A core theme of Ebb & Haven is that we are always transitioning.

As the Ebb & Haven Community grows and our conversations deepen, curiosity keeps leading me back to reflection. I find myself sitting with questions that feel both personal and shared: what parts of ourselves are emerging as we move through transition? What enables us to flourish? And what, sometimes quietly, holds us back?

The end of year brings time to connect with our networks and reflect on the year that was. This year, these conversations have raised a deeper question for me and many others: What does it mean to lead when life and work collide?

Because they do collide. They disrupt, burst in, and refuse to stay neatly contained. Humanity doesn’t wait politely at the door while we pursue our careers. It pushes and prods. It makes calls you can’t ignore. It demands space. 

Our careers and our humanity belong together, but can they live in harmony? 

Perhaps the truth is this: our humanity is what might keep our careers aligned with our true north.

Change has a way of showing up on our doorstep, whether we asked for it or not. For women especially, those shifts often land in our bodies and our lives in ways that are layered, tender, and not always visible from the outside. I invite us to look at those moments differently. Not as something to brace against, but as something that can reshape us into who we’re becoming.

It all started with a conversation between two colleagues. We quickly saw a need to create a community for women leaders that wasn’t all about leadership development and wasn’t all about self-care. What if there was a space that recognized it all belongs in the same container? This was our “why” in starting Ebb & Haven Retreats.