Each month, we pose a question to the OneLISC family, and share the responses reflecting our diverse range of voices and backgrounds. We hope these Reflections from the Field will be a source of inspiration and insight for us all. This month's question is:
2020. So much upheaval and suffering that most of us can't wait to see it end. But we have also seen great service and generosity, progress and reckoning. And each of us has found personal silver linings, too. What are yours? What surprising, positive things have emerged for you during this year of historic challenge and loss?
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I've always enjoyed sending handwritten snail mail and chose to write 30 letters/card in 30 days as part of national letter-writing-month in April. Since then I've also taken to ramping up my outgoing mail to stay connected with folks and also keep our postal service funded!
- Emily Scott, Program Officer, LISC
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I have a 22-month old grandson. His name is Lucas and he calls me Ammy. When he started talking he couldn't pronounce the "Gr" in Grammy so Ammy stuck. Lucas lives in Texas. In August my daughter had to figure out how to manage teaching college courses from home with a toddler underfoot while her husband self-quarantined after a shift in the COVID ICU. I travelled from Michigan to help and was there from August through November.
While the world spiraled out of control, I was singing "Wheels on the Bus," learned about Daniel Tiger, and read "Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site" a thousand times. I miss "Hi Ammy," the bedroom door swinging open and Lucas climbing on my lap staring at the Jostle screen and asking to see the fish from the Monterrey Bay Aquarium. Because of the pandemic, I was blessed and fortunate to create memories to cherish forever.
- Charlotte Smith, Deputy Director, LISCKalamazoo
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I manage a faith-based development program here in the Bay Area, and have felt overwhelming gratitude to share so much (virtual) time with faith leaders this year. They have guided me in the direction of reflection, connection, and inspiration in a year when I needed it more than ever. As Howard Thurman notes in Meditations of the Heart, faith “feeds the springs of my courage and breaks the wall of isolation that shuts me in, and I am no longer afraid.”
This year has brought me a renewed dedication to ground my work in faith because, as adrienne maree brown describes in Emergent Strategy, “what we practice at the small scale sets the patterns for the whole system.” Insofar as transforming systems of domination (in all of its manifestations – racism, misogyny, capitalism, trans- and homo-phobia, ableism, xenophobia, etc.) is central to our work, I have found a faith practice rooted in love to be the most powerful tool to stay focused and motivated toward building a world in which we all feel safe, valuable, loved, and free.
As a person with a variety of compounding, identity-based privileges, I am finding bell hooks’ thesis from All About Love to be especially salient: “We cannot know love if we remain unable to surrender our attachment to power.” Attachment to power and to “being on top” divorces us from the joy of connection found in community. I continue to find that positioning myself to be of service to community creates more space for love in my life, and more meaning in my work. And there’s not much more I can ask for than that!
- Laurel Engbretson, Program Officer, LISC Bay Area
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As a parent of two middle-school children, 2020 has given me a front-row seat on their lives and personalities that might otherwise be closing to me as they grow and mature. Through the trials and tribulations of remote learning and working, I witness their resilience and capability, their humor and charm, and of course work through some anger and sadness too. I love that they get to see the work of LISC up close-and get to know the wonderful people I work with. Perhaps they may even choose a career in community development as a result! We have drawn closer in this time of unexpected togetherness and have learned to rely on each other in new ways, and for that I am grateful.
- Kristen Baker, Executive Director, LISC Cincinnati
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Back in March, when the country began to lock down due to Covid-19, I became concerned about what effect mandated isolation might have on my older family members, specifically aunts in Brooklyn who live alone in the same brownstones where they have for 40+ years. It occurred to me that since we didn’t know how long this pandemic would last or when we’d be able to see each other again, it might be good to get everyone together on a weekly conference call to at least hear each other’s voices and just stay connected.
Nine months later, everyone still looks forward to them on Friday evenings. There are consistently 9 or 10 of us participating weekly, including a 91-year-old, 88-year-old, 86-year-old and an 82-year-old. We’ve shared wonderful stories and learned more about our family history. We’ve touched on everything from life during The Great Depression, childhood in the segregated South and The Great Migration north, to travel bucket lists, favorite childhood foods, and, of course, politics. Some weeks we’ve had a theme or activity planned (like a memory game or tongue twister) or sometimes we’ve just shared gossip! Having these calls has made us feel connected throughout this unprecedented time and made it easier to remember that we’ve still so much for which to be grateful!
- Maria Randall, Vice President - SBA Lender, immito
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I am so grateful for my new position here at LISC. Who in a million years would think you could obtain a wonderful new position without ever meeting in person your new manager or co-workers? The collaboration of my team is amazing.
Additionally, I am grateful for all of my wonderful friends in my community for keeping us safely active and social during such a lonely and stressful time in our lives.
- Anonymous
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I miss my office neighborhood lunch spots, but the sudden shift to nearly every meal prepared in my own kitchen has given me the space to discover local growers and producers. During covid, the farmers market has become a justifiable outing. Steadfast Farms, The Proper Beast, Proof Bread and others have made my time at home healthier and tastier.
-Frieda Pollack, Program Officer, LISC Phoenix
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Aside from my first year as a Peace Corps volunteer in Armenia 10 years ago, 2020 has been my most professionally challenging year ever. I could never have gotten through it without two amazing interns. One of them went on to run digital comms at her regional food bank in the Coachella Valley, and the other just decided to base her communications master's thesis on our work together. What's amazing is that we've been able to build productive, supportive and even fun working relationships without ever having met! That's some chaotic good 2020 right there.