Dear friends,
Bittersweet seems like such an understatement, but it is the only word I have. After 21 amazing years, I am going to be ending my time as the LCEC executive director at the end of September and figuring out what is next for me.
The first stirrings of change came as 2020 approached and brought my 50th birthday, my 20-year anniversary at the Center, and the joyful/sad experience of our boys going off into the world to study and do their things. Then COVID hit, and everything else was put to the side. This spring the knowledge that this is the right time slowly built back up.
When I think about my twenty-one years here and my time here coming to an end, I mostly am filled with gratitude (okay, there is the occasional stab of terror, but that is to be expected). I am so grateful to the people who built the Center over its first twenty-one years (1979-2000). People like Janet House (pictured here), Dolores Tomashevska, Geraldine English, Caroline De Leon, and so many others made everything that has come since possible. I am grateful to all of you who have taught me so much and shaped me over the two thirds of my adult life that I have spent here.
And I am grateful to all of you in whose good hands the Center thrives today. I so appreciate the LCEC staff and the commitment and creativity they’ve shown throughout the last year. And so many of you have stepped up in all kinds of ways to take care of each other. I see your commitment and love, and I know you will help make the LCEC into what it can become over the coming years.
I leave feeling good about what we have accomplished together and with absolute clarity that this is no time to rest on our laurels. There is too much we are called to do to put justice and love into practice in all of our relations and to embed them into all of our systems.
Thank you again for all you have shared with me, all you have done to make this community what it is, and all you will do to help move it to what it needs to become. I am not leaving immediately nor am I leaving the country (unless one of you has an exciting international opportunity for me), so I look forward to connecting with you both in the coming months and in community work in the future.
As for the process of hiring the next LCEC executive director, the board will be taking the time to gather input and assistance from staff, the community and other stakeholders, and they anticipate having the position posted by early July.
I hope that you will join me in continuing to support this important work and this wonderful community – starting with helping the young people to have a great summer again this year.
Sincerely,
Paul
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