Dear Friends,
Every year, I take some quiet time to reflect on the year that is coming to a close and the one that is ahead. This has been a good year for me personally and involved some planned change. I decided early in 2013 to slow down my business to have more time for family and retirement enjoyment and I am glad that I did. Of course as soon as the world knows you have a little free time it is filled up quickly and mine did with a couple of major volunteer responsibilities that are still in progress. I did more speaking, spent more time with my daughter, son-in-law and grandson and my son was married and so our family grew with a new daughter-in-law. It was a busy year.
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| Cookie Baking Day with my daughter and grandson |
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| My son and daughter-in-law on the altar at St. John's at their wedding |
In 2014 my professional work will also
change – it’s more of a fork in the road than a turn. I don’t plan to actively pursue work with
strategic planning any longer as it involves long term commitments on my part. I will continue with board development and
social media projects for nonprofits.
What will be new is that I plan to write and speak about philanthropy. Philanthropy – not fundraising. Stay tuned.
Each year this post usually includes my
wish for you in the coming year. This year
will be different in that regard too. I’d
like to share some thoughts I heard in a recent sermon by the Reverend
Barrington Bates, Interim Rector at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Montclair, NJ (my parish church).
Barrie started his sermon discussing our Confirmation class’
curriculum about heretics. The curriculum defines a heretic as
someone who holds unorthodox opinion or doctrine as in religion, politics,
philosophy or science. Heretics can be
shunned or even killed for their beliefs and they may or may not be right. Sometimes it takes years or even centuries
before their ideas are shown to be wise.
The confirmands identified and
discussed some people who started out as heretics with this definition. Their discussion included Martin Luther King,
Jr., Malcolm X, Joan of Arc, Steve Jobs, Nicholas Tesla, Nelson Mandela,
Desmond Tutu and Jesus. The other person
who came immediately to my mind was Galileo.
Barrie added
John the Baptist to the core of his Advent 3 sermon and ended with these words: “ Let us all be heretics for equality. Heretics for peace. Heretics for love.”
People couldn’t stop talking about this sermon after the service. It was powerful and resonated with our current times and so I decided to share this with you in this season of peace and love.
My thoughts for connecting this to nonprofits and grandparents for 2014….
Barrie added
equality to the traditional Christmas themes of peace and love – I think this will be an important issue for nonprofits in
2014. We should think outside the dots
and perhaps be heretical in our approach sometimes if we really want change. I think 2014 will provide lots of opportunity
for this and taking the less safe road.
Now Grandparents….
If you are like me you have some ideas that are quite different than your kids
about your grandkids. Are they
right? Perhaps. But perhaps rather than the standard advice
that a grandparent should keep their mouths shut if they want to have good
relationships… just perhaps there are times to speak up. You may seem heretical or you may seem wise,
and definitely think this through first.
You don’t need to be confrontational but silence isn’t always golden.
For myself I
am planning for 2014 to be a thoughtful, deliberate and action filled
year. I’ve always been somewhat
unorthodox but I’ve never thought of myself as a heretic. Maybe, I’ll give it some consideration.
Wishing You a Joyous and Blessed Holiday Season,
Marion
