Continuous Learning: Arta's Wisdom and No Kids for Me

Continuous Learning 

I am constantly taking courses which is often called continuous learning. I have been taking an Adult Education Certificate in e-Learning certificate for two years hoping to professionally transition out of the classroom and into instructional design. As people who have taken adult education classes know, you have to share a post each week to demonstrate you are actually doing the work. In the past few weeks I have used personal story telling to share what I have learned, and thought I would share two posts with my family. The first about Arta and her wisdom, and the second about living a life without having had my own children. Thanks for reading and yes I kept the academic references etc. :) 

Aunt Arta and Her Wisdom

This week I am taking the opportunity to introduce you to one of the most wise people I know, my aunt Arta Johnson. In the early 1990’s I had just moved to Alberta and she had just begun a 16 career with the University of Calgary Libraries, which would become a long series of transformative experiences and would widen her circles (Bassett, 2005; Merriam & Bierema, 2014). Arta offered a welcoming home while I was in town for holidays and we spent many hours together. Her new paid employment helped her begin her feminist awakening which influenced my own feminist worldview. 

 
Arta’s new paid employment offered her the opportunity to take courses that challenged her previous ideas of gender schemas thus widening her circles as she began espousing less traditional sex-at-birth and gender roles (Bassett, 2005; Neff, 2021).  This included the role as president of the family company that owned land and cabins we all shared, a role her father, Doral, had been educating her for, for several years. After Doral passed, Arta spent the first 20 years as president of the company completing the corporate work, often alone, then the next 20 years with increased family participation using holistic and systemic thinking, “taking in the whole of the situation and…distinguish[ing] what it consists of, what the various parts are, and how they relate to each other” (Bassett, 2005, p. 8). She was able to use wisdom as “the capacity to see the big picture and to know what priority or weight to give things” (Bassett, 2005, p. 8) maintaining the integrity of the company and land, despite many obstacles and legal disagreements amongst family members. 

As Dr. Carrie Bassett (2011), a wisdom researcher, has shared, “wisdom is having sufficient awareness in various situations and contexts to act in ways that enhance our common humanity” (para. 6). Arta was able to use discerning wisdom to answer questions like what is really going on and what is important, when family members disagreed (Bassett, 2005, p 7). She was able to respect another point of view and try to see the business through other people’s realities (Bassett, 2005, p 7). She engaged others in making decisions as she wanted the family land to be enjoyed. She transformed our self-knowledge as she taught us to think about our choices and reflect on how they would affect the family collective and land (Bassett, 2005, p 7). Arta had an “expert-level knowledge in the fundamental pragmatics of life” (Merriam & Bierema, 2014, p. 185) and used her “practical and successful intelligence and creativity” to balance the interpersonal and intrapersonal aspects of our lives as part of the family and company (Merriam & Bierema, 2014, p. 185). Through these years of effort, Arta has taught me that continuous learning can add to a person's intelligence and knowledge used for common humanity can help us each become more wise. 

Sadly, we lost the matriarch of our family in the Spring of 2021 but the legacy Arta has left us is immeasurable (in part as the main author of our family blog, Larch Haven: https://larchhaven.blogspot.com/). She is at the top of my list of wise people and I am so grateful for her wise influence in my life. 
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References:
Bassett, C. (2005). Emergent Wisdom: Living a life in widening circles, ReVision, 27(4), p. 6-11. https://www.wisdominst.org/emergent.pdf 

Bassett, C. (2011). Living, Learning, and Leading For a Wiswer Future. The Wisdom Institute and

Becoming OtherWise Programs. https://www.wisdominst.org/wisdom.html 

Merriam, S. B., & Bierema, L. L. (2014). Adult Learning: Linking theory and practice. Jossey-Bass. 
Neff, K. (2021). Fierce Self-Compassion: How women can harness kindness to speak up, claim their power, and thrive. Harpercollins Publishers.

