From Kristin Hunter, Board of Trustee

Invigorating community, our WES community, has been much on the minds of the Board and our clergy leader, Amanda. This year, as prologue to spring and the 2020-2021 year, we—the Board, members of the Stewardship Team, and other enthusiasts—are planning visits to WES members. We’ve already started, taking it in stages–BC, before coronavirus–to see folks personally in family rooms, around dining tables, even at coffee hang-outs. And now we’ll find other ways to “visit” until usual life routines resume. 

WES simply glows as a spirited, dynamic conglomeration of wonderfully unique, diverse individuals. We choose to reach out, be active, and to contribute in a measurable way to the good of our greater DC-MD-VA environs. But alongside this, we need to make time for self-care, like:

• taking time to see each other (though keeping safe, as Dr. Fauci recommends)
• jazzing up our joy together,
• kindling endless creativity that springs from being and doing together (six feet apart),
• enlivening the richness of us, 
• vitalizing our shared values, 
• galvanizing our best selves. 

This is the spark behind the personal outreach to each member and family. All of you. All of us.

When we connect with each other—normally or however it happens with coronavirus precautions—we want to chit chat, share hilarious stories, catch up on what’s fun, hear about life events. And, yes, bring up how WES heartens us and, yes, talk a little bit about supporting WES. We are all about openly connecting with each other (see the above), yet we are reticent to bring up the “P” word and dodge discussing pledging completely.

Keeping WES financially charged is part of keeping us charged; it’s another dimension of taking care of our community. Each one of us balances what we can pledge while looking point blank at WES:  

• The basic staff and building requirements that allow WES to be WES
• The specific activities that we desire to enrich our social and spiritual selves
• The fiscal challenges that WES—which is us—faces to stay strong and vibrant

And we have to face the fact that, as caring as we are, our financial support is falling behind. The WES community thrives on giving to each other and receiving. Part of the joy of our giving means giving from our individual resources to keep WES being WES. The flip side, our joy from receiving, also encompasses the spirit of sharing by taking from our personal to augment the whole. Can we all stretch together and pledge a little bit more?

But back to connecting with each other, which I see as self-care at its mightiest. All of our tails—Board of Trustees, Stewardship Team, and enthusiasts—are wagging wildly at the thought of more opportunities to connect, though maybe in different ways for the near future. These connections remind me why we have always bonded so powerfully and with such joy at community and auction dinners when we sit down next to each other and eat. 

Pledging is vital because we need a table to sit at and also, so essentially, it is a part of connecting us with each other.