photo by Erin Ladue

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?

Honor.

It’s fair to say that I’m in a period of transition, as an interim executive director, working full-time for the first time in this intense way since 2001 – though I’ve been on the board since 2019.

I’m honoring so many things in this moment of change. Starting with my self-care, as I’m working long hours. Honoring my writing practice, as I’m almost done with the first draft of my memoir. Really trying to maintain and honor that practice.

And honoring the legacy of the founders of the One Circle Foundation. This work is about honoring all the youth and adults who participate in the circles that we provide. Stepping into this role, for the short term that I’m there, is about accomplishing the strategic plan – so that the organization is still here 20 or 50 years more into the future.

I haven’t actually heard honor named here before.

It’s a lot to balance, but I think honor helps to give – not permission – priority to the things that are important in your life. And because they are a priority, I think they’re easier to integrate and keep at the forefront.

Anything I do, I really wake up with that purpose – what am I doing and why am I doing it? So honoring is a great way to step into all of those important parts of your life and show up.

I appreciate that frame; “honor” lands very different than one I typically think of, “respect” – of self, of others, and the natural world. Honor feels more elevated, somehow.

Yeah. You know, it’s all perspective too, as we step into this real creative part of our adult lives. To be able to see it from a higher vantage point, the scope of it, is very fulfilling to the soul.

What is one big, burning leadership question you are wrestling with these days?

It’s an urgent wish: I love the vision of a circle for every youth and adult in the world. My leadership challenge – or the question I struggle with recently in this new role – is how do we provide or make circles accessible to all youth and adults who need them? What’s the best way, what’s the most efficient way to do that, where people have an environment that is nurturing, accepting in many ways and meets you where you are so that you’re able to feel safe enough to have the conversations about the things that matter to you. A circle that will help you feel whole and able to honor – there’s that word again – your dreams and desires. To feel worthy, accepted and held in a way that you can move forward with confidence.

Amen. Do you want to say more about what “a circle” is for the Foundation?

It’s about developing healthy relationships, joining together in a small group. Facilitators deliver one of our four models: girls circle, a council for boys and young men, a unity circle, or a woman’s circle. Each of them is steeped in evidence-based principles and a strength-based approach, and uses motivational interviewing strategies that elicit thinking, feedback and participation.

What we do is provide training, curricula, and consultation to caring adults for them to become effective leaders of the programs in their communities.

I’m curious if you feel echoes of the circles in other parts of your life? We were in a CLP circle together in Cohort 10, there’s the larger CLP alum circle, your work at Together for Latinas, other areas?

Yes, including the circles of coincidences in our lives – how things come back all the time. And absolutely, the beautiful massive circles we had in CLP, yet it was so intimate. Some deep, deep work happened in my own CLP experience. Also, when I facilitated workshops for Together for Latinas, it was in circle format.

The circle has forever existed as a way to govern, as a way to connect, from centuries ago. It’s also the way we live life – we come back to things, whether it’s something emotional or meaningful in our lives, it resurfaces, comes back in ways that are least expected. They can be beautiful, or they can test us, but it’s an invitation to notice that it’s a circle, something that is inviting growth or reconnection.

What inspires you, gives you hope these days?

There’s a lot that gives me hope. Nature always gives me hope. This world has a way of healing, beautifying, in its own rustic and perfect way. I feel that way about our younger generation. Each generation brings something. This younger generation is fierce, in a very focused way. They seem wise – wiser than I think we could have expected. I don’t know that other generations have seen this. But this is something different.

Their deep understanding and connection to environment, for example. And it’s not just lip service. These young folks are mobilizing and really doing things, they’re intelligent, they’re caring, they’re empathic, they’re demanding what’s right, what they want.

I am in awe of that. I really wish I could turn back the clock and have that kind of permission. It’s a collective thing, I’m seeing this collective force of young people saying what’s wrong, and we’re going to do what’s right.

I completely agree.

I’m just in awe of them.

