I have sat to write to you many times over the past two months to thank you for your work to make a difference in the world. Time and time again, I felt my words fell short of what sat in my heart. Today I woke with the sun and felt the buoyancy of hope as we turn the page in a new chapter of our nation’s history. The gift of each challenge this past year has been a call, again and again to examine principles and values, to evaluate them in the context of each new choice before us, and to move with courage and vulnerability. This transformation, of turning a challenge into an opportunity for dialogue and growth, as well as looking to our values to inform next steps, is what we teach at 21/64 and never has it felt more poignant we lean into a new moment.

I was reminded of the words of one of our nation’s great dissenters, Ruth Bader Ginsberg “Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.” Today, as we watched the transfer of power among our nations’ leadership, I want to honor the next step to change and the hope that allows us to see the world as it is, the boldness to lead at the edge of the unknown and the courage to try again and again.

This hard-edged hope, as Acumen Founder & CEO Jacqueline Norogravitz calls it, is what I believe will see us through the flaws and imperfections of our current state to our country’s founding vision of a more perfect union. As author and poet Sonya Renee Taylor writes “we are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment. One that fits all of humanity and nature.”

Today we turn a new page in our nation’s history and with hope for the future, we at 21/64 wish you and yours health and hope for the days ahead. To celebrate that resilience today, a donation to World Central Kitchen Covid-19 Relief Fund was made in your honor. WCK leverages the power of food to heal communities and strengthen economies while serving as a beacon of hope for people in times of crisis.

Executive Director, 21/64