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| The reality: snacks on the table, people have come with their notebooks, handouts are everywhere, coloured pens are scattered all over the table, snacks are at the far end, and grandmother has come in by Skype. The only thing missing is a beverage of your choice. LtoR: Catherine, Hebe, Hebe's America doll who is all dressed up for Hanukah, Norman Kong, Eric, Rebecca Jarvis, Thomas |
I don’t know what to call things now.
There is home school, home entertainment, and home church.
I think what I attended was a combination of all three.
What was fun?
Well, Thomas has the start of a beautiful new beard. Just testing it out while he is spending his time at home. I said it looks great. He said thank you.
Rebecca and I got to talk about a film she has seen during the school year. The one where in the 1950’s the government relocated Canadian Indigenous people to land that was unfamiliar to them, then drove away the caribou herds with the airplanes, and sadly this settlement fell into starvation. So good to connect, knowing we had both seen that film. I am sure Rebecca teaches it in her Film and the North. When I ask Rebecca Johnson if she has any idea of the title the other Rebecca and I were talking about, she answered with Nanook of the North?, Atanarjuat?, the Journals of Knud Rasmussen?, the Necessities of Life?, Kikkik?
I guessed all of the above. All about starvation. I hadn't really thought about that before.
The film Rebecca Jarvis saw in class was none of these. She saw Into Unknown Parts (2015) (27 min) by Lisa Stevenson.
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| In January of 2019 I was in Montreal. I spent a long time at the dollar store picking out this scrapbook, just the right size of scrapbook, finally deciding on a large art sketch book. I may have also written on pages early in the book, trying to figure out how I could use the iades to help make family time together, fun. Really fun. An exhilarating job! |
Part of the exercise of our group was to write five ideas you might want to tell someone whom you love who follows you in life.
One of Norman’s list was “shoot the shot”.
The same phrase appeared on Thomas’s list.
The 3 older folks needed to have that idea described to them.
I learned it is a basketball metaphor for when an opportunity comes, take it before it is lost.
I didn't tell anyone, but my dad gave that same advice to his sons in the form of "The gold ring only passes by you 2 or 3 times in life. Be prepared to reach out and take it."
Catherine prepared the lesson, got the snacks, had her list of 5 things she would tell people, taught the lesson, restructured the lesson as she went along, to fit the needs of the vocal participants, sorted out who could have the honoured position of going last, (it seems that spot is highly prized), and sorted out misunderstandings Hebe had during the whole time. For example, Norman said you should follow your passion in life. If you want to go camping you should go camping. Hebe said she didn’t want to go camping, so she couldn’t go along with Norman’s idea. Catherine sorted that out so Hebe didn't feel compelled to go camping. That might have been a highlight for Hebe. No camping.
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| Catherine believes everyone should have pencils and paper in front of them -- either to assist in learning, or for the participant to doodle or write on as they wish. No strictures, no rules about the paper. It is yours. Here everyone holds their paper up so I can see t what they have been doing through my skype screen. |
Still I wrote down 5 ideas.
We went around the circle, Norman first and Eric to his left, finishing.
I happened to jot down Eric's ideas.
I just didn’t think to pick up my pencil until we got to the end of the circle.
Everyone’s list was worth jotting down. Catherine had suggest we just tell one idea from our list, but there was a resounding no -- we all wanted to read all five!
And Thomas also coloured his handout and made it look quite professional. When he received the handout from her, Thomas checked to see if Catherine had done this herself or if she had run it off the internet. She passed the test. It was an original.
Here is Eric’s list:
1. Save time each day to examine the spiritual in your life
2. Be quick to apologize
3. Be slow to anger;
4. Pay attention to the ancient and modern prophets;
5. Build family relationships consistently (well, I only caught the general idea there).
I am going to take number 2 and 3 of Eric's list to heart. I hope I can do as good a job as he does -- he might be a master on #3.
If any reader wants to add something, please use the comment box and you don't have to keep yourself to five ideas.
Remember Rebecca's tip for the comment box: "If you are a Mac user, SAFARI is the problem. It won't let you post comments. But if you try using Chrome or Explorer as the browser (maybe even Firefox), then it works. Wierd."
I think that the saying about grabbing the gold ring comes from the days of merry-go-rounds for adults when there would be a ring to try to grab as you went around - with a prize for the person who could get it.
ReplyDeleteMy list:
1. You have two ears and one mouth, listen twice as much as you speak, and make your words count.
2. If you won't remember the action/wounding/transgression in 10 days or 10 weeks, let it go now.
3. Have time each day to be in silence.
4. At a minimum, in relationships give three complements/gratitudes for every criticism.
5. Make a BIG deal out of accomplishments or positive news.
Thank you, Unknown, but wise voice.
ReplyDeleteI like #5 of your list. I have a friend who says the same thing. "We don't have enough celebrations." That is what she thinks. I do make a big deal in my heart about positive news. Now to just let it all out.
On that matter, I am amazed as I try to do appropriate social distancing, how much I want to put my arms out and hug someone. I didn't know that i was a hugger until now.