and mitigating harm to Black and brown people perpetuated by while people including me.Every day, your being you has challenged me to live a life of service. In friendship, in parenthood, in partnership, in civic accord, and in community. Thank you for Knowing me and teaching me to Know others.
I pray this is a year of restoration and peace.
I love you. Happy Birthday, Lace!
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Happy birthday Lace! Try to relax and have a great day with Tikka and hopefully a lot of chips ahoy. Thank you for creating such an amazing space and sharing your wisdom and energy with us! 🎉🎉
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Happy Birthday, Lace. I wish you all the best today and in the coming year.
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Happy Birthday, Lace! I hope you have a wonderful, meaningful birthday followed by a lifetime of blessings. I hope today can be a day of rest and relaxation filled with love and happiness. Thank you for inspiring us to more authentic relationships and praxis, to understanding the difference between the transactional and relational, and to learning how to do less harm to Black and Brown folx (and everyone really). Thank you for guiding us to self reflection, to learning how to be vulnerable and honest by example, and showing us how to walk eye to eye. You have devoted so much time and effort to creating such a beautiful shade of lipstick and I know it’s not for me but I sure do admire it, and you. Happy, happy birthday!
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An acrostic for Lace for your birthday, celebrating you!
Luminous, loyal, lively, leading, laughing
Authentic, academic, available, adventurous
Compassionate, cheerful, calm, cherished
Earnest, encouraging, endearingWise, willing, warmhearted
Accomplished, adaptable, ambitious
Truthful, thankful, trustworthy
Kind, knowledgable, keen
Inspiring, insightful, initiatiating
Noticing and nourishing
Steadfast, soulful, and supportive -
Happy, happy birthday Lace! Hands down the coolest Russian bot I have ever known. I respect how you carry yourself with grace and integrity, and how you stick to your word. Thank you for sharing your understanding and knowledge about racial justice with the world.
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Happy Birthday to an incredible visionary and leader. The Lace on Race community and all the resources Lace has curated, have been so impactful not only on my own growth, but as a support as I try to spiral out the sentiments and objectives of LoR in my other circles.
You’re persistent, dedicated, and model the a Lead-with-Love commitment.
Much love to you Lace on your birthday! I hope you have a beautiful day full of JOY!
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Oh Lace! Happy Happy Birthday to you! I am so very glad you were born. I am so grateful for the ways your words now ring in my ears in my everyday life. I am so grateful for the way you have woven praxis and theory here and modeled what it means to walk with relentless reliability and resolve. I am so grateful that you share yourself with us and with me so that we can grow and walk together.
I hope for your today and every day that you can feel the love you have put out into the world, that it envelops you and holds you. You have helped me lessen and mitigate the harm endured by black and brown people, caused by white people including me, and to grow and change in deeper ways than I ever expected when I first came here a few months ago and truly what other than love can do that? I am so grateful to have found this space and to know you. Sending you HUGE hugs and yellow roses.
Love,
Catherine -
Dearest Lace, I wish you much joy, love, and delicious food on your birthday. We haven’t known each other long, but you are fast becoming my best and favourite charlatan cult leader! Thank you for your honesty, integrity, vulnerability, passion, and sass. Your deep and abiding beauty shines through in everything you do. Sending hugs and love to you on this, your special day!
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Happiest of birthdays to you! Looking forward to staying through a few more.
Have a great, relaxing day! -
Happy birthday to the very best charlatan cult leader I have ever had the privilege to learn from. Your bright smile and laugh never fail to be contagious, and your leadership is breathtaking. You share so much of yourself with us, and give so much so honestly while truly living your praxis. I admire you so much and am so grateful to have found this community you built so lovingly. I hope you have lots of Chips Ahoy, burritos, new lipstick, new ColorStreet and of course endless love from Tikka Rose as you celebrate another revolution around the sun. Thank you for the gift of you, for making me a better person, and for welcoming us all to walk with you. I hope this is a beautiful day celebrating YOU!
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Happy Birthday Lace! I’m so grateful to be in this community learning from you. You deepened how we think, and act in my family so much. The other day I heard my husband talking to his boss about you! And my teen daughter, when she over hears me listening to one of the videos says with delight-“oh is that Lace? She’s so adorable.” So please add adorable to the cult leader title! You are sending out ripples of kindness and change everyday. I am quite stunned at how much of an impact this short time has had on us. May the next year be filled with joy, love, community, and action.
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Wishing you so much joy, dear Lace, today on your birthday and indeed everyday. I truly cherish your existence, and am so very grateful that I came to your page one December day (I think) in 2018. I’m a better woman because of you and your clear thoughtfulness and deep praxis. I now have a real praxis that I can constantly strive to make better. So much of your teaching infuses my daily life as well as my anti-racist work. Thank you, dear birthday woman. I’ll be thinking of you with joy today.