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Transformative Learning: My Life, No Children

I did not know that Peter Jarvis’ theory of transformative learning through experience would help me use hindsight to understand some of my critical life experiences. In particular my experience of being a cis-woman who does not have children. I am sharing my experience today while indicating the associated learning process, identified by the 1-7 boxes from figure 3 from Jarvis’ (2012) paper titled, Learning From Everyday Life.

I was raised within a religious community that emphasized heterosexual marriage and motherhood as the main focus of every woman’s life. Other choices, such as work outside the home, could be made but nothing would compare to the joyful role of motherhood (box 1-1; Jarvis, 2012). Finding myself divorced and without children at the young age of 29, I had several moments of disjuncture, when I could “no longer presume upon our world and act upon it in an almost unthinking manner” (Jarvis, 2012, p.9). My life experiences and social interactions with others caused me to have “larger gaps that demand[ed] considerable learning” about the necessity of having children (box 2; Jarvis, 2012, p. 12). I also had pre-consciously internalized the message of motherhood, equating it to a good life, more deeply than I had thought, and my divorce brought these ideas into my conscious awareness (Jarvis, 2012; Merriam & Bierema, 2014). Due to these experiences I began learning about motherhood and womanhood as part of my everyday life. 

While experiencing the emotions surrounding the ideas and commitments of motherhood (box 4) I decided to take several courses of action (box 5). I completed a great deal of research, including searching out and reading books like Nobody’s Mother: A life without kids by Lynne Van Luven (2006). I loosely planned out my life with several options (including unpartnered, partnered, with children, or without children) and made some commitments to myself. These commitments helped me gather new knowledge about creating a joyful life, thus beginning to resolve the cognitive dissonance I experienced about the messages of motherhood from my youth (box 6). As years passed, I did not find a partner with whom I was willing to take on the commitment of children and I was not willing to have children as a single person. This brings me to my current life stage where I am contentedly child-less and I can review a past, experience a present, and build a future full of joy, which for me did not include having children (box 7 and 1-2). Jarvis' learning theory has helped me understand what I have learned from my experiences as a life long series of learning processes.  

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References:

Jarvis, P. (2012). Learning From Everyday Life. Human & Social Studies, Research and Practice (HSSRP), 1(1), p. 1-20. http://hssrp.uaic.ro/continut/1.pdf 

Merriam, S. B., & Bierema, L. L. (2014). Adult Learning: Linking theory and practice. Jossey-Bass. 

Van Luven, L. (2006). Nobody’s Mother: Life without kids. Touchwood Editions.

The Pottery Studio

Photography: Rebecca

... the Rocky Mountaineer travels out of sight ...

The view from the pottery studio can catch the Rockery Mountaineer as it passes by on its way to Vancouver.

People from the train stand on the platform at the back of each car and wave at us as they drive by.

Many of us on the beach run up to the track to wave back at them.

Others stand on the big rock on top of the hill and wave down at them.

Taking that train is something still on my bucket list of things to do.

Photography: Rebecca
... random pieces - find the footed bowl ...

The Pottery Studio is built under Janet and Glen's porch.  Each year there are additions to the space, this year a new and bigger kiln.

A long rectangular table has also been added.

I saw Tonia sitting at the table tonight, waxing the bottoms of some of the pieces she is getting ready to put in the kiln.

Photography: Rebecca
... two bowls, one cup ....

What was also impressive were the round and oblong beads she has designed.

Random strangers stop her on the street to tell her how beautiful her necklace is which pleases her, as the beads are ones she has done herself.

Just beautiful.

Photography: Rebecca

The pot on the left was taken from the wheel too soon,
so it is loped, which will add to its charm, hopefully.

Rebecca has been busy making necklaces to give as part of the TRC work that she is doing.

Last night she was sorting them into bundles to keep the pieces organized.

So far, she has finished 250 of them, and is hoping to make that count 500 before she leaves to go back to Victoria.

Photography: Tonia
... a number of smaller pieces ...

No summer is long enough.

 But already we can feel this one hurtling to a close.

Next week there is a free workshop in Kamloops sponsored by the Shuswap Tribal Nation.

... two of the three potters ...

Then the week after that, the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival will be in full swing.

And then the summer visitors pack up to go home.

Where did the time go?

Arta

Two More Chances

Tonia, Wyona and I went to see the encore of Of Mice and Men tonight. 

Lurene asked her mom why she was going to a performance that was going to be sad. 

That is the question we have to face with many shows, in fact just about all of them that we see. While there is sadness, more than a tear of two at the end of this performance, the theatre is the best place for me to “see who were back then, and to infer who we are now”. 

The three of us were ready for a break at the intermission. We had been informed by Rebecca that the interview with Anna Shapiro at the intermission would be telling so we got back to our seats in 15 minutes but we took some time to stretch our legs.W

asn’t that interview-film just the best – those images from the 30’s – the haying; the children standing outside of the wire fences, looking at the bunnies; a mom walking behind in a black suit, just like the one my mother used to wear.

Evocative of the early prairie years. 

And the clips of interviews with Franco and O’Dowd telling us why they had re-read Steinbeck when looking for ways to colour their charaters. 

 ... scene in the bunkhouse ...

The prairie feel of the opening scene was captured by that small brook and the men sleeping out under the stars.

 I couldn’t help but think of the many nights I have laid out and enjoyed the quiet of the night, its blackness and the crisp feel of a small wind floating by.

I thought the bunkhouse was going to be my favorite set. 

Lennie begs for the story of how their lives will go.

But it was the scene in Crooks’ house where I felt the most warmth – that space beside the manure pile, now peopled with dreams of life’s changes.

Eventually didn’t we have Crooks, Lennie, Smiley, George, the boss and Curly’s wife – all gathered together in the place that was off-limits to five of them.  And each of them with different dreams. That scene was such a charm.

Curly's wife -- she doesn't have any other name

I had to come home and look up the word bindlestiff. There wasn’t enough in the context of the film for me to make a smart guess.

Apparently he is a robber. “A bindle is the bag, sack, or carrying device stereotypically used by the American sub-culture of hobos. A bindlestiff was a robber preying on hobos and the bindle's contents.”

Steinbeck, in explaining some of the text of Of Mice and Men, says that he was a bindlestiff himself.

On other matters he goes on to say that “in every bit of honest writing in the world there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love. There are shorter means, many of them. There is writing promoting social change, writing punishing injustice, writing in celebration of heroism, but always that base theme. Try to understand each other.” (— John Steinbeck in his 1938 journal entry)

That might be the best answer as to why I go see shows like this.

 I highly recommend a fabulous production to you. Of course, take your kids.   Book either Nov, 23 or 24th if it is showing near you.  Fabulous seats are available at the Crowfoot Crossing Cineplex.  In our theatre there were only about 20 people.  The three of us spread out along the row with our candy, popcorn and drinks as though we were in one of the boxes at a famous theatre.  And we had just about as much fun as if we had been in the Longacres Theatre enjoying the evening.

Arta

Shuswap Three: Because My Cousin Demanded It

Ok, so I think I am running out of the really good pictures but my cousin who started the sharing of Shuswap has demanded more pictures.    Therefore, this is Part Trois.

These may have been posted on my blog a few years ago, but here is a reminder of the garden we Bates' get to enjoy at the hands of the hard work of Glen and Janet, our Shuswap neighbours.

Received a nice compliment from a well-known photographer on Flickr for this one.

One of my favourites

I am changing the rules of pictures being taken on the Shuswap property as I am adding pictures I have taken on the way to and from the Shuswap property or in proximity to the property.  (This way I can post more pictures and not incur the wrath of a certain cousin.)  :)

I quickly pulled off the road when I saw this near Three Valley Gap
on the way home from the Lake in 2010.

Margaret Falls near Sicamous, B.C.

Black and White, Margaret Falls, B.C.

Reflection of a tree in the water.
Sicamous River (I think)

Then we head back into the forest.  Arta showed me this spot, just above the road to her house on the right of the old road we used to drive down.  I want to go back and take a few more.

All natural British Columbia green
(I did not saturate the colour in this picture.)

Fun-guy playing in the light

We have all re-discovered Old Sicamous Road and groups of Pilling's gather together to walk it on various days throughout the summer.  This was the dirt road people used to travel on to move from Sicamous to Salmon Arm 50 years ago.  This path is just off that road.  Interesting how nature reclaims her/his own. 

Lush BC forest trail

The last leg of the trip from Old Sicamous Road back to the cabin.

The storm that rolled in just as we rolled into the cabin.

I rented snow shoes and cross country skis in the winter of 2009 and Janet and I went for a few strolls on the frozen lake.

Past Sandy Beach, half-way to Johnson's Point

Avec les cabines

My last few pictures are totally cheating.  They are of my recent trip to Jasper and a recent picture I took at the University of Manitoba campus where the Red River bends into a U shape as it travels away from campus.

Reminiscent of old time shots of the Rocky Mountains

Stylized, cheesy and cool

Sunlight on snowy rock

Red River bends

Here is a link to my Flickr space in case you want to see some of my travel pictures and other shots I have taken.  I am at the point on this website that I have to start coughing up money or I can't post anymore pictures and that won't happen until I graduate (Spring 2013).

Thanks for all your kind words and I shall keep practicing the art of photography, rain, shine, hail, sunlight, darkness and lightning.

A Few More of Shuswap

Here are a few more.  I might as well share them with the family who loves this piece of land as much as I do, rather than have the pictures just sitting on my computer.

Walking on the Old Sicamous Road.  Always look up, down, front, back, all around for an unexpected photo.

Mounds of rock that have been still for 50 years.

Someone who knows about British Columbia flora and fauna are going to have to help with me with the next few.  

The night of lightning Summer 2011

Details in on the walkway to the old Porterfield's house.

This one I need to play with on the computer but here is a raw shot of light at the end of the dark forest lush tunnel.

Don't step on the interesting pieces of the forest.

Winter of 2009 or 2010.  I began sneaking out to the Shuswap when I was supposed to be at Teacher's Convention, because I would rather be out at the Lake sitting in the peace and quiet than in a hotel listening to talks.  You would have made the same choice.

My dad reaping the years of enjoyment after years of hard work at the Lake.  Both he and my mum work pretty hard out there still.

The Summer of Sunsets 2008, my mother watching the colours fill the sky.  I have not colour enhanced this shot in any way.  It is in its pure, raw format.  Stunning!

Part of the sky my mother was looking at with Aunt Moiya and Uncle Dave's house in the photo.

I hope to be out there again this summer to take more shots.  I sure love traipsing around the property finding more things, people and scenes to try and capture properly on film.  One of the best places to shoot.

Shuswap Pictures

Rebecca,

I am finally getting around to sharing some of my Shuswap pictures with you.  I am a little obsessed with taking pictures at the Lake and of different perspectives of the actual lake from all around the property.  Here are some of the best ones I have taken.  Some day, I hope to get a look at the window in real life or maybe just on this blog.

Cheers!

Shuswap in February 2008 I believe.  The lake froze halfway across.

I call this summer, the summer of the many sunsets and I think is was 2008 .  This is off my parents balcony looking slightly off to the left.

The best picture I have ever taken at the Lake.  The summer of many sunsets, 2008.

A kayak ride I took in the summer of 2012 during a cloudy grey and beautiful morning.

A pictures of a tree and the colours of the rock across the lake from our property looking to the left.

Gentle sunset from Summer 2011.

Click the 'Read More' below for more pictures.