We often perceive life in chapters, where each page holds a story, an emotion, and ultimately a lesson. It’s a phrase often heard or thrown around. The advice to "just let it go" echoes frequently, yet its depth often eludes comprehension…. But in reality, my experience has been, that letting go is less of a grand unveiling and more of a gradual metamorphosis.
Read MoreBY CHELSEA BURNS in Dialogue with GAYLE NADLER
In 2001, FWX Alumna Gayle Nadler and her mother, Toby Bornstein started an innovative school to provide a more inclusive, diverse and cultured option for education in Southern California. Fast forward 20+ years and the Multicultural Learning Center (MLC) serves over 500 students annually, providing bi-literacy, social emotional wellness, family and community engagement, global competency and social justice as well as core curriculum to students in grades TK-8.
Read Moreby PATRICIA BECKER
In March of this year, I embarked on an incredible journey to Surinam after a hiatus of 44 years, reconnecting with cherished moments from the past and discovering new chapters of our family history. I was fortunate to be accompanied by my 85-year-old mother, my loving wife, my younger brother, and my sister-in-law, turning the trip into an awe-inspiring exploration of our roots.
Read Moreby VICTORIA FOSTER
My birthday was this week - Monday, June 19th, JUNETEENTH. This year, I spent a lot of time reflecting on what it means to share a birthday with such an important historical event and an official national holiday in the U.S. My first feelings - honored, humbled and accountable. “No one is free until we are all free” are the words that reverberate in my soul. Can we be truly “successful” if those around us are not able to live into themselves?
Read MoreI believe I was born with resiliency. Growing up with a mother who had been manic depressive since my teenage years, I developed the ability to detect bad situations from a distance. This skill gave me the capability to bounce back quickly when things went south. This challenging environment also allowed me to see what wasn't there in the present, enabling me to sense and read energy in various ways. This ability has helped me survive difficult situations.
However, I made a significant mistake in my career — an ego glitch — that took me three years to recover from.
BY SABINE VAN EGERAAT
I’ve always had a passion for learning & development, from the first training company I founded in 2002 to the AI infused learning platform that we have developed in the past years. Developing content that is AI infused is a journey, to say the least. But it also brings us a lot of new insights. We need women in technology - their input is crucial for successful programs and products. And I believe that women can thrive in this space when given the right opportunities and guidance.
by Kat Egan
Yesterday evening I sat down at a picnic table with friends outside around sunset, the low, warm setting sun hitting my face. I started to feel emotional and suddenly started to cry for the first time in recent memory. Something I didn’t even know I was holding onto was beginning to break apart and soften. Can we really feel this way? Can we breathe in fresh air deeply? Can we actually feel the sun and the joy of a loose and organic connectivity with friends? “I was always here” the early spring evening reminded me.
Read MoreBy Victoria Foster in dialogue with Múkami Kinoti Kimotho
That phrase is the call to action for Royelles, a game based learning company, that Múkami founded to empower 1 million+ Girls and non-binary individuals to boldly architect their destinies and take their rightful place as trailblazers, ceiling-smashers and disruptors in STEAM lifepaths. It was sparked by a series of conversations and experiences between Múkami and her daughter Zara - for whom Múkami wanted to offer hope and a window into the possibilities that exist for her as a young, black girl in the US. But its roots go much deeper.
Read Moreby emilie boggis
Self-love is a choice. You’ve got to disrupt that inner critic and choose to believe a new voice that says, “You are beloved, just as you are.” bell hooks reminds us that that is where our power lies. In this month of hearts and valentines that can too often leave us feeling like we are the only ones unworthy of love, let us reclaim a Love ~ Self-Love ~ that will not let us go.
Read Moreby your FWX Team
As FutureMakers, one of our first and greatest tasks is to address the poverty of imagination, to democratize imagination and to continue to expand our capacity to imagine - for ourselves, our work, our world. Our opportunity is to cultivate consciousness around our imagination and build capabilities that make imagination part of our daily practice.
Read MoreI ended 2022 with a message to you that our work is so resonant to our souls, yet often counter to dominant culture. Those of us in the Northern hemisphere are still very much in the darkness of deep winter (and for those in the Southern Hemisphere it is deep summer). This is not the seed planting season. This is not the time to commit to lofty (and often shallow) new year's resolutions based on the premise that we need to do something to be enough, or to use our will power to drive us forward because we always need to operate on one speed - GO - in service of the more, more, more paradigm. I want to offer an alternative way forward that starts with a posture of enoughness.
