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December 2025: A Year of Collective Liberation
2025 Highlights and Reflections: Cultivating Our Path Toward Justice
LaShauna Austria
December 15, 2025
Dear community.
As 2025 draws to a close, we pause to celebrate the powerful journey we shared in pursuing justice, equity, and holistic well-being. This year, our focus moved intentionally through themes designed to deepen our understanding and activate change. We explored the foundations of racial healing, honored the power of community resistance, and investigated practices for personal alignment and liberatory action. These monthly themes have provided essential pathways toward transformative change.
We are incredibly proud to present highlights from each month, showcasing key insights and resources that inspired our shared work this year.
January: Why Do We Need Racial Healing?
We started the year by affirming that racial healing is the path to achieving racial equity. Healing involves acknowledging the truth of past harms caused by racism, building authentic, empathetic relationships, and ultimately transforming the structural systems that uphold the belief in a hierarchy of human value.
Top Post: Why Do We Need Racial Healing?
February: Stories of Resistance
This month’s highlight featured “This Joy" by the Resistance Revival Chorus, reminding us that joy is an act of resistance. Their music and mission showcase the immense power of community and collective action, demonstrating that when the movement is strong, the music (and the momentum) is strong.
March: Avoiding the Trapdoor of Performative Engagement
The featured piece highlighted Black feminist organizer Loretta J. Ross, who champions the philosophy of calling in instead of canceling. This approach encourages meaningful, transformative engagement with people we disagree with, moving beyond surface-level activism to foster deeper change.
April: Listening to Understand
We explored the profound power of impactful active listening. This foundational leadership skill requires intentional focus—going beyond just hearing words to fully understanding context, tone, and nonverbal cues—which is critical for building trust, strengthening relationships, and fostering collaboration.
Top Post: The Power of Listening
May: Living a Values-Aligned Life
Our focus on personal well-being featured the neuroscience of values-based actions. When goals align with core values, we engage the brain’s reward system, preventing burnout and cognitive dissonance, leading to greater intrinsic motivation, resilience, and a deeper sense of fulfillment.
June: A Juneteenth Reflection on Vision and Freedom
For Juneteenth, we reflected on what it means to be truly unbound and cultivate a liberated future. This reflection urged us to use the principles of freedom and vision to dismantle systems of oppression and create inclusive, just, and equitable environments for all.
Top Post: Vision Seed Starter Kit, created by LaShauna Austria (view online)
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July: Amplifying Voices Through Art
This month we featured The Jumpsuit Project by local artist Sherrill Roland, a socially engaged art piece that grew out of his personal experience with wrongful incarceration. By wearing an orange jumpsuit in everyday settings, the project challenges viewers to confront their prejudices, raise awareness about the issues related to the carceral system, and encourage dialogue about reentry and restorative justice.
Top Post: The Jumpsuit Project
August: The Significance of Black August
In August, we focused on Black August by highlighting The Enneagram for Black Liberation by Chichi Agorom. This work reclaims the Enneagram as a tool to help Black women rediscover wholeness and worth, offering a path to freedom by laying down the protective armor built from survival strategies.
Top Post: The Enneagram for Black Liberation Book
September: Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month
For Hispanic Heritage Month, we celebrated the depth and diversity of U.S. Latino and Latin American cultures, histories, and achievements. The resources we shared illuminated the varied peoples and vibrant heritage that have profoundly shaped the American landscape.
October: Let's Talk About What Grows
Our October theme centered on the insight from author adrienne maree brown: What you pay attention to grows. We offered three high-leverage areas, The Three Seeds, for intentional focus: investing in culture and team energy, cultivating strong relationships, and smoothing out friction in processes and operations. This framework urged leaders to deliberately focus on green shoots to cultivate real growth.
November: Cultivating Liberatory Gratitude
This month focused on Indigenous perspectives on giving thanks by featuring the work of Winona LaDuke. We contrasted entitled consumption with the Indigenous ethic of reciprocity - gratitude as an ongoing way of life, guided by the principle that we are all related. This framework helps us cultivate a form of gratitude rooted in integrity and respect for Mother Earth.
Top Post: Indigenous Perspectives on Giving Thanks
A Note on Finding the Light
As the calendar year draws to a close, we approach the Winter Solstice - the moment of deepest darkness, yet also the turning point toward light. This reminds us that even when facing the complexity and challenges of the world, hope and renewal are inherent parts of the cycle.
Just as the sun begins its return, we encourage you to remember the lessons from this year: embrace healing, practice collective action, and commit to aligning your actions with your deepest values. We look forward to continuing the work of cultivating a more liberated future alongside you in the year ahead.
— The Seeds of Change Consulting Team
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 | "In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist. We must be anti-racist."Angela Davis |
