The Monthly Libation - August 2025

Colemon & Associates Monthly Libation Newsletter – August 2025

We hope this newsletter finds you able to enjoy some sunshine! We know the Pacific Northwest doesn’t always offer us the warmth we want, but we are grateful for the great weather we have been having! As a reminder, our intention for this newsletter is to offer reflections, inspiration, and resources to feed and nourish our work and practices from three primary perspectives:

1.     What We Are Feeling (Heart)

2.     What We Are Thinking (Head)

3.     What We Are Practicing (Loving and Intentional Action)

What We Are Feeling (Heart)

We feel alert and attuned to the shifts happening around us – personally, within our families and neighborhoods, as well as more globally, around our country and our world. We practice a month or rest and recovery each July, and this has afforded us the space to recalibrate, to go silent, and to listen. In this silence we connect to the wisdom of our bodies and identify any practices we have lost sight of in the hustle and bustle of making a living and processing the news cycles. We feel gratitude for the ability to take this time away as a team, to drop into a time to center WHO we are rather than what we do, and de-center the role that capitalism plays in our identities as professionals and as human being.

We feel fresh curiosity and enthusiasm as we prepare for our upcoming Leadership Lighthouse Convening here in Tacoma. We are so pleased to host and curate a free half-day in-person convening for leaders, change agents, and community members. This event exists to provide a space for empowered dialogue, data sharing, and creative resourcing as we navigate the shifts in our local nonprofit landscape.

This event is open to leaders and individuals from all sectors who are interested in discussing:

·       What do the recent executive orders mean for nonprofits on a local level?

·       How is this impacting individual leaders and the well-being of organizations?

·       What are the primary concerns/implications of these shifts now and in the future?

·       What strategies are leaders practicing now, and how can we continue to partner and innovate for the health of our organizations and communities in years to come?

·       What can we be doing to remain in solidarity with each other across service strategies, sectors, and identities?

Program Details:

DATE: Thursday, October 23, 2025

TIME: 8:30am – 12pm

PLACE: Star Center, Journey Hall in Tacoma, WA

We invite you to hold this date, and please forward to those you think may benefit from attending. Click here to be notified when registration opens in September, or email us at info@colemonassociates.org if you have any questions.

We are collecting quantitative and qualitative data from local leaders and nonprofit teams to provide a look at impacts, gaps, and opportunities to support each other and sustain our community in these overwhelming times. Our deepest intention is for this convening to be a conduit for connection and information sharing, as well as a place to foster imagination and hope for our futures.

“Without new visions, we don’t know what to build, only what to knock down. We not only end up confused, rudderless, and cynical, but we forget that making a revolution is not a series of clever maneuvers and tactics, but a process that can and must transform us”

― Robin D.G. Kelley, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination

Where are the spaces your curiosity can be stronger than your fear? Who can you partner with or lean on in practicing courage and curiosity? What is the vision that can drive you through and past your despair?

What We Are Thinking/Reading (Head)

We are thinking intensely how we navigate this in between time – grieving and letting go of what was and imagining and preparing for what is to come. Put another way, what is it to lead in liminal times? If you’re not familiar with the term, “liminal space” is essentially a place and time of transition, even ambiguity, wherein you are between one state and another. Liminal spaces often heighten our self-awareness in terms of what we like and our proud of, but they also highlight what is lacking or undesirable. A sense of loss, grief, and anxiety may follow as we are faced with wave after wave of the unknown. Our current coaching practice journeys with leaders to better understand their relationship to uncertainty as doing so can provide critical guidance for how to hold themselves steady as they support and model sound decision-making and emotional intelligence for their teams and partners. It can be beneficial to identify a set of primers to support ourselves in moving through liminal times. Put another way, remembering our guiding values, grounding our teams in mission/vision, and conjuring our wildest most joyful imagination can be the lanterns we and our teams need to keep our spirits and our organizational afloat in liminal time. This Harvard Business Review article provides some additional ideas about leading in liminal times.

While its 10 years old, we often revisit this post from Leadership Freak that offers insightful guiding questions to help us find our way through uncertain times.

What is your relationship to liminal spaces? How do you lead in liminal space and time? What examples from nature and our ancestors offer us examples of moving through uncertainty with hope and wisdom?

What We Are Practicing (Loving and Intentional Action)

After time away, we set intentions to sustain our well-being and heal the grind culture that is so deep in us. Let’s be real: not only did it help us succeed, but we were also rewarded for pushing our bodies and nervous systems. It creates a cycle where we continue to chase validation and respect (even subconsciously, even when we say we are unplugging) through proving our worthiness, rather than embodying and trusting the complexities and edges of our humanity. We are practicing frequent check ins about our intentions as a team, knowing that we may often miss the mark. It’s ok though, because this shared vulnerability increases our trust as a team and deepens our empathy for our client partners who are also furiously trying to care for their selves while still showing up for their teams and communities.

“One of the mysteries of creation is how closely saving yourself and saving the world are linked. If you don’t take care of the world, you will only end up harming yourself. And if you don’t take care of yourself, you won’t do the world any good. We’re all part of the world. It is an illusion to think any of us can be separate.”

-Clayton Thomas-Miller, Life in The City of Dirty Water

We use a simple fill in the blank prompt to identify our commitments and revisit them during our check in’s. If we are succeeding that week, great! We celebrate and affirm. If we fail, it’s still great because we are practicing toward our highest selves and even more importantly, we can encourage each other to keep at it and identify roadblocks or consider how to right size that intention. We invite you to try the prompt as well:

To support my resilience and nourish my well-being, I will ___________________ (the what). This is important to me because _____________________ (the why). When I am nourished from the inside out, I am able to _______________ (the impact).

We invite you to edit and adjust the prompt to fit you and invite your teams or loved ones to consider making their own commitments for well-being to share.

What are the pauses and rests – big or small – that you can take throughout your week to sustain your health, and practice balance? Where are the spaces and places that silence and peace greet you lovingly, even if only for 15 minutes? What sounds, colors, or sensations support your safety and comfort?

We hope you enjoyed this month’s offering. Please share with those in your network who might enjoy it. Please follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn to stay informed of our upcoming work and/or events, and to keep receiving the Monthly Libation. If you are looking for organizational development consultation, support, or coaching, you can find out more about our work on our website or email us at info@colemonassociates.org.

Stay safe. Take care of yourselves. Take care of each other.

C&A Team