There’s a lot of bad news that comes at you – multiple times, in various ways – a day. Probably the same piece of news. But we don’t highlight the good news; no one talks about what’s happening behind the scenes. There’s a lot of investment – energy, science – into what we can do, including around climate change. There are a lot of folks that are putting a lot of money into improving our systems. People should know more about what is going on, to put it at the forefront of the news.

And as we all know, we all have to do our part.

You reflected earlier about your new work and role. For sure, 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?

Exercise, of course. And, I’ve meditated for more than 20 years now. I credit meditation for getting me through the most challenging times of my life. It’s grounding, centering –and after all these years, I’m able to benefit from the bliss that it provides.

Lately, I’d say in the past year, I discovered yoga nidra. It’s yogic sleep, part meditation, you go into a deep rest state. There are studies on how beneficial it is – a 20-minute yoga nidra session is as restorative as a three or four hour sleep. It really is a great way for me to clear the cache of my brain at 3:00 — it gives me that feeling of when I first wake up in the morning and everything is fresh and new and there’s not much taking up space in my mind.

Sleep is so important, so so important. And yoga nidra has been everything as far as balance for me. It gives me energy in those times when I need to recalibrate. Instead of going for the coffee, I go for the yoga nidra. I would encourage everyone to try it.

Is there a particular resource that you turn to to facilitate it?

I use Insight Timer, you can select sleep meditations. There are some yoga nidras where there’s no closing, it just kind of fades and lets you sleep – so that works at bedtime or in the middle of the night. But if you select a nap-time one, it has an ending, like a Shavasana where they ask you to breathe and move your body parts to wake up, and reengage with the world around you.

For a daily practice, I turn to a 10- or 15-minute yoga nidra, and I feel totally refreshed. And it’s so important to find a voice that resonates with you. You’re conscious and aware the whole time, but also so relaxed it’s like sleep.

It’s helpful to hear that description, I always assumed anything with the word ‘yoga’ included at least some standing or sitting and stretching. It sounds like you’re laying down?

Yes, you’re laying down. I can’t do it in a public setting – people fall asleep and snore. So for me, it’s a private practice. You drop your chin, you open your mouth, it’s not a beautiful thing! [laughing]

Do you meditate in the morning as well?

Yes, I meditate in the mornings. I actually just sit up and cross my legs and meditate, and it varies. It could be short, what’s my intention for the day – how do I want to feel today, how do I want to experience the day, who needs me, how can I be there for them, focus on my breathing for a few minutes.

Or, if I’m really stressed or worried then I will do something longer. And usually when I’m in that state, I need something guided, I don’t have the faculty to do my own.

You mentioned exercise, and also earlier that nature gives you hope. Do you want to say more about either?

Nature is a form of meditation for me that I really embraced when I lived in Sweden. Swedes don’t live indoors, they live outdoors. Nature and the human being there are one, so mostly what they do is outdoors. I discovered forest bathing there. It’s just taking in nature – walking by myself, the awe of it all, the bigness, the magnitude of the beauty – it is the most restorative thing.

And it really sparks creativity. If I have a problem or a challenge writing, I’ll take a forest bath. And it will always gift me something that will be what I need. It may not be what I expect. But it’s always fruitful and super-beneficial.

I remember in Cohort 10, we each took our turn introducing our group to someone we are/were close with personally (e.g., family, teacher, friend, mentor), who shaped (or shapes) us and how we view leadership and possibility for a better community/world. Who would be the person you’d want to lift up?

Yes! I love this question, because at my age, at 53, I love that I am learning and a hungry student still.

In this work with the One Circle Foundation, I’ve gotten very close with one of the founders, Beth Hossfeld.

She is an LMFT, she’s also really hands-on in the curriculum development, she extends herself into the research work. She leads in a way that is gentle, and that is also really asking the big questions.

She has a way; I love observing her and I want to drink everything that she brings as far as leadership, because it’s done from a place of deep, deep care. There is a sense of urgency in her leadership, while being gentle and while trusting that the people doing the work are the experts. It’s a balance that is rare to see in leadership, I think, and in work that can be life transforming. So there is that urgency.

I’m learning so much from her about leadership, and leading in the middle, moving people into action in a way that everyone is empowered in their roles, and understands the mission with great clarity.

