A love letter to Changemakers Lab 2022

This final assignment of Changemakers Lab 2022 has me nostalgic as I look back not only at my work through our time together, but my journey with World Pulse as well. It’s strange to think that I joined World Pulse only at the end of October, 2021. It has changed my life and brought so much color and vitality to my work and my relationships.

A few months after I got on this platform with its unique Encourager badge that brings such depth to writer-reader relationships, my story ‘the miscarriage mystique’ was selected for the Story Awards. A few months after that, I was featured as one of the top 50 rising Storytellers at World Pulse. This encouragement and celebration of my potential and skills profoundly changed my relationship with myself.

I was able to borrow the enthusiasm and encouragement of near-strangers-turned-friends to reflect on what I had to offer to the world through my writing, facilitation and art. When Changemakers Lab announced that I would be part of the cohort in June 2022, I was facing one of the most challenging moments of my life - my second miscarriage. With that second “failure” at pregnancy, I finally permitted myself to look past the world’s expectations for me as a woman (potential mother) and see what I would like for myself, what I could contribute to the world as a person and not a breeder. 

Right there with me, as I underwent this massive change in purpose and philosophy, was Changemakers Lab, to hold my hand in community as I unfurled from my pain into a sense of service, passion and presence. I had an idea, inspired by the flight of the starlings, to create a murmuration of social change through intimate relationships cultivated in safe spaces based on affinity, guidelines, agreements and non-hierarchical flows of power. 

This fledgeling idea, nurtured within the encouraging care of my cohort and capable mentoring of my facilitators, bloomed into a pilot. Hesitantly at first, I stepped into the idea with the support of chosen family, a small incubator of four people, who I trust unhesitatingly. As sessions with them continued across half a year and I could see the group bringing tangible value to their lives, I felt stronger. 

With this incredible support system, I invited my first pilot cohort with almost strangers. My buddy from Changemakers Lab fearlessly became my first participant for this pilot experiment, and has been a pillar for me to lean on - we were both strangers and deeply connected when we started our work together, and I am certain that our relationship will continue to grow in unprecedented and interesting ways as our work comes together.

Changemakers Lab wove beautifully and seamlessly through my work, sometimes offering wisdom in magical ways exactly at the times that I needed guidance on topics that were surfacing on my journey. My first update for module 1 impacted one person - me. I wrote about navigating my purpose and why the work was important to me. Through looking at SMART goals (and the HATCH model), building the compass of my purpose and thinking about my Impact in advance, I was well-placed to move towards where I wanted to me. 

In the second module, the question of power gave me hope as I waded through questions of self-worth. I was struggling in that month, and was able to openly write about suicidal ideation, taking back power, and ideating with community to support ourselves and each other in my article ‘What is one life?’.

The third module invited the creation of a video elevator pitch. I felt uplifted to meet the challenge because of loving and supportive community - and the resulting video about tending the flame  was met with love from the World Pulse community. Each step gave me so much confidence to keep walking, keep moving forward with my work.

In the fourth module, I looked back at all that had moved through the worksheets we had received through the lab - and like I mentioned in my update ‘Reflections on the journey so far’, it was so much easier to look back than to look ahead. One of my great learnings through the lab has been that it is important to have a spirit of curiousity and adventure at a new beginning, and confidence, resilience and reflection as the work moves ahead.

The fifth module shone light on reframing my doubts into resilience with the question ‘how can you make yourself sustainable?’ The process of what I did as part of that framework marks most of that article, along with the documentation of my movement in aligning the different areas of my work as a polymath with a renaissance approach to life.

That brings us neatly to this final update for the sixth module, a wonderful summary to organize all that has taken place through the past months of Changemakers lab. This summary, however, would be impossible without a few words about the lab itself.

Having been part of multiple programs, I cannot say how much Changemakers Lab feels like home. The warm and personalized approach towards each person’s project, background and identity in terms of fluid deadlines and multiple avenues of conversation cannot have been easy to manage, but the facilitators made it look so simple. They are fierce protectors and loyal cheerleaders, the very best of humanity spearheading this beautiful, informative yet intimate program. 

Ana, Kirthi and Dawn - the gratitude in my heart for them is beyond articulation. I formed a unique bond with each of them - what a powerful thing to be able to say about facilitators managing a cohort with over fifty participants! Imagine the dedication, patience, planning, generosity and presence that came from each of them to be able to achieve such a feat.

By this time, my article is looking like a love letter, and I suppose it is - in the truest sense of the form. It is an expression of love that I feel towards Changemaker’s Lab. I am remembering all the one-on-one conversations, the collaborations of dance, music and intentions, the relationships formed that have inevitably changed my life forever. I am so grateful to this space that definitively changed the course of my life by appearing on the crossroads at just the right time and directing me towards my path - with complete and utter confidence that I could be the person to shape my own journey.

Thank you, my cohort. Thank you, my facilitators. Thank you, Changemaker’s Lab 2022 - I feel so lucky to have found this perfect recipe in which to cook my offerings. I humbly offer that my website is almost ready with all this goodness and I can’t wait to share with each of you all that has churned within me - keep an eye, it’s coming soon!

In the meantime, I will say thank you, I love you, and I can’t wait to meet you all in other forms of engagement. Until we meet again, take good care of you.