UMBRAL. (noun) UM-bruhl
A twilight threshold
activated by convergence offering a transitional passage opening previously inaccessible ways of being and doing activated by paradox
Welcome to the threshold.
This is not a brand. It’s a breathing inquiry.
This page is a place where I introduce myself through a path I’m still walking—what I’ve come to think of as the Umbral Project, a living inquiry into how we grow at the edge of the known.
Umbral refers to a twilight threshold, a liminal passage activated by convergence, paradox, and pause. It’s where I live. It’s how I learn. It’s how I support others to grow, too.
I work at the intersections of collaboration, creativity, and transformation. But more than that, I’m a co-learner in the practice of lingering—of breathing with the fertile tension where clarity hasn’t yet arrived, and surprising capacities begin to unfold.
As a consultant and coach?
I accompany leaders and collectives navigating complexity. Through listening circles, values-rooted protocols, and transformational design, I support groups to co-create the conditions for restoring damaged ecosystems—not just externally, but relationally.
A colleague once described my approach as “healing strategic”—a way of sensing the relational wounds beneath systemic stuckness, and designing with care from that place. I carry this phrase with humility. It speaks to a practice of mending as much as planning, and of acknowledging past harm while visioning what’s next.
As a creative
I conjure visual invitations. My visual art and storytelling disrupts habitual seeing, making space for what has been buried, denied, or overlooked to emerge. These pieces are not answers. They are provocations—thresholds of their own.
The Umbral Project is not just what I do. It’s where I live; it’s how I learn. It’s how I support others to grow too.
If you are a transformational conservationist, land steward, educator, an organizational leader, or a pattern-breaking creative—perhaps you, too, have been called to the edge of what used to work. Welcome. You don’t need to know what comes next. You just need to feel the shimmer of twilight.
Let’s linger here, together.
Annabelle Berrios
Steward of the Umbral Project
Creative, Facilitator, Relational Strategist
My life is shaped by paradoxical connections
My Story
Mangles—mangroves—hold a special place in my heart, but it wasn’t always like this. The strong smell of mangrove mud, created by a mix of ocean and river sediments, used to make me uneasy. I learned to appreciate it when I realized that the slippery mud provides the perfect conditions for mangroves to grow. It made me reflect on vulnerability as an aspect of strength.
The word “mangle” comes from the Taíno indigenous language and is now part of the Boricua Spanish spoken in Puerto Rico. In the island’s mangrove forests, various species of reptiles, mammals, insects, birds, and fish converge to help protect the coast.
Like the mangroves, which grow where fresh and saltwater meet, my life is shaped by paradoxical connections. Puerto Rico, my birthplace, sits in a unique area between two tectonic plates moving in opposite directions: the North American plate shifting west and the northeastern part of the Caribbean plate moving east. The main island is just 75 miles south of the Puerto Rico Trench, the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean, where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Caribbean Sea. In Puerto Rican culture, influences from Taíno, African, and Spanish traditions mix and blend. My body carries a memory of this history.
Like the mangroves, I am drawn to coastlines and estuaries where diverse species converge. I have chosen to live in cities where different religions, cultures, ethnicities, languages, and ideas come together. These vibrant communities have helped me broaden my perspective and learn from different experiences, enhancing my approach to collaboration. I’ve learned that to be my best self in these encounters and build trust with others, I must also remember my roots and what I stand for.
These are the roots I keep returning to:
Interdependence & Reciprocity: Understanding that my well-being is connected to yours, and that both of us are linked to nature.
Humility: This comes from the Latin word “humus,” meaning earth or ground. It represents a grounded quality that allows me to recognize strengths while also acknowledging growth areas. I also see humility as being in tune with the right timing and opportunities.
Creativity: The spark of imagination that opens up new possibilities.
Joy: The ability to enjoy and appreciate life.
These values help me navigate the convergence zones of life—muddy, messy, fertile. They remind me that transformation doesn’t happen on clean, dry land, but in the estuaries, in the thresholds, in the Umbral.
We do not create the future alone – we tend it collectively.
In weaving context and possibility, both presence and place are changed.
Co-Creating Emergence
Leadership Consulting and Coaching
In my consulting work, I walk alongside individuals, collectives, and organizations navigating the liminal zones between what was and what could be. These are often muddy, uncertain terrains—like estuaries of transformation—where no clear path exists… yet.
Rather than offering prefab solutions, I help co-create the conditions for emergence. My focus is on:
- Designing and facilitating listening spaces that make room for complexity, nuance, and relational repair.
- Co-developing values-based protocols that nurture trust, clarity, and shared purpose across diverse stakeholders.
- Restoring socio-ecological systems, not only through strategy, but through collective sensemaking, story, and reciprocity.
This work is rooted in what a colleague once named “healing strategic”—bridging relational repair with systemic change, grounding strategy in the wisdom of what hurts, what hopes, and what still might be possible. Whether you are stwearding land, holding space for transformation in an organization, or cultivating new relational ecosystems, I offer companionship, clarity, and co-design rooted in interdependence.
I often work with collaborators whose approaches are different but complementary. Rather than seeking sameness, we attune to our shared values so they can steer the ship. Together, we hold space for generative tension, allowing our differences to become a source of strength, not separation.
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
—Marcel Proust
Reimagining Place, Perception, and Relationship
My creative work invites new ways of seeing—and being in relationship—with the places we inhabit and the stories we carry. Through visual art, writing, and generative experiences, I invite a shift in perception that opens space for deeper belonging, solidarity, and interconnection.
This strand of the Umbral Project lives in liminal spaces where inquiry meets imagination, where creative practice becomes a form of relational re-mapping.
You’ll find glimpses of this journey in:
- TerraSpirit Maps, the Substack where I share stories, reflections, and artwork at the intersections of self, land, and relational possibility.
- My chapter “Alternative Mapping: Tracking Solidarity to Sacred Sites” in the book Terrapsychology: Further Inquiry Into Self, Place and Planet
This work is not about offering answers. It’s about opening thresholds—between you and the land, between memory and movement, between perception and possibility.
“We stand alone but we are never alone.”
Dr. Monica Sharma, author of Radical Transformational Leadership