It’s an inspiring type of leadership to hear about; I’m maybe hearing echoes of your core value of honor – honoring those around you to be co-architects of the solutions?

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Beth is pained – I don’t want to get emotional.

It’s ok.

Damn. It’s going to take me a minute… She’s pained by the suffering of youth in today’s world, that are grappling with so much. She’s feeling this charge, this need, this urgency. She really wants all youth to feel a place that’s safe, where they can be themselves. I want to carry that with her, I do carry that with her, and I want to help make it possible.

I think people walking into those spaces can tell who really cares. It sounds like she’s honoring the incredible need and young people’s capability.

Yes. I agree. That’s what makes profound leaders. It’s all about the mission.

Eventually we all retire, we can’t do this work forever. I really would love to see a world – and in many places it does exist – where people with this kind of experience are celebrated and looked to for their expertise.

We have a talking stick in circle – again, talking about honor – when someone’s speaking, we honor that they have that space, that moment. I feel like in this particular moment, she’s holding one end of the stick and I’m holding the other. That’s a very amazing feeling. It’s a lot to carry, but we must.

I really appreciate that, and share the emotion about how much is broken right now – alongside the possibilities of us fixing problems individually and collectively. I want to leave space for more, unless your answer feels complete?

Thank you. Yes, it is complete.

What do you recommend to us, in each of these categories:
  • Reading – I’ve been reading a lot of memoirs lately, as I’m writing mine. A coming-of-age story that I recommend is Heavy: An American Memoir, by Kiese Laymon. He’s a brilliant Black southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi, so it’s very much about the South. In many ways it’s also a book about how he came to writing, growing up with a complicated and brilliant mother, and his early experiences navigating that intense relationship with his mother and his grandmother — and obesity, anorexia, sexual violence, gambling. His writing is gorgeous. It’s very honest, just beautifully done, and he’s quite vulnerable on the page. It’s a picture of living in the South and the experiences in the moments, you go right there. It’s quite profound.
  • Listening – I wish every American would listen to a podcast called La Brega, from WNYC Studios and Futuro. La brega means the hustle, the making-it-happen, making ends meet. It’s basically seven episodes, very digestible, on the history of Puerto Rico. I think it’s a must, to know about this little island that’s so close to us. We all know the history of Hurricane Maria, but it’s vital to understand Puerto Rico, its history and how we connect to it. Also, if you want to practice your Spanish, the production is done beautifully, it’s in English and Spanish.
  • Eating – I recommend taking in the abundance of this time of year. I am a foodie, but not a typical one. I love to eat food without dressings, without anything on it. Summer is such a delight, with the bounty of fruits and vegetables; I don’t put anything on them, I just feast on what nature provided. It’s like coffee; you get used to drinking black coffee. It’s harsh at first, but then you enjoy it, and realize what you were tasting was the sugar and the cream, not the coffee.
  • Watching – I enjoy independent films. I don’t watch tv much, except to take away stress. Sometimes if I haven’t cried in a while, and I want to – it’s cathartic to cleanse – I’ll watch one of my go-tos, Steel Magnolias. Oh, man, that one gets me!
  • Laughing – I make myself laugh all the time, it’s a gift. [laughing] I like to play board games, it’s just really fun, a good way to laugh. There’s one called Think ‘N Sync that you can play with two or more other people.
  • Wildcard – your choice – I wish I knew earlier to lift weights; it is amazing. It really makes everything you do in life easier, physically and mentally. Not just is it good for bone density and preventing arthritis, it boosts your metabolism, it makes your body an efficient engine, it makes everything you do – standing up, picking up your groceries, everything becomes easier. But the surprise bonus is this confidence that you get in your ability to do things more easily. I’m seeing a lot of people my age struggling to walk, or get up, and it’s totally avoidable if you do weights. Lift smartly, and as much as you want. You’ll get stronger, bolder, more confident, and you’ll be able to live an active life for longer than you thought you could.

Learn more about Nancy at her website and the One Circle Foundation

Get in touch with Nancy directly: nancyroldanjohnson@gmail.com

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