[Lace Watkins]

https://laceonrace.com/2021/07/28/late-july-ask/

Late July Ask

Discussion

[Kelsi Watters]

I will stand on the porch with you, allowing my soul to be cleansed and renewed by the refreshing mist, watching the sun rise and set each day, as I renew my commitment to this work. I will be here to sustain the orange trees, to refill the kettle, to offer a cool drink of water to anyone who is feeling parched, to look toward the Northern and Western stars. (cross-posted)

[Rhonda Freeman]

This is beautifully stated Kelsi. I am envisioning all of us sitting on the porch talking quietly as the rain falls…

[Rebecca McClinton]

Aww, Casa Tikka…thinking fondly of Tikka Rose. What a beautiful picture and experience. Love it, and mother nature crowning you, Lace, with her sparkling jewels. Soaking in community as a mist of nourishing raindrops. One raindrop alone wouldn’t nourish at all, only leave wanting for more. It’s the same in this work I come to realize more and more all the time. Going rogue, solo, and individualistic is a whyte culture ideal for sure, excluding not including. I can see ways I did that today, even, ways I sucked into and focused on my own experience. Part of financial and daily engagement here is about wrapping more in…both inside myself through uncovering new layers I need to challenge, and outside myself wrapping in more community and collectively investing in each other. I have financially engaged for July and look forward to doing the same in August.

[Clare Steward]

This meditation is beautiful, Lace. Together we nourish and it is imperative that we sustain and contribute to the Western Star. We all have a part. We must refuse to be afraid to walk the path, knowing that we may stumble and also knowing that there is a community to help pick us back up.

[Shara Cody]

What a beautiful experience in the mist, Lace, and your writing is beautiful as always. To consume your beautifully written experiences and spectate of your kind candor without engaging financially would be to cause the same harm that I say I’m at LoR to lessen and mitigate. Putting the needs of Black and brown people ahead of my fear and hesitation is what we are walking together to learn to do and I will continue walking with you. I’ve financially engaged for July. *cross posted*

[Julia Tayler]

Beautifully written. I could picture it all. We tend to either have drizzles or flash floods so I could definitely picture the drizzle. Someone mentioned being on the porch together and it’s such an amazing idea. I financially engaged for July and will for August shortly.

[Christin Spoolstra]

Lace, your message… it was like reading a warm hug wrapped in exhortation. What you said about craving community while also being afraid of it… ive been struggling so much lately and my walk has become a series of staggers and limps. And I’m embarrassed by it. And I’m frustrated and angry at myself. So I want to hide. But community isn’t hiding. It’s letting my falters be seen so that someone might offer me their walking stick. Community- and vulnerability- are to be embraced, not feared, because without them I would have stopped walking long ago. There’s this song I love: “it’s not the long walk home that will change this heart, but the welcome I receive with every start.” Thank you for the examples of welcomes at every start that you provide. I promise to keep working these muscles so there no longer needed

July and August engagement sent. Was able to engage more in August as well as engage with another org from doing the dimes exercise in July

[Marlise Flores]

I know for myself that offering a drink is also seen as a risk. I know white supremacy and scarcity culture have taught me that I might not have enough for myself, but I also fear the rejection or betrayal. The turning away of a vulnerability. But to be mist….to not only gently touch many but to mingle with other drops of mist. To venture into soils that are parched and broken. To allow others to also brush my own soil. Engaging with our resources (time, shared vulnerability, finances, etc) are all ways to become mist. One thing I notice about mist is that it lingers. I hope to learn how to linger in a space longer, to know and be known.

[Author]

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