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Learning to trust the experience

  • Dana Perry
  • Jun 5
  • 1 min read

Updated: Jun 5

by Rhianna Leigh


Editor’s note: The sketches are taken from Rhianna’s notebook, which includes notes taken during classroom lectures and teachings over the 2024-2025 school year, and her included words are taken from a homework assignment during the same year.


Hand drawn notes on fermentation in a student notebook

Hand drawn ginkgo leaf and nuts

I’m noticing a profound shift in the way I’m approaching my learning. My tendency to want to do everything really well and get the “A” is shifting toward a much more holistic and nourishing approach.


Hand drawn notes on breathwork

Hand drawn notes detailing the lungs

It’s a completely new language and the only thing I want to do is just soak in it. So that’s what I’m doing.


Hand drawn mullein from a student notebook

Hand drawn human heart from a student notebook

I’ve lost interest in trying to be a “good” student and instead I’m relaxing into just trusting the experience. And even though I seem to forget most of what I learn it’s almost as if it doesn’t matter. Because there’s something deeper and richer than memorization at work right now.

Hand drawn dandelion plant from a student notebook

A hand drawn representation of the following quote: “Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”  - Chief Seattle 1855


Rhianna Leigh is an abstract artist and a first-year student at ArborVitae. You can find her work on her website

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ArborVitae, LLC, 181 Huguenot St, New Paltz, NY 12561

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