Meet Emily Spencer

 

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Emily Spencer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Emily, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

I am influenced by strong family matriarchs, including my Dutch and Danish grandmothers and a remarkable aunt, all of whom were hit by heavy weather in life, and all of whom endured their personal storms with grit, faith and extreme resilience.

As a young woman, I was deeply moved by my uncle’s stories of my immigrant grandmother Eleanora Flink, who was a midwife during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. While in midwifery school in Amsterdam as a young woman, she witnessed the mass deportation of Jews, and her school sheltered a young Jewish girl. She then endured the Battle of Arnhem, a failed attempt by the Allies to liberate that city (as depicted in the award-winning 1977 film A Bridge Too Far).

Refugees in their own country, she and the Flink family were forced to evacuate their Arnhem home on a day’s notice, with only their bicycles and a few belongings, and no where to go. After walking miles to the east, they eventually reached the town of Rheden. Stranded in an unfamiliar town, not yet rescued by brave British liberators and having no idea when or if that day would ever come, my resilient grandmother immediately put her gifts as a midwife to good use. She rode her bicycle in the middle of the night and often through pouring rain to the homes of expectant mothers. She delivered hundreds of babies under harsh circumstances and with severely limited resources, including as patients many fellow refugee women passing through the town. Grandma was proud to share that she “never lost a mother”, and was honored by the city council for remarkable performance under extremely difficult circumstances, including war-induced famine and never receiving pay for her work. In the Germanic and Scandinavian tongues, the word “flink” means vigorous, bold and brave, embodying the characteristics of resilience. My grandmother Flink lived up to this noble name, and I strive to follow in her footsteps. Just like my grandmother, there are times in all of our lives when we have to press forward in the face of troubling uncertainty and under daunting circumstances, striving to lift and rescue others while still awaiting rescue ourselves.

My Danish grandmother Lazella Baek Spencer is equally brave and resilient. She has been at my side strengthening me during some of the dark and difficult moments of my life, and I honor and thank her for her support and shining example, as she triumphed over hardships I would later face. I also have a remarkable aunt, Mavis Spencer, whom I have admired as a pillar of strength since I was a child. Following significant adversity, Aunt Mavis devoted herself to a spiritual life full of service. I recently functioned as an organist at a Spencer family funeral, and as I looked down from the organ bench, I saw a beautiful older woman smiling at me. At age 94, my aunt radiated love, hope and joy like the sun, and now still alive and thriving at age 96, she continues to be an inspiration to all around her. Just as my aunt never knew how much I was inspired by her as a little girl, we may not know who is watching us and drawing strength from our bold journey of resilience.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

After World War II, my Dutch family journeyed to Utah, and my resilient grandmother had to start completely over in her medical career. In her late forties, she began her bachelor’s degree in nursing at Brigham Young University, working in a language that was not her own while raising seven children. I grew up in the shadow of that University, and followed in grandma’s footsteps to earn two degrees from BYU, bachelor’s and master’s degrees in organ performance. I have enjoyed a fulfilling career in both church music and music education, and the highlight has been the wonderful and caring friends from many religious groups and denominations that I have worked with and learned from over the years. I also serve on the editorial committee of the Bulletin, the journal of the International Kodály Society (based in Hungary), and on the governing boards of several non-profit organizations, including the Utah Cultural Alliance Foundation and the Salt Lake Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

I hope to honor and lengthen the legacy of my strong family matriarchs as I endure well the storms in my own life, which have included feelings of cultural isolation, discrimination in many forms, and many other difficult challenges. At times I felt very discouraged by the discrimination I experienced, but made an intentional decision to turn my frustration into positive fuel, switching my focus away from what I can’t control, which is the way others treat me, to what I can control, which is to love and encourage those around me.

I also endured significant physical health challenges, including an auto-immune disorder in my early adult years, and some level of chronic pain for over twenty years. To resolve these issues, I learned everything I could about the healing arts of the ancient cultures of the world, and put into practice what I learned. I switched to a chemical-free lifestyle, a mostly plant-based and raw food diet, and significantly increased my time in nature and in spiritual meditation. I have been blessed with healing and a remarkable restoration of my health, and at age 51 am extremely physically active, enjoying a pain-free life, and in some ways even reversing my age. I hope to inspire women over fifty (and anyone else) to continue to aim high, to bounce back from the trials of life, and to enjoy great health and fitness. In terms of current projects, I am expanding my platforms to educate and coach others in a nature-based lifestyle (stay tuned…). Two roads diverged in a wood and I — I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference (Robert Frost). I invite you to join me!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. Put God first in every aspect of life, and allow God to guide you step-by-step in His plan for you. I begin and end each day with prayer, and seek divine wisdom in all my decisions. I firmly believe that with God, nothing is impossible, and miraculous restoration and resilience is always within reach. Turn frustrations into positive fuel.

2. Draw strength and inspiration from children (who are highly gifted in resilience), and seek and implement into your life the learning and wisdom of all the world’s cultures.

3. In your journey of resilience, in the words of the proverb, don’t go “a bridge too far”. Practice patience, humility, and listen to the wise counsel of others (we all have blind spots!) Like the brave and well-meaning, yet bungled rescue attempt at the Battle of Arnhem, overextending ourselves in our eagerness to see victory (running faster than we have strength) can end in failure. A measured approach to healing and resilience is usually best, and major restoration requires patience and time (think of the tortoise and the hare..the tortoise always wins the race!).

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

I am open to collaborating with like-minded professionals, including experienced creatives and arts professionals, and natural and holistic health enthusiasts and practitioners. I can be reached at [email protected]

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Credit for the three studio photos (two in the dark purple/plum blazer, and the one with the pink blazer, goes to @terracooperphotography
I would like her to be credited for those photos if possible.

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