I saw this artwork earlier this year, and my eyes immediately welled up with tears. The image and language is so simple, yet the message is so profoundly felt.

As we embrace year end, I’m starting to reflect on what is behind us. This time last year, we were in the weird, post-election twilight zone—doing our best to brace for what might be ahead in 2025.

The year kicked off with an onslaught of attacks on vulnerable communities, as well as the nonprofits that fight to protect them. Since then, it feels like the social impact community has been in a never ending cycle: having to swallow heartbreaking news, digest a new reality, and then do our best to metabolize something into action.

2025 has been H-A-R-D, Subscriber First Name.

And then… ✨ 🌕 💡

The light has come in unexpected ways throughout 2025: Witnessing coalitions come together quickly to build collective power. Watching new partnerships form to pool resources and create innovative responses. People showing up in the most heartfelt of ways so that others don’t go hungry or become separated from their families.

The political wins from last week also brought light. For days after Mamdani’s win in New York and the special election here in California, I found myself randomly bursting into tears… realizing that my body was remembering what hope felt like.

Last week Do Good Leadership Collective also experienced a win. For over a year we’ve been slowly cultivating relationships with others who believe in nonprofit workplace wellbeing, wage equity, and meaningful investments in the nonprofit workforce. The journey of keeping this work relevant has been tiresome, but last week we felt the light.

We gathered leaders across San Diego in partnership with our friends at Fund the People for an afternoon of meaningful dialogue and community healing. The event reminded us of where we’ve been… how difficult it’s been… and that the work is not done and there are exciting and hopeful things ahead!

And because the work isn’t done, that means things will still be hard. It means we have to stay committed. Over at the Slow Read Book Club, we’ve just wrapped up our first meeting after reading a few chapters of What It Takes To Heal by Prentis Hemphill. This collection of quotes about staying committed to the work resonates:

“Commitment is the path between your vision and this moment…

There’s something about the unanticipated that allows commitment to activate. When we set out with a vision, it crashes into backlash, barriers, fear. Commitment is what gets us through the middle of change, when the outcome seems bleak, when it seems we’re lost or can’t go any further. Commitment expects our despair but doesn’t waiver.”

The message is clear here. Commitment is everything when we’re moving through the hard. But there is more:

“We can mean well, be committed, have a vision for change that inspires, but if we are not actively and intentionally attending to our own healing or practicing a healing ethic, we unnecessarily limit what it is that we can do.”

Healing, recovering, resting, pausing, releasing, and celebrating is necessary to get through the hard. As we start to wind down 2025 and enter the holiday and hibernation season, please remember to care for yourself ❤️

Let it be hard… remember to rest… and then… 🌕