Joyful Jubilant Learning

Movie nights, Learning Opportunities and Wise Wizards

Movies can be so special.

In our family, we don’t watch a lot of television. But we do have frequent ‘movie nights’, which we all love.  Late in the afternoon after a busy day my youngest child, who is 10, sometimes asks “Can we have a movie night Mum?”

Last weekend, he and I were the only ones home and he was feeling a little bit low, so I suggested an afternoon movie. What a treat! We popped some popcorn and snuggled together on the couch. We’d watched the Home Alone series the weekend before, so what to watch now?

It was a toss up between Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. Harry won.

After that first afternoon, we watched our way through all the (released) Harry Potters over the course of the week… with and without other members of the family. And had great discussions about important life stuff as a result.

Watching movies with our kids can give us some great opportunities for those little chats, can't they?

It's not all about wands and spells, the magic lies in the wisdom and life lessons... Here's a few of my favourite magical Potter-y gems:

It is not our abilities that show what we truly are, it is our choices
    -    Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Now is the time that we must choose between what is right and what is easy
    -    Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends
    -    Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

It does not do to dwell on dreams, Harry, and forget to live
    -    Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Working hard is important, but there’s something that matters even more - believing in yourself
    -    Harry in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

We have all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the power we choose to act on. That’s who we really are
    -    Sirius Black in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

What is your favourite quote from a movie?

Has a movie changed your life?

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                     This has been a contribution to our theme for May - Learning from the Movies! 
Post author, Karen Wallace believes that wizards are very wise beings indeed. Coming from a muggle family, she loves to learn from those wise and magical beings who can see straight to the core of the matter. You can read more of her search for magic, and love of quotes, at The Clearing Space and at the online magazine The Calm Space.

You can get published on Joyful Jubilant Learning too! ~~~ May Details here

 

Reach out and touch somebody - e-learning the high-touch way

As I sat down to write, a song popped into my head. And now it’s bouncing around in there, daring me to burst into song.

Reach out and touch
Somebody’s Hand
Make this world a better place
If you can

Can you hear Diana Ross singing that song?

All these wonderful digital tools (and I am the first to admit that the tools available online have opened up a whole new world for me) are just that. Tools. Things to help us do something. They are not an end in themselves, and here at JJL I think we’re proving that.

You see, we’re a community. We connect.

And we ask the right questions.

The tools are only as good as the connection. For it is by connecting that we learn, that we expand our horizons. That we meet new friends and create new communities.

When I am sitting in my little home office here in Brisbane, I can connect with people around the globe. And for me, the most valuable part of any technology isn’t the value of the gadget or tool itself, but the human contact that it gives me. Or the time it frees up so I can go do some relating.

In her comment on Rosa’s post  at JJL recently, Leah Maclean raised a great point about different learning styles – in particular kinesthetic learning:

“This style of learning means that the learner works best when they are actively engaged by doing, often by using their hands to engage with the learning. Unfortunately many creators of digital learning seem to focus on the visual or auditory learners and forget to create digital learning environments that work for the kinesthetic learner.”

I put my hand up - in a lot of ways I am kinesthetic. I love to touch. And I recently discovered, through the power of following a rabbit down a blog trail, that something was missing in my life!

Can I share it with you quickly?

I saw a comment by someone on a blog post, and it intrigued me enough to click over, leading me to a swag of beautiful, creative sites. Creative in a kinesthetic, high-touch way.

My fingertips were itching.

Let me explain.

They are sites about art and craft. These amazing, talented people are writing blogs about their creations, and their creativity. I found amazing photographers, photographers who write deliciously, mandala makers, artists using interesting mediums, textile designers, and others…

Of course, they had always been there, I just never went looking before. So I joined StumbleUpon, and stumbled my way through more crafty creative sites, drunk on the promise of inspiration!

[And trying not to stuff too many of them into my google reader – it’s terribly bloated right now]

After my first foray early one morning, I had two epiphanies of sorts:

1.    that I needed to go on an Artist’s Date, that very morning (and I did!)
2.    that I needed to start creating with my hands again. That creating with my words, while definitely something I was put on this earth to do, isn’t enough for my artist within. I need More. I need to touch.

