A Note From Our Outgoing Executive Director
Dear friends,
After serving as Groundwork’s executive director since 2018, I’m stepping out of that role in order to create space in my life for other pursuits. I am looking forward to having time for some small sabbaticals, retreats at Buddhist monasteries, and time to devote to writing, media production, curriculum design, and weaving. You’ll continue to see my name on Groundwork’s emails—I’m moving into a part-time role with Groundwork as Communications & Publications Manager.
Seeing Groundwork through the first seven years of growth and experimentation has been a dream come true in so many ways. I believe that real change in our world doesn’t come from an organization or a program—it comes from people willing to leave behind the comfort and power that being a part of an industrial capitalist society affords them. It means choosing to live and relate differently to the broader living world. It means allowing your life to be shaped by the rhythms of the seasons, to re-orient the story of your life to align with the story of seeds, of soil, of rain and watersheds. Rather than people writing their own story onto the world, our world needs people who want our lives to be written by places we call home.
Groundwork’s effect on the world is best seen in how the people involved aspire to live their lives. When I travel with people who are part of this community, there’s always time to stop and harvest a particularly fine patch of willows and pick mushrooms. People always show up with food that we’ve harvested ourselves, offering something extra to the broader community. There are always extra baskets full of fruit gleaned from the unharvested suburbs, acorns collected from the foothills, dandelion greens from a city park, squash from the farm, roadkill elk burgers picked up on a cold midwinter night. We plan our years around planting dates for corn and harvest dates for pine nuts.
I believe in the work that Groundwork does because, for seven years, it’s always been about creating spaces where more regenerative relationships with the world might sprout. It’s a long road to divest ourselves from the pull of consumerism, industrialism, and capitalism. Our work at Groundwork is one small attempt, but I believe there is power in that. The winds are picking up in our stormy world, and our little collective invites people into a grove of trees where, out of the wind, you’re invited to picnic on handwoven blankets. And if you look around, you may just see there are peaches and apricots hanging on the branches all around you. It’s my hope that everybody who visits will carry some of those fruit seeds with them to plant more trees. We’re going to need them.
In my new role with Groundwork, I’m excited to return to writing and to continue the work that started the organization: creating materials that ask uncommon questions of our modern world. If you’d like to see the types of ideas I’m hoping to work with, check out our Bite-Sized Books that helped launch the organization. You’ll be hearing from me soon—you may have noticed that our Winnowing Tray publication didn’t come out last month. Through the leadership transition, it’s been delayed until the summer solstice, but still forthcoming. We’ll be exploring topics of capitalism, consumerism, and the cultural shifts needed to create a livable and just future. Thanks for your support over the last seven years—I’m looking forward to sharing more writing soon.
With gratitude,
Jeff Wagner