Like Trees in a Storm: Ground, Adapt & Reach Towards Light (My Vision for 2025)
Light streams through a thick canopy of trees in a forest. Let’s be more like trees this year and bend toward the light.
As we enter 2025, I find myself drawn to the wisdom of trees.
In times of hurricanes and storms, trees teach us three vital lessons: they ground their roots deeply by any means necessary, they lean and adapt to the winds of change, and they persistently bend toward pockets of light.
Weathering the Storms
The storms of 2024 have been fierce. Global conflicts surged in the last year, as we’ve witnessed an unprecedented humanitarian crisis with 120 million people forcibly displaced and hundreds of thousands killed from Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, Sudan, the Congo and beyond. This year also saw the inequality gap widen, women's and girls' rights take a toll, an escalating climate crisis with historic and deadly floods, wildfires, and hurricanes, and the rise of far-right nationalism globally. All of this against a backdrop in which the rise of AI technology flames the fire on mis and disinformation campaigns that threaten fair and free elections and democracy as we know it.
Like many, I found myself in a fight, flight, and freeze response following the 2024 Presidential election results. As someone holding multiple marginalized identities, these moments can feel overwhelming, triggering waves of grief and fear about what's to come.
Yet here's what I keep coming back to when I begin to despair: while we can't control the winds that blow, we can choose how we root ourselves, how we adapt, and how we reach for light.
Just as trees don't weather storms alone but form interconnected root systems, we have significant power in how we choose to show up, who we choose to amplify, and what we choose to grow together.
Finding Light in the Canopy
Even in these dark times, patches of light break through the forest canopy. Globally, we're witnessing communities unite in unprecedented ways, sparking crucial conversations about equitable healthcare access and economic justice. Nature offers its own testimony to resilience – endangered species such as savanna elephants are making remarkable recoveries, while coordinated efforts have yielded meaningful progress in child health, disease prevention, and access to basic necessities like clean water and sustainable energy.
People and organizations continue to innovate solutions to our biggest global problems. And perhaps most heartening is that despite fears to the contrary, people and democracies are fighting back against authoritarianism around the world.
We’re also seeing how recent events have catalyzed wider conversations about systemic inequities and may be raising class consciousness in ways that could lead to meaningful change.
Growing Our Forest of Change
Throughout 2024, I've had the privilege of working alongside remarkable individuals and organizations who demonstrate how to both root deeply and reach skyward. Their work—your work—shows how transformation is possible when we combine vision with action, and courage with strategy.
Here are just a few examples that fill me with hope:
The Center for Conscious Leadership’s Sharon Podobnik Peterson published her compelling book "It's Not (All) Your Fault: Self-Help and the Individualization of Oppression"—a must-read that challenges our understanding of personal and systemic change. We recently launched the organization’s newly branded website to showcase their vital work supporting leaders in critical roles safeguarding our wellbeing and driving social innovation globally. Their new Coaching The Future Program offers pro-bono coaching to progressive leaders and change-makers, helping refine their vision and leadership approach. Their blog and newsletter is chock full of excellent resources for conscious leaders.
Ignition Coaching: I produced CoachCast—a show about equipping leaders with the tools to navigate the future of work in collaboration with founder Kully Jaswal and Leadership expert Wagner Denuzzo. Their innovative and science-backed WAVE™ wellbeing program is reshaping workplace culture and fostering curiosity, collaboration, and adaptability in an era of constant social and technological change.
I worked with The Nucleus Group(TNG) to produce the Smart Rookie podcast co-hosted by TNG founder Elizabeth Talerman and brilliant creative Chelsea Carlson on the power of wonder, curiosity, and personal and professional growth. The organization continues to push boundaries with their Depth of Field Guides, offering deep dives into cultural shifts influencing people and progress. Their collaboration with AICP on Marketing in the Motion Picture exemplifies how well-researched data can illuminate paths forward and empower leaders to actively shape change rather than merely react to it.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA): In anticipation of the Supreme Court hearing the pivotal Moyle v. U.S. (aka EMTALA) case in April 2024, Planned Parenthood aimed to generate a compelling and immersive experience at a rally. Our team was enlisted to conduct interviews with patient advocates and healthcare providers, transforming these conversations into four multimedia stories that brought to light the real-life implications of restricted access to emergency medical care. The stories were showcased as part of an engaging audio experience during a rally in Boise, Idaho, leading up to the timing of the Supreme Court's deliberations. By presenting the personal and often harrowing experiences of those affected by restrictive health policies, the project contributed significantly to the ongoing debate and advocacy for safeguarding comprehensive emergency medical care rights. Read more about the project here.
Shayna Hammond, founder of Lead for Liberation and group coaching community IndigoWomen continues to tackle systems change head on. From classrooms to boardrooms, her team is shifting white supremacy culture to liberatory culture and helping Black women (and all of us) thrive.
While she’s not a formal collaborator, I’d like to add that my sister Margarita has recently stepped into a formal role working to help revive indigenous languages with the Indigenous Montessori Institute, something she has long worked towards.
My incredible collaborators –the producers (special shout out to Sam and Tom), designers, copy editors, strategists, subject matter experts, and all the talented professionals who make my work possible – your creativity and dedication amplify that light in such beautiful ways.
My broader beloved community is filled with futurists, facilitators, and educators who give me so much hope. Others are leaders in their own right preparing us for the new world, be it by helping organizations build policies that reduce single use plastics, educating people by writing books on critical topics, developing mutual aid resources, reporting news with integrity, supporting our health system, and providing legal protections for the most vulnerable populations.
In a world that can feel heavy with shadow, geopolitical turmoil, and fear, you each remind me of our collective power to kindle hope and possibility.
Thank you for being the light in the darkness in a moment when we need it most.
Personal & Professional Growth Rings
2024 also marked significant growth rings on my own journey.
In the last year I deepened my commitment to walking the walk and sharing my own thought leadership more consistently. That included relaunching The Way We Lead podcast with a dear friend and new cohost Elizabeth Solomon, speaking at the Latinas in Podcasting Summit, contributing to Syracuse University's upcoming DEI in Communications curriculum, and continuing to build a vibrant community of like-minded friends and collaborators.
This was also a year of deep introspective work. I found a phenomenal new intersectional therapist as well as an Executive Coach (shout out to Sandra Sarucia). They have both become a critical part of my support team who hold space for me as I juggle a complex and ever changing workload, motherhood, and adjust to life’s unexpected challenges. I’ve shown up human and imperfect. But as my wife likes to remind me, “progress, not perfection.” And thanks to deep inner work I can see that I have certainly made a lot of progress.
Our family tree has also shown remarkable resilience. My wife Jenelle found new growth following a layoff earlier this year, and is now thriving as Director of Recruitment for the MBA programs at George Washington University. Our daughter Ellie (2.5 yo), continues to amaze us daily, reaching perpetually upward with curiosity and joy, learning to feel and empathize deeply. After a recent visit, my dad reflected that we are giving her all the tools she needs to become a leader. It reminds me that raising socially and emotionally conscious children can be an act of resistance and it starts early. I’m grateful to have spent time with extended family, including celebrating my grandmother’s 100th birthday this year.
Looking for Full Time Work That Aligns With Purpose
After deep contemplation, on the precipice of what would be my sixth year of running my own business, I’ve made the decision to go back to exploring full-time work that will allow me to root myself more deeply in my values while making a bigger impact within a larger organization. I am in no rush, but rather have the privilege of taking my time to find the right role and organization that will lead me to a path of professional growth, alignment and purpose.
If you know of mission-driven organizations that allows remote work and has full time roles in marketing, communications, multimedia production, storytelling, and operations, I would be grateful for your connections. I’ve only just begun the process, but have been lucky to have so many folks reach out with ideas, introductions, and opportunities that have led to some great conversations.
Until I find a role, I will continue to do the wonderful and deeply fulfilling work of teaching, coaching, and supporting my clients. Only time will tell how these two worlds (entrepreneur and employee) will continue to blend, but I’ll share it with my community when I know more.
Personally, as i look at 2025 I plan to embody the ways of the tree. I’m going back to my grounding activities (journaling, mindfulness, and dancing barefoot), embracing rest and restoration so that I can adapt with the winds of change, and making intentional choices to move towards what gives me hope and energy such as creative writing, art, and community.
When all else fails, I’ll remember to go back to basics: add water, sunlight, and step back into nature.
Growing Forward Together
If you’re reading this—thanks for being a part of my journey. As we enter a precarious year, I offer this wish:
May this year bring you moments of deep grounding and bold growth.
May you find strength in our collective forest.
And may we continue to support each other as we reach toward the light.
With warmth and gratitude,
Gaby Acosta