Sometimes the learning we get from an exploration in the digital world (oh the lure of those white rabbits) is not what we expect, but it can be exactly what our soul needs to hear.

Our own Joanna shared her learning, her insight and aha moment, through the power of bloggy words earlier this week.

Would our aha’s have come about if we didn’t have this technology at our fingertips? Possibly. Would it have come as powerfully and in such a timely way? One has to wonder.

Has there been a time you followed a rabbit trail, or read your favourite bloggy-people’s words, and found yourself in an entirely different world, inspired to change?

Learning is change.

Reach out and touch someone’s hand today… who knows what sparks may fly.

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Post author Karen Wallace would love you to reach out and touch someone today - you never know what learning you will discover or whose soul you will inspire!

You can find more of Karen's writing at The Calm Space - an online magazine that's like a virtual day-spa for the senses; and at The Clearing Space.

A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder Exposed

"Look At How Messy This Is!"

What is your reaction to that statement? Proud? Thankful? Gleeful?

Not likely!

You're much more likely to feel insulted, criticised, guilty or ashamed...

Until I picked up this book, I (like so many others) felt my natural tendency to "messy" was abnormal and in some way wrong. It was something to be fixed, changed, constantly battled with.

Then on impulse I bought  A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder. How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and Off-the-Cuff Planning Make the World a Better Place by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freeman.

I was intrigued by the title, but really did not expect to have the book convince me that messiness could ever be acceptable, even beneficial. It was outside the bounds of my belief system to comprehend how mess could ever be a virtue.

And so came the paradigm shift!

I have practised my new-found art of annotating a book, and this book now looks very well read - dog-ears, underlining, notes in margins, exclamation marks and questions... quite messy in fact  ;)

The authors don't set out to convince us we should be messy. They don't tell us that neat and organised is bad. Rather, the book is a "representative tour of the under-appreciated side of the world of mess and disorder... the goal is simply to explore and highlight some important truths about disorder that have mostly been overlooked."

In it's 'tour', A Perfect Mess wanders delightfully through examples from business, parenting, cooking, the war on terrorism, retail stores and even the meteoric career of Arnold Schwarzenegger. It explores jaywalking, musical improvisation and organisational charts. It takes an interesting look at the toll mess stress can take on relationships. The book shows that:

"moderately messy systems use resources more efficiently, spur creativity, yield better solutions and are harder to break than neat ones." 

Appealing?  Definitely! Intriguing? Absolutely!

Thought-provoking? You bet!

A Perfect Mess blasts open the paradigm that most of us are raised with - "when we see ourselves as failing in some way, we're quick to blame poor organisation. Our belief in the benefits of orderliness is as entrenched as the notion of the healthfulness of high-carbohydrate diets once was."

One 'hidden benefit' of mess: you save the time you would otherwise have spent neatening it. Things don't generally neaten themselves. Obvious, of course, once it is pointed out to us - and they are very convincing.

I highly recommend this book if you find yourself struggling constantly with mess in any area of your life. Anything from a messy wardrobe to a lack of strategic planning...

It may be that your current way of doing things is working fine for you, if you could put aside the guilt and shame about it. A Perfect Mess will open your eyes to the benefits of going with your natural tendencies. Check out their website here - (including extracts from the book).

I will leave you with this great quote - one for all those who struggle endlessly with their messy desks:

If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what then, is an empty desk?
~Albert Einstein

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Karen Wallace is eager to explore the notion of 'mess without guilt' further. You can find more of her writings at The Calm Space - an online magazine that's like a virtual day-spa for the senses; and at The Clearing Space.

The Joy of Discovery - Rapid Fire Learning for February

Rapid Fire Learning: "Rapid fire recall, stream of consciousness, trusting that what needs to come out and get chronicled IS in fact my learning."

I have deliberately NOT planned what I am to write about my learning this month, taking Rosa's words (above) and trusting that what needs to come out, will.

February has been a big month, activity-wise. Lots going on. For February feels like the first month of the year to me. January gets filled with summer holidays... those long lazy days of doing not much. Come February, the children go back to school, work resumes and life speeds right back up to a breathtaking velocity.

My top 5 learnings this month, off the top of my head...

