A Message for Young Change Agents
From Our Founder Gretchen Steidle
Given at the YWA Graduation, July 2023
I was 29 years old when I started Global Grassroots. Twenty-eight when I went in search of how I could help. I got a lot wrong, and learned a lot in the process. And I hope you might agree, found an amazing community of people willing to help me manifest a vision of how we could do work in the world in an honorable way. Now you have stepped into this realm of what we call Conscious Social Change – even earlier than I – and there is a whole life ahead of you where you can use your wisdom and lived experience to be of benefit to the greater good. To take with you, may I also offer you some of the lessons I have learned from my experience with this work and what I hope to inspire in you?
You can.
You have value.
Your ideas have value.
You have wisdom that is of benefit to others, and acting on that wisdom models for others – especially the young girls that follow you – that their lives and thoughts matter too.
Never stop dreaming. Without dreams, we do not have hope that there could be positive change in the world.
Find what gifts you possess – the unique, the daring, the different. The knowing, the ways of being, the passions. Recognize that these gifts were meant not just for you, but for the rest of us. You have a responsibility to continue to listen to them and to cultivate them and then to use them for our collective wellbeing.
Know that even when you have experiences that others call failure or challenges that feel monumental, the universe is simply giving you information and an invitation. Go deeper into your heart and explore whether you are called to persevere. Whether there is something to learn. Something to change. What is next? This is where you are cultivating lived experience and the opportunity to move deeper with clarity into your values.
Always stay open to learning. It is a life-long pursuit. We never really graduate from life until the end.
Always listen. That you have learned to listen to your body will always serve you to know what you need. That you have learned to listen to your heart will always serve you to know your highest path. That you have learned to watch your mind, will help you discern truth as a guide. But do not let your mind overshadow your heart or body. They are partners.
When you do not know what is next, what is happening, what is true, or what is needed – take a breath. Take another. Lean into the breath and trust what is arising for you.
What you are seeking in the world is already seeking you.
Have compassion for those suffering around you, but always include yourself too.
Be fierce. Sometimes you may be the only one fighting for something. Imagine what it might feel like to have only one other person fighting for you and how important that role might be.
Gratitude will keep you humble. From this spirit, never be afraid to ask for help, and always be willing to offer the same to others.
Never betray your values and integrity. Sometimes that is all we have to survive and to guide.
Never stop dancing, creating, and embracing joy. Sprinkle magic wherever you go. The world is beautiful even if there is great suffering. We need the fuel of unhindered delight to allow us to hold steady during deepest challenges.
Your wellbeing is essential.
Be a seeker. Leave no part of yourself unknown.
Rumi says, “The wound is the place where the light enters you.” I say that sometimes the wound is where we crack open our layers of conditioned defenses so that our essential selves can shine out from underneath. Be an advocate for that truest self. Do the inner work that will continue to peel away the layers that obstruct its flourishing.
American activist Adrienne Maree Brown says:
Do you already know that your existence--who and how you are--is in and of itself a contribution to the people and place around you? Not after or because you do some particular thing, but simply the miracle of your life
20. Know that you are already enough.
21. Know that you are powerful.
22. Know that you have already made this world better.
I wish you courage, joy and love on your journey ahead. I am proud of you. You are conscious change agents. And I am deeply encouraged that this world has you among us.