Trying to make sense of my little bit.
I was just starting to understand that there were other ways of understanding the world that did not centre around the dominant rhetoric I'd grown up with: whiteness, Christianity and generosity through charity. Vu Le led the way to the door; Anand Giridharadas handed me the key.
Do I trust everyone and hang all hope on just remembering when we get to July and rip into planning? Is “just remembering” a sound business strategy, ever?
In 2009, I thought I was told to go to Uganda by God. Luckily, I really wanted to go.
These lines sit in the back pocket of my diary, and I pull them out when I need some grounding. When the achievement means more than who I am becoming as I work towards the goal. When I get a head full of self-importance and how I treat those around me suffers.
Those three things - autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward - are, most people will agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying. -Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers
However loud the voice upstair is, the truth remains: We’re all experts on ourselves. We’re all experts in noticing.
Whether you are counselling those affected, liaising with police, writing grants, sorting the accounts, organising fundraising events, keeping the social media feeds up to date, meeting with the government or doing the administration that it takes to keep an organisation afloat, I’m really sorry that you have had to “ring-fence” these funds.
We've all got something on high rotation upstairs. What are your tapes playing?
Jemma Balmer 