I know you’re all excited about your word for the New Year, the new season of Downton Abbey, Kim and Kanye, the Bachelorette (or is it the Bachelor this time around?), the snow, the taking down of the Christmas tree, the beginning of Ordinary Time, the starting over everywhere. Me? I’m bucking the trend a bit. I’m carrying a few things over from 2012 into 2013.
For starters, I’m keeping my word from last year: Disco. It still works for me.
I’m also switching the planning phase into high gear for JumpingTandem: The Retreat. If you’ve been watching, you know the Retreat Passes sold out quickly, but we’ve still got room for you! Let me know if you’ve got questions, and I’ll do my best to answer.
I’ve spent some time reviewing 2012 and, without a doubt, the highlight of 2012 was 31 Days In My Brown Skin. When the thirty-one days were over, it felt as if we were just getting started. You asked great questions, and everyone made space for honest dialogue in a safe forum. The truth is that these are the types of issues and conversations that matter most to me. I could talk to you for hours about race and faith and church and culture and systems and diversity, and there would still be so much ground left to cover. I truly believe we only scratched the surface during our time together last October.
During that series, so many of you wrote to me with stories of your own, or questions you’d been wanting to ask for years, but didn’t know where you could ask them. I don’t want us to have to wait until next October to have these conversations.
Last October, when I introduced 31 Days In My Brown Skin, the title of the post was “Yes. I’m Going There.” Well, I’d like to invite you to go there with me again. Not every day. Not necessarily every week. But I don’t want us to have to wait until October. So, I’ve created a form where you can submit your own story about race, culture, and/or diversity as you live it out every day in your very own skin. If you submit a story that fits the topic, I’ll post it here at JumpingTandem and invite everyone to the table for conversation. You don’t have to wait for a special day or season or meme. Simply submit your story and, once it’s published, we’ll talk it through together. I’m calling this project “Going There.”
Of course, there’s a good chance you’re wondering, “What in the world is she talking about?” If that’s you, please check out the post that started it all. Then, reading (or skimming) through the series and the comments will give you a sense of where we’re headed.
If you decide to share your story, all you have to do is click over to the form. Fill out the form, hit submit, and that’s that!
I’ve got other fun things going on behind the scenes. They tug on the hem of my t-shirt, or perch themselves on my pillow first thing in the morning and demand a bit of my attention. I’m excited to see how things unfold, and to share the journey with you in this new year. Let’s do this together, okay? The good. The bad. The in between. Let’s do it together, and make people wonder what we’ve been up to.