contributed photo
One of the exercises in CLP is about identifying and clarifying our personal values. We each identify our top five values, writing one each on five index cards. Then we have to drop one, and another… until we are left holding the card with our number one, top value. What is your current One right now and why?
Balance. When I am coming from a place of balance and wholeness, it is possible to open to the light in myself and also be present to the light in others. By pausing and taking a few breaths to regain my balance, my equanimity, I have the opportunity to listen to my inner teacher and follow my gifts and deeper wisdom.
Once I have taken the time to do this for myself, I am much more likely to be able to listen for the inner wisdom in others, whether they are my colleagues, students, friends, or members of my family.
What is one big, burning leadership question you are wrestling with these days?
How do I maintain resilience while I am attempting to stay in a place of equanimity in the midst of conflict, when it feels like others are not listening for the light in themselves or me? Can I find forgiveness and humor rather than give in to frustration and anger?
If I am teaching, these are the moments when it is especially important to pause and really listen. At the Peabody Museum my students are adults; we work on field sketching and nature journaling. Because I am teaching on Zoom due to the pandemic, I can’t see their body language like I could in-person.
But I can listen with the ear of the heart. These are the times when I emphasize the importance of exploration and discovery, being gentle with oneself, working quickly, and focusing on the process rather than the product for observational drawing. They do a lot of drawing during the week and then bring drawings to class and hold them up to share in Zoom’s gallery view. One student said, “I am moved by seeing my fellow students transition from a reserved sharing in our first class to an excited exchange at the last.” I was happy to heart-hear that that meant they were letting go of at least some of their internal conflict or judgement, shame, perfectionism, and were leaning instead into connection and authentic sharing.
What inspires you, gives you hope these days?
Witnessing the courage and resilience in others, especially the energy and hope I see in young people.
When students are able to get beyond the judgmental voices in their heads as they take walks with a sketchbook in their neighborhoods, they are amazed by all the things they are observing: “I never noticed those little flowers before,” or “I saw a squirrel taking a nap in a tree when I looked out the window, so I sketched it!”
This work of transformational change is hard. Stepping in, stepping up, over time, can be draining – physically, intellectually, emotionally, psychically, spiritually. How do you recharge, restore, take care of yourself, rekindle your fire?
I’ve learned lots of ways over the years. The first that comes to mind is meditation practice, both alone and with others – it’s essential for me.
I also recharge by spending time with trusted friends. It is a treat to get together for meals and/or walks when we can have relaxed conversations.
Sleeping, eating healthy food, and exercise – yoga-stretching and walking – are essential for me. Sometimes a short cat nap works wonders!
I slow down so I can notice the beauty in nature as the seasons change. This time of year in particular, for me, is a treat as I take walks with my own sketchbooks and journals. I turn to the arts a lot.
Which arts do you turn to, in what ways?
I draw, write, listen to music, read poetry, discover new children’s books.
I use conte crayons, pencils, and watercolors. I bring acorns, seedpods, and unusual leaves home to draw and paint. I have a separate journal for writing, where I write notes from nature observations that may involve things I want to look up, miscellaneous thoughts and ideas, and the names of books I may want to read.
I listen to classical music, as I played the violin when I was growing up. I also enjoy folk music. I read poetry and enjoy discovering new children’s books. It is fun to wander in RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison and Breakwater Books in Guilford.
Introduce us to someone you are/were close with personally (e.g., family, teacher, friend, mentor), who shaped (or shapes) you and how you view leadership and possibility for a better community/world?
Odette and Bert Meyers. They were both college professors; a married couple with two children. They often ate dinner in the college dining hall, as Odette was also studying – she was working on her PhD in French Literature at that time.
This was when I was a young college student, and I can see now how transformative it was. Bert was a poet and poetry teacher; he was my main mentor as an art major. Odette was my teacher and friend. She saw the light in me and encouraged me to nurture it. She even said that I had a responsibility to use and share the gifts I had been given – it was the first time someone had specifically told me that.
They definitely shaped my view of leadership and possibility for a better community and world and my own role in it; I became close friends with the whole family.
Odette had an unusual childhood. At the age of 10 she and her mom were hidden in the upstairs closet of the concierge in Paris when the Germans came through, as they were Jewish, and her mom was in the French Resistance. Her father had already been captured as a prisoner of war. She had to move to a French village in the country and pretend that she was Catholic.
Reflecting about Odette reminds me of a young man named Jay O’Hara who visited our Quaker Meeting a few years ago. We were going around the table after supper talking about our “leadings” or “callings.” When it was my turn to talk, I was feeling a bit shy and shared that I wasn’t sure that what I was about to describe was a leading or calling.
I described an incident from the class I had just taught that day where I was moved by how a student had opened up to the beauty in the flower she was drawing. Jay turned to me and said, “Who are you to say that the kind of teaching you just described is not your gift?” He had his hand on my shoulder and there was an intensity in his eyes.
The memory of this gives me courage when I am feeling tired and/or doubtful. Sometimes our gifts are in small, authentic connections with others. I have since heard scientists say that we need all the artists and poets to remind us to feel what we will lose when we are looking at environmental challenges such as extinction and climate change.
What do you recommend to us, in each of these categories:
- Reading – Braiding Sweet Grass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and Sabbath Poems by Wendell Berry.
- Listening – All different kinds of music, particularly classical and folk. Yo-Yo Ma playing Bach on the cello is not to be missed. Podcasts – The Growing Edge and On Being.
- Eating – Fresh, tree-ripened peaches with vanilla ice cream.
- Watching – The Last Out, a documentary film about Cuban immigrants. My son is the Director of Photography!
- Laughing – A children’s book called Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake, illustrated by Jon Klassen.
- Wild Card – Constable’s small oil paintings of clouds at the Yale Center for British Art, and Plant Drawings by Ellsworth Kelly.
Learn more about Linda’s art classes rooted in nature, at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History
Get in touch with Linda directly: lindaamiller@snet.net
Hi Linda,
We hope this finds you and your loved ones safe and well.
I read your contriburion to the CLP and it was lovely.
I particularly liked your recommendations.
It would be nice to get together sometime.
Jerry and Roberta