This!

Yesterday I saw a glimpse. While the pandemic put the whole world on pause, yesterday was the first time I could really see (in practice) what the Center of Belonging could be. Sure, we were masked, (and that is ok), but we were together (like physically together in an actual room!!), thirteen of us across seven organizations—talking, dreaming, planning for the work ahead of us as a collaborative.

As the dust settles, everyone is finding their ground again, making sense of this new world and how to live and lean into it. We are no different, Ace in the City and our partners, recognizing the hardest work is in front of us as we work to identify how to offer our best, listen well, support each other and hold each other accountable. As we’ve said a million times before, we did not innovate a co-officing space (where’s the innovation in that?), but a collaborative spacewhere the whole will be greater than all our parts.

We aren’t perfect practitioners, we have made mistakes and will make many more, but as we look around, we have realized our world has few tables, diverse and inclusive ones anyway, the ones that Jesus found himself around. As the world spins, what seems to be manufactured are more silos, deeper trenches, louder echo chambers and higher walls. This does not mean we don’t have an opinion, won’t say hard things, won’t work to cut through the noise with what we preach, but is to say we hope and are committed to backing up our talk with our walk, strides rooted in equity, justice and a shared heart to love ALL our neighbors well!