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Happy Birthday to you Lace! Your guidance and teachings are extremely meaningful and I am thankful I found you and the LoR community. I hope today you get some extra of everything you love: extra Tikka Rose, extra Chips Ahoy, extra fan blowing on you in the absolute right direction and speed, and mostly extra affirmation and gratitude from all of us here. Big love and a virtual hug to you!
XO
Michele Russo -
Happy Birthday Lace!
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Happy birthday Lace! I hope your day and year is filled with love, joy, comfort and success. Thank you for sharing yourself so openly so that we may open ourselves up and forge meaningful relationships. Thank you for guiding us with love, kind candor and tenacity. Sending you the biggest, warmest long distance hug from Denver.
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Happy, Happy Birthday, Lace. You are one of the most inspiring leaders I know, and the one and only charlatan cult leader! You have taught me how to love deeply by always seeing eye-to-eye. I am so honored to walk alongside you every day. You’re beautiful inside and out, relentlessly reliable and I can always count on the “welp” and the “pivot.” I hope you have the best day and an even more fabulous year. Cheers to you, Tikka and Chips Ahoy! So much love to you, Lace. Hugs, Julie
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To the Amazing, Incredible, and Super-Stupendous Lace Watkins, on your birthday,
Lace. There are not words enough to say how much I admire you, and what it has meant to me to have you as a leader, an inspiration, a teacher, and a friend. And if *I* don’t have enough words, you KNOW we’re in trouble! You have put so much of yourself into Lace on Race that it shines with your radiant spirit, and the people I see around me, walking here with us today are a glowing reflection of what you’ve created. Everyone here brings their own strengths and weaknesses to you, and hopes to become a better person, so as to cause less harm, and we could not be in better, savvier, and more kindly candid hands.
Now that I’m on the admin team, I see even more what walking this walk the way you do takes. It is a pleasure and an honor to help support you. This is so damn important, and you are so damn good at it. YOU are so damn important to the space, but, more, you mean so much to me as a friend. Your sass and your sparkle are dear to me. And so is your vulnerability, your bedrock honesty, and how much love you have in you. That is the one word that might be big enough, and comes to mind time and again when I think of you: Love. Not hearts and oranges, through there is also plenty of that. But the no nonsense LOVE that sees the better, less harmful person I can be, and expects me to be nothing less than my best. This means the world to me, and I am prouder to walk beside you than I have been of anything else in my life. All my love to you on your birthday! May there be many happy returns!
Love,
Laura -
I barely even know what to say to a woman who has been such an influence in my life. We met when you pushed me about a comment I made somewhere in the void of the internet. I was so reluctant at first, but your dedication to praxis and accountability made me do better. And since that time you have become more than just someone for me to follow. You have become a mentor and friend I am proud to walk with. Thank you for everything. You’re the best MAGA hat wearing Russian bot Charlatan Cult Leader a woman could hope for. I hope this day is filled with joy for you as you start another trip around the sun.
With Love,
Karen -
Happy birthday! Herzlichen Glückwunsch to my
favorite charlatan cult leader!
May the chips ahoy, pringles and chicken treats be plenty, the praxis strong and the saffron robe comfy.
Have a wonderful day <3 -
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dearest Lace, happy birthday to you! I wish there was a button to record me singing it to you, better yet a cake we could eat together. Walking with you has taught me literally everything I know about being anti-racist, about integrity, and about relational ethics. Before I met you, I wasn’t anti-racist, I was was a well-read racist. Before I met you, I had no integrity around working in “D&I,” you showed me what was needed to have integrity there and I put it into praxis. Before I met you, I fought tooth and nail for my beliefs, but now I approach even the most difficult of conversations with kind candor. Thank you for your leadership, your integrity, your excellence, and your commitment. Eat cake! Hug Tikka Rose! With love, Sarah
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Happy Birthday! The world is blessed you were born! I, personally, am blessed you were born! I am honored to have joined this walk. I am honored to be in this space with a person who is unwilling to hide all of their God given gifts. Today, I celebrate your authenticity, tenacity, humor, commitment, and love.
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Happy Birthday, Lace!! You inspire me to be better. You provide countless hours of support, holding us accountable with your kind and direct candor. I wish for you a Birthday that exceeds expectations and a year that is filled with many blessings.
Enjoy those Chips Ahoy and cheers to a great year!!
Hugs,
Chris -
Happiest of birthdays to my favorite charlatan cult leader and such a dear friend! Lace, you are a woman who speaks boldly and then backs up every word with her walk. You are a woman who hides nothing in pursuit of truth and integrity. You are vulnerable yet not afraid. You acknowledge your afflictions and still you keep walking. You model in so many ways for me what it means to live out who you say you want to be. Not only do I admire you, but I love the person I have come to know. You have a great sense of humor and an excellent laugh. You are passionate, and compassionate. The way you care for others is both convicting and so beautiful. You know what it means to be a faithful friend. Thank you for sharing pieces of your life with us ~ like Tikka Rose, and the orange grove. I look forward to the day I share a meal with you in person, but until then, it is my joy to share your virtual living room with you.
Let’s get this birthday party started!!
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