Tomorrow is Women’s Equality Day in remembrance of the passage of the 19th amendment 101 years ago. In a year that has both underscored the tremendous progress we have made on so many fronts and the very real and enduring challenges that remain on the road to liberty and justice for all, I’ve been reflecting on what one does upon “arrival” at that destination.
In July, we celebrate both Independence Day and National Friendship Month. As we know, achieving independence from British rule did not translate to equal justice and freedoms for all people, however.
Indigenous peoples, women and people of color, GLBTQ-identified individuals and many other populations have continued the long struggle to live into the promise of “liberty and justice for all.”
June is a time of celebration for many—school’s out, summer is here, Dads get their “day in the sun” and we look forward (perhaps even more this year than in some) to a little bit more free time for fun.
At Integrated Work, we believe in living and working with a heart of service—this means doing good work in the world in ways that support our clients and our team. This month, as we celebrate those who serve everyday—from mothers to service members—we also want to appreciate the people who have gone above and beyond over the last year to help us all navigate the turbulence of the pandemic: the first responders and front-line workers, doctors and nurses, educators both at home and at school, grocery store clerks, and mask-makers.
In April we celebrate Earth Day. April 22 is also my Dad’s birthday, so the birthday-earth day conjunction has always been a strong one for me. As spring begins to make itself felt, it becomes a potent moment to both reflect on and celebrate renewal in many forms. April is also Integrated Work’s birthday—we turn 23 this year and are grateful to still be building on the strong foundation our Founder, Jessica Hartung, established for us by believing it was possible to create a human-first organization dedicated to doing good work in more conscious and humane ways.
Last month we celebrated all manner of Black Excellence in honor of Black History Month and reminded ourselves of the power of representation, remembering, recognition, and research. Those same things matter as we celebrate and reflect on Women’s History this month. You can find plenty of things to learn about, uplift, and celebrate in this month’s issue, but the last week served up another reminder that recalling the past also gives us an opportunity for reckoning with the realities of lived experience that get kept behind a veil when “history is written by the conquerors.”
As we celebrate Black History Month this February, I want to share why this time is so important to me, as a human who lives in a cis-gender, white-skinned body, and as a leader, daughter, sister, and mother…
Welcome, 2021! What a year we have just weathered together. As we turn the page on the calendar, and begin to look ahead, we can take comfort in the growing hope that before this year is done, we will have come out the other side of the pandemic and will have begun to find our way to a different normal…
We lost an icon this week, but her legacy is one of purposeful forward motion, sometimes in baby-steps and sometimes by leaps and bounds. She was powerful and humble, and spent her life showing us the way… Let’s follow her example and take up the call to create conversations, all around us, that move the things that matter most forward…
