An Open Letter from Alejandra
One of my most dependable anchors is nature. My walks with Parker have grown more frequent now that Spring is moving through the Northern Hemisphere. There is something about this season and the way the symphony of plants around me slowly unfurls out of dormancy, a mirror and reminder that patience, time, and space are the required conditions to begin again.
In the words of Robin Wall Kimmerer, from her essay,Returning The Gift, “The Earth asks us to change as everything changes and evolves, like the flesh-tearing Allosaurus who became a warbler singing from the treetops when the time for flesh-tearing was over. For if we don’t change, we will, like all that does not change, perish.” Three years ago, burnout made it feel as if the architecture of my life was on fire. Earth was calling and luckily I answered, off to the Pacific Northwest.
Since returning to the mountains, I have re-centered wonder, curiosity, and discovery in my friendships, my work, and the world around me. Since my departure from NYC, I've grown ADC Consulting, found a new community in Washington, and spent more time with my family and loved ones. This year in particular has brought meaningful milestones, from the Understanding Arts Service Organizations in a Changing Arts Ecosystem research to the Policy Literacy for the Creative Sector template, and I am deeply proud of what this team continues to build. The most significant change, however, has been within myself, as I have come to understand the conditions I need to honor in order to remain in service to a just future. Part of that understanding has been recognizing and coming into my disability, and learning what it asks of me, and the matriarchal wisdom I’ve learned, to lean on as I navigate it.
This period of my life is calling me into building anew, but also into a deep remembrance and reconnection to the lineages that shape me. Every year on December 7th, I celebrate Día de Velitas, a Colombian holiday that kicks off the start to the holiday season. With time, and in true bi-cultural fashion, I have turned this holiday into a ritual of reflection where I set an intention for the year ahead. Two years ago my intention was to build community. A full rotation around the sun later, I can say I am now tending a garden of growing relational abundance and moving toward the intention I've set for this year which is to nurture deeper roots. To honor this shift from burnout to abundance and depth, I will be taking time away from my work at ADC Consulting to rest and acknowledge the new cycle of beginnings taking root.
In just a few days, my dad and I will set out to complete a lifelong dream of his, walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain, a celebration of his 70th birthday and in many ways a reclaiming of freedom for our family. After a lifetime shaped by the forced displacement of this country's immigration policies, we get to define what freedom looks like on our own terms. I am following him into the mountains, as I always have. He is the hiker I take after and one of the people who first put the mountains in my heart.
It will also be my first time in Europe, where I will also finally get to visit France, a place that has a special place in my heart because of my beloved Haitian French teacher, Madame Humphrey. Madame Humphrey, like the many Black women educators of my childhood, saved me at a time of my life when I felt incredibly lost. She taught me to hold with pride the accent of my mother tongue when I attempted to learn English and to one day tell her when I made it to Paris. Wherever you might be today, Madame Humphrey, may this message find you— I followed your footsteps to Paris. Thank you for showing me to honor myself.
While I am away for five weeks, the ADC Consulting team will continue the good work we’ve started this year and support all of our existing projects and clients. I feel incredibly grateful for this network of partners and professionals who build alongside me, making it possible for our clients' work to continue while I spend this special and meaningful time with my dad. If you haven’t had a chance to meet the team I get to do this work with, head to the ADC Consulting Website. Beyond our collective work, they are each building a new world in their own spheres. Angela, Augustine, Candace, Carrie, David, Jada, Leo, Maleni, Precious, Susana, and Vicki— thank you!
To all of my clients and colleagues over the past three years, I could not have reached this place without your patience, trust, and support as I have navigated new ways of showing up as a collaborator and partner. The grace you have extended (especially when I didn’t get it right) has been an essential part of shifting how I work and the conditions in which I do so, allowing me to grow both personally and in the evolution of ADC Consulting toward a more symbiotic way of being. There is still much to learn and change, and I would not be where I am without you.
I’m excited to share more reflections and insights with you upon my arrival back from Europe— It is not lost on me that I am both enjoying the harvest of a carefully and at times painfully tended garden, whilst visiting the place of origin of my colonizers. More on that when I return. Until then, enjoy some pictures of me and my dad before we embark on our adventure!
