Reflections on Change

Reflection is a key practice at Tatua Kenya. It has for a long time provided a free space to share as well as invite others to create the sacred community that we want to see. One filled with enough grace to offer/ ask for help when we fail and cannot do it on our own. One where our value is not dictated solely on society’s norms but by the intrinsic value that each one of us has. One where we are allowed to be vulnerable for from it, we gather strength. For the past week we have been reflecting on transformation through change. This is what Rose Chege (Learning and Content Manager)shared……

“All of us experience change in our lives.

Change is the one constant in our lives.

There are changes that we look forward to and change that we fear.

However, one thing is for sure.

Things will not stay the same no matter how much we would like them to.

The Importance of Reflection

Natalie Finstad, Executive Director and Co-Founder

As I sit down to write this blog I’m noticing that it’s been over a week since we’ve written and months since I’ve written a post. I can easily chalk that up to being busy or Tatua doing so many amazing things – both true – yet not good enough excuses.

Over the last three years as we have been forming Tatua so much has changed. Our work has touched over 2,000 Kenyans, we have trained over 200 folks in community organising and there are initiatives running in Kenya that are a direct result of Tatua. More so, I have changed, I see poverty differently, I believe more in the community, I’ve come to trust people more and learned (through experience) that collaboration really is better.

None of these changes happened over night, they have been the result of living life with others … day in and day out. One of my best friends, Isabel is an inspiring writer about personal change. Recently, she and I were discussing how change happens and I related to personal change to the physical morphing of a mountain. There are two ways to alter a mountain, one by blowing it up from the inside out and two, the gentle long-term process of erosion … both leave you with a new rock-form but the process by which it was achieved is completely different.

Working with Tatua over the last three years in Kenya has been much more like the erosion – I haven’t changed over night, nor Kenya, but neither one of us are the same. This slow change can often slip by quietly and go uncelebrated. I don’t want to let that happen. I want to celebrate growth, celebrate change and to do that, I’m committing to writing to y’all more about what’s happening because in doing so, I see the change.

I imagine you have something you could be writing about too … and I encourage you to join in and reflect on the gentle process of erosion happening in your lives.