Read MoreBy Victoria Foster (on behalf of the global FWX team)
As the year comes to a close, we want to ACKNOWLEDGE YOU. We also want to THANK YOU. Lastly, we want to GIFT YOU.
This journey of ongoing transformation and becoming, which we are on together, is not for the faint of heart. Nor is it something that you can will on yourself, predict or control. There is no easy roadmap and there is no end. This work transcends a specific finish line or getting to the top—it is a way of living and leading in and with the world. It is our collective rallying cry for permission and opportunities to be whole. While deeply fulfilling and resonant, it is counter to our mainstream culture and is H-A-R-D work.
I was sent to the principal’s office for calling myself a “bitch” in a student blog my junior year of high school. I remember the principal reading aloud the three-paragraph blog I had submitted at the request of my English III teacher – a brief synopsis of what high school was like for me. I cringed in my head at a couple rough sections as he read through each sentence wishing I would have reworked them a bit more before calling it a final draft, but overall, I was pleased with the final production. He, on the other hand, was not amused. How could I have such a negative perception of my time in high school? The best years of my life? How could I assume my classmates didn’t like me? Why would I refer to myself as a “bitch” publicly?
Read MoreBy Meryl Marshall-Daniels
IT WAS 1968. I was 18 years old when a UCLA gynecologist told me that I was pregnant. When I started to cry and said I couldn’t go through with it, she was kind, yet clear and measured in her words. “I cannot help you. If you take any action to terminate this pregnancy you must come back to me as your life and your ability to have children may be endangered. If you come back, you need to understand that I will be required to report any action you have taken if it has occurred within the United States. Do you understand me?” She held my face in her hands and looked into my eyes and repeated, “Do you understand me? I am here to help you and the law and the hospital policy is clear about what I must do.”
Read MoreBy Jacqueline Borsboom
When I was asked this somewhat challenging question at a recent FWX PORTUGAL RETREAT I quoted to my tribe: “A LIFE LIVED IN FEAR, IS A LIFE HALF LIVED”, a proverb used in Baz Luhrmann’s 1992 Australian classic Strictly Ballroom. This became my life’s motto two years after the death of my eight-year old sister who had been battling a brain tumour since she was two years old. When she passed, I was 15 and scared, but after two years of darkness, I decided IT WAS TIME TO RE-JOIN LIFE.
By Johanna Spiller
Time. I am always behind, always chasing the 15 minutes that I lost somehow and can't get back. 'Sorry for being late' is trending in 2022 in my life. While I wish so much it would be 'I have nowhere else to be today than being here with you.' Time used to flow in my perception. Now it is boxed in 30-minute slots and I micromanage any second of that to stay on top of what I feel needs to be done asap, yesterday, EOD. I have to-do lists that are to-dos on other to-do lists. I don't have the feeling of accomplishment at the end of a day anymore.
By Jillian Pieplenbosch
I started 2022 as I always have, as myself. As someone eager to learn, develop, work and then work hard. Living on and for the high expectations I have for myself, I juggle and maneuver through and towards the goals I set. Oh, I can be so very strict and unforgiving with myself. I am a businesswoman. I graduated in fine arts, and now I work in childcare in our family business: Hestia Childcare.
Read MoreBy Cameron Trimble
The news out of the Supreme Court this week has been shocking for many of us. It shouldn’t have been. We knew that with a conservative majority in the Supreme Court, many of the civil rights won over the past 50 years could be in jeopardy. But still, to see the brazen attack on women’s rights while at the same time laying the foundation to revoke the rights of other minority groups was breathtaking.D rest. The pieces of ourselves that we sacrificed for so long in the name of career advancement suddenly could be honored. Many of us are not “going back.” We are ready to create a new future for work.
Read Moreby Marlies van de Pas
We are fortunate in the Netherlands to live in a democracy where every vote counts. We are free to vote for whomever we want. ELECTIONS ARE CLOSE TO MY HEART. It is great to be able to contribute to something that forms the basis for our democracy and for how things are arranged in our society. Whether that is national or local. An election is one of the moments where you can let people know what you think is important and who should represent you. Whether you are happy with how things are, or if you think that things should be done differently.
by Rev. Dr. Ginny Brown Daniel
It seems the world is all a twitter with Elon Musk’s Twitter tirade. Will he or won’t he buy the social media behemoth? Is this morally good or bad? Is he an advocate for free speech or just the richest man in the world able to flex his powerful thumbs to have his global say once again? Frankly, I’ve given way more type space to his power-hungry crusades than I care to give to a rich, white American man of privilege.
