Groundswell Executive Director transitions and rebirth
Every 7 years our cellular being regenerates. We are a completely new cellular being! And today, after 7 years of holding the role as Executive Director of groundswell community project: I am a completely different person. Groundswell has wildly evolved. And the world has shifted in ways Id never imagine.
(you can read my story and experience within Groundswells’s journey HERE)
The role of executive director always felt sticky, not my skin, unfamiliar…but my love and commitment for the mission, vision, work, and community along with immense mentorship, accountability, guidance, and inspiration from fellow women leaders, peers, community and mother ocean held me as i stepped into the role kicking and screaming the whole way. I failed over and over. Learned. Grew. And failed again. And learned and grew more. I cried and felt soul crushing grief and heart ache. While also feeling joy that made my bones dance and my heart sing.
The last handful of years I felt an aching to come back to me, to my passion, to my calling, education, and experience in healing, therapy, creating and holding spaces for transformation and re-membering that the daily responsibilities of ED pulled me from. I looked for a creative of ways to restructure Groundswell operations guided by nature so she could be held and lead by community in a feminine leadership model. And this past summer the call to winter, to pause, to bring the ship into harbor came in loud and clear as I felt my capacity dwindling with fear of full burn out.
The day I asked the board for their blessing and support in stepping down as ED so others with the needed skills, experience, education, and energy could step up…my whole body shook with the unknown…What if they said no? What if groundswell closes? What if..? But mother ocean is the greatest teacher of being held in the abyss of the mystery. So I let her hold me, I stepped into trust.
And now, 3 months into transitioning from Executive Director to supporting Groundswell as Clinical Supervisor, I am getting to see all the community from around the globe coming together to support Groundswell in this rebirth portal. I feel hope and a deep trust of knowing she’s exactly where she was always meant to be. In the hands and hearts of community. And as she will continue her cycles like the earth, like us ( birth, death, rebirth…) my deepest prayer and hope is that one day Groundswell as an org will no longer need to exist because women and their families around the world have reclaimed their joy-filled relationship with their bodies, each other and this earth. This is the world I dream of. And with the mother ocean as her guide and mentor, and a community as diverse as the eco-systems of the sea supporting her I have hope, trust, and excitement to let go and watch her grow beyond my wildest dreams!
Waves of love from the depths of the ocean and my heart for you and all those that have and will breathe their creativity, joy, hopes, passion, experience, and stoke into being a groundswell of love and healing for women and waves!
-Natalie Small LMFT
Founder & Clinical Supervisor :)