1.    Baking is therapeutic. I re-found my love of getting into the kitchen and baking up a storm (lost years ago in the rush of raising a family and working). Add the benefit of spending time with my daughter as she learns to cook alongside me and the learning is doubled! (The family are all for it - they love the fruits of love that come out of the kitchen:)

 2.   The stuff we own isn't necessarily stuff we need or use. We packed our entire house (except the kitchen) into boxes in early December as a prelude to new flooring. Since then we've finished painting about 1/2 the house. The boxes are still in the shed, unopened. We have needed something in them exactly twice (sticky-tape on Christmas Eve, and my son's birth certificate as he enrolled in university). I'm still discovering the lessons in this...

3.   I need to remember to trust the universe. I was a little anxious about what book I would review for A Love Affair with Books next month here at JJL, as all my books are packed in those boxes in our shed. Until I started reading a book I had picked up on a whim earlier this month. As I started reading I realised I had no need to fret, the right book HAD presented itself, after all...

4.   I am looking with fresh eyes on the mess and chaos that surrounds me. Why? The book I have been reading, and chosen to review is A Perfect Mess: The hidden benefits of disorder.

5.   I learned that it is OK to mark up a book. In fact, it is necessary to deepen the learning, and to make that learning accessible when you want to go back to it (without reading the whole book again). I am testing this learning using the tips from Tim Milburn in his post How to Read an Unfinished Book; and Rosa and Dave in the comments on that post - how rich was this conversation??

Now that I've shown you mine, why not share yours?

We'd love you to explore your own learning for February in a rapid-fire way - jot your 5 in a comment, or send us a trackback to your own post. We're really curious about what you're learning...

Then join me in the final 5 days of February as I aim to turn some of the actions from my learning into lifelong habits and powerful mindsets.

All of the top-achievers I know are life-long learners... Looking for new skills, insights, and ideas. If they're not learning, they're not growing... not moving toward excellence.

~Denis Waitley

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Learn with us! Visit here for 25 Compelling Reasons to Adopt Rapid Fire Learning. Then join in as we revel in the power of learning and sharing as a group... we're really looking forward to your visit.

Karen Wallace lives to learn and learns to live. You can find more of her writings at The Calm Space - an online magazine that's like a virtual day-spa for the senses.

Clearing Space for the Important Things

Jubilation Way. What a glorious path to walk along as we enter the new year!

I have been spending a lot of time these first two weeks of 2008 clearing space in my life. Physical space and mental space. And with the clearing out of old junk, clothes that won't be worn again, and all the excess baggage that seems to collect in a house you've lived in for 14 years while raising three children, it seems I have been clearing some emotional space as well.

A big empty skip (8 cubic metre rubbish bin) has just been delivered to our yard. It's the third since mid-December! These home renovations have had far-reaching consequences in all our lives.

Today, I'd like to share a little of what I am packing in my small, carry-on luggage for the adventure of 2008; and also a little of what is going into that skip. For what we don't pack is often as important as what we do.

To Keep

In The Calm Space this month, I talked about a black velvet purse as my gift to others - a purse filled with Possibilities, Hope, Action, Courage, Curiosity, Challenge and, most of all, Love.

My black velvet purse is the first thing I pop into my bag... and I wish you the same.

I am also packing my Learning cap, it's securely on my head, better to be prepared for every experience and every moment that offers me opportunities for growth. [And hopefully will allow me to keep up with the vibrant and amazing community of learners here at JJL].

I am packing Calm... for this is an inseparable part of me. But even more, I am plucking the elusive Serenity from the tree of life and bringing it, every so gently, along with me - wrapped securely in tissue paper with care.

Optimism and the ability to live in the moment - into the bag they go!

I'd pack my friends and family, if I could. Only I think you'd object a little to that... so a request instead. Please pack your own bag and come travelling Jubilation Way with me... walk beside me and we'll keep each other company for as long as our paths entwine.

And the last thing in my personal carry-on luggage for treading Jubilation Way in 2008? That would be this great big smile on my face... for it reminds me constantly to be in the moment, and live with Joy.

Out they go

What, then, is going into my skip?

All the guilt I can scour out of my heart... for guilt is worthless and negative

All the worry that weighs my soul down... for worry never solved anything

All doubt, bitterness, regrets, jealousy and envy... out it all goes. No room for these in my bag for 2008!

Along with these, all excess stuff, rubbish, empty boxes and unfulfilled expectations... no room in my bag for anything that weighs me down.

Ahhh... my life feels lighter and freer already!

What are you tossing as you pack your bag for 2008??

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This article is a contribution to our January theme at Joyful Jubilant Learning:  Packing our bags for 2008

Post author Karen Wallace is currently enjoying the summer holidays in her almost-renovated home in Brisbane... taking her time to sort, purge and toss as she unpacks the boxes of her life.

You can read more from her at the monthly on-line magazine The Calm Space... this month the theme is Opportunity.

Today is day 1 of my Best Christmas Ever

I received a brochure in the mail today that announced in big, beautiful letters:

The Best Christmas Ever!

Apparently, all you needed were to make purchases of their products and the discount you receive would make everything better.

Of course, we all know that buying doesn't Christmas make.

But it piqued my curiosity about what WOULD make it the Best Christmas Ever...   Despite my current household chaos, I really gave this some thought as I ate my lunch.

I always plan for each Christmas to be wonderful (don't we all?) but sometimes in my effort to get Christmas 'just right' or even (gasp!) 'Perfect', I really go overboard and not only run myself ragged, but alienate the very people who I think I am doing it all for.

Off the top of my head, some of the things that would make this the Best Christmas Ever include

• forgetting perfection and enjoy each moment right through December
• letting go of the need to control everything (my kids will laugh their heads off at this one)
• giving my attention to people I care about rather than to things like baking or decorating or shopping
• being a model of how I'd like my children to be at this special time of year (which means putting away the panic, the chaos, the sheer exhaustion of Christmases Past...)

Now I'd like to throw the question out to YOU.  When you get to Boxing Day, how will you know if it's been the Best Christmas Ever?

What could you do today, right now, that would take you a step in that direction?

Please leave us a comment, or send an email to SaveXmas@gmail.com... we'd really love to know your thoughts on this.

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Karen Wallace and Chris Owen are your Christmas Calm Angels, and are on a mission to save the world from going crackers at Christmas... or at least one or two frantic souls.  You can answer the questions Karen asks in the post above in the spirit of providing us with further research towards future editions of Save Our Sanity: The Christmas Calm Manual.

Learning to let go perfection and allow others to lend a hand

Rosa has laid down the gauntlet once more, challenging us on Learning to Give and Learning to Receive.

I've just finished writing on Celebration in the December issue of The Calm Space, and I'm thinking about my own life, my family, my Christmas celebration this year and all that I have to do before I can sit back and relax on December 25.

This year, the month of December and in particular, our Christmas Day celebrations will present me with a personal challenge. You see, we've invited the whole family again this year for December 25th. Usually, that's not such a big deal. I love having my home filled with family - both sets of Grandparents, siblings, nephews and nieces all make the day special and memorable.

Last year we hosted Christmas and it went so well that hubby and I decided in early October that we'd go for a repeat performance this year. Everyone was invited. All accepted, with thanks. Our home is large enough that we can hold the gathering inside in case the day is a scorcher (as they are wont to be here in Brisbane in December) - and the air conditioning always works flat out to keep everyone cool.

So what's the problem?

Since that invitation, we have agreed to bring the scheduled replacement of the floorcoverings in our home forward from the new year to next week. Followed closely by the painting of the entire inside of the house in the week before Christmas (don't ask, I don't want to talk about it!).

It has really become a domino avalanche - one thing leads to another, which leads to yet another. And I am already pulling full wattage on my levels of calm and control...

All furniture and house contents are in the process of being stacked in our garage. The process of laying a timber floor requires the concrete floor to be levelled first. I write this from my desk, which is sitting in the middle of my office, as all the skirting boards in the house were removed on Saturday.

I'm not going to go into all the gory details of the renovation... but suffice to say the disruption is enormous (more than I envisaged, of course) and there is still Christmas at the end of the month.

For me, this month is turning out to be about learning to ask for help, and to receive that help graciously and without guilt. I've never been good at that - much better at offering and supplying help to others.

My learning will be about making a list of food, drink, labour and assistance required - both during the renovation and for Christmas Day. Then making requests.

And I do see that if we all pull together, and I make enough requests, I'll still be sane enough to enjoy the turkey, ham and plum pudding in the cool of my own home. Or elsewhere.

There is a lot of guilt around receiving when I am the one that is so good at giving!  I am hoping that reminding myself (constantly) that Christmas isn't about perfection, but about love, will make all the difference.

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Karen Wallace is the one of the Christmas Calm Angels, co-author with fellow JJLer Chris Owen of Save Our Sanity: The Christmas Calm Manual. She is learning to let go of perfection in many areas of her life and to accept that others actually do want to lend her a helping hand every now and again.

Generous Coaching for us in eBooks, and Learning By Example

Two of our JJL authors are offering new eBooks on their own sites, absolutely free!

Karen Wallace has launched a new online magazine called The Calm Space, “a virtual magazine that’s like a day-spa for your senses!” and she writes...

In celebration of our first issue of The Calm Space, I am thrilled to be able to offer you a once-only chance to get a copy of my book, How to find the Pause Button for your life… with my compliments!

This book offers you six lessons on reducing the stress, and reconnecting with what makes you happy.

Visit The Calm Space and look for the Pause Button link to download your complimentary copy today.

[Or you can click on the image to the right for the direct route to the download page.]

At Confident Writing, Joanna Young has been presenting a monthly theme in her work shared with us as a writing coach. She turned her September discussion on authentic writing into a 14-page e-book: It's called The Courage to Hear Yourself Sing: 5 takes on authentic writing.

Joanna writes,

This is my first attempt at writing in this medium so I'd be grateful - as ever - for any comments and feedback.  If it's a format that works - who knows?  You might just see me doing some more in the future :-)

We hope so Joanna!

Like you, our contributing authors are lifelong learners, and while we are grateful to both Karen and Joanna for sharing these e-books with us, we are most proud of the example they set as learners who take risks, trying new things in immediate application of their learning. They have taken that additional, very crucial step, where learnING becomes learnED. They have taken a Leap!

Thank you Karen and Joanna, and Ho‘omaika‘i ana ~ congratulations on your work, both beautifully done expressions of your Ho‘ohana.
~ Rosa Say for Joyful Jubilant Learning

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Read more about the learning journeys Karen and Joanna take, by clicking to their author indexes here on JJL:

• Karen Wallace
• Joanna Young

Jumping Jubilantly, with Joy!

'On with the dance! Let joy be unconfined'

is my motto, whether there's any dance to dance

or joy to unconfine.

-Mark Twain

Happy Birthday to Joyful, Jubilant Learning!

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Karen Wallace sends wamest greetings and wishes all contributors and readers of JJL the happiest of birthday celebrations... and many, many more to come! On with the dance...

Selling myself short - it's hard to make a difference if you don't believe you can

“...The recognition, the realisation, that I’m less than totally brilliant at – or confident in – tooting my own horn. And the more I reflect on it, the more I suspect that’s what I need to focus on learning.  Perhaps because it feels like a stretch. ”

Those words of Joanna’s struck a chord within me that resonated long after I could no longer hear the note, like a beautiful harmony that goes on and on and on.

I was sitting at my computer catching up on the wonderful writings about making a difference here at JJL, and thinking about the fact that I would soon need to nail my own contribution. I was curious about what I would write about.

Joanna had a recognition that she isn’t confident, “or brilliant” at tooting her own horn. And suddenly, I knew what it was I am to write about – because I need to learn it! Often I will sit down to write, or to coach, and what I most need to learn becomes the subject matter. Today is no different.

I have been told a lot lately that I need to KNOW it… accept it… feel it... live it.

What’s “it”?

The trusting and knowing that I make a difference in the lives of others.

I grew up not realising that I made a difference to those around me. I felt that it was more of a one-way street, that my friends made a difference in my life. And so I struggled endlessly to ensure I gave something back.

A couple of years ago, I had a phone consultation with William Whitecloud – author of The Magicians Way. He told me my false belief was that I don’t make a difference.

Recently, in my practicum classes at Coach U where I am doing my final classes to graduate their Advanced Coaching Program I