Cecelia is a social worker, a fundraiser, a mystical priest, a teacher, a coach, a guide, a mentor and mentee, a writer, a reader, a global citizen, a community member and nurturer, a co-liberation seeker, a natural world-lover, a musician, a photographer, a gardener, a wife, an auntie, a sister, and more.

She uses this framing as a way of introduction to who she is, because she’s interested in, knowledgeable about, and skilled in a wide range of things. And she aims to bring all of her varied experiences to every aspect of her work.

We’ve grown accustomed to fractionalization in every area of our lives — and inevitably, that translates to our inner selves too.

We’ve grown to normalize being one person in one setting… and another person in another setting.

We’ve been taught that we’re not supposed to bring our whole selves into certain scenarios — most especially ones that we’ve dubbed “professional.”

This should change.

This is not healthy for us as human beings.

We are made to be whole.

So Cecelia models bringing her whole self wherever she goes, and she asks you to do the same.

She started her adulthood living within two monasteries, while studying for and earning her Bachelor’s degree in English.

After that experience, she moved into one intentional community, followed by another… and soon, she had moved into what was essentially an ashram, where she dedicated her days to study and growth within the inner mystical spiritual path.

She has often joked that she has “monastic tendencies,” and those tendencies continue to this day.

She was eventually ordained as a mystical priest, while also in the process of attending graduate school to become a social worker… and earning her MSW.

Soon, she found herself engaged in lots of nonprofit-based work, as many social workers do. And she began to realize just how important the funding for the work was. Without that, nothing else was possible.

Her wheels got turning: she had studied writing and communication quite extensively, and she was interested in these things she was hearing about, something called “grants.”

What if she learned how to write grant proposals?

She then set out to learn how to do just that, by working alongside and learning from a life-changing mentor.

She soon moved into practicing all the other elements of nonprofit fundraising and development, as well (from working with boards, to PR, communications, and marketing, to event-planning, to building relationships with donors, to writing fundraising appeals).

Before long, she started becoming uncomfortable.

Things felt weird.

Perhaps because of both her spiritual and social work training, or even simply because she was especially in touch with her own humanity, she often noticed how much various gnarly societal dynamics — related to race, class, gender, and more — were creating lots of opportunity for dissonance, extra stress, and unique pressures.

Not fun.

Not life-giving.

Not very loving, that’s for sure.

She’s now been working in this field of philanthropy for more than a decade-and-a-half. And she’s been working to change the unhealthy realities and systems within philanthropy for most of that time.

But changing entrenched realities and systems is hard.

We all know this.

Change of any kind is hard for us humans.

True change often seems unreachable.

So.

Instead of struggling against what is anymore, she is focused on planting new seeds.

And she asks you to join her in helping them grow.

Let’s stop trying to change what is.

Let’s grow something new.

Together.

Banner Photo by Daniel Hjalmarsson on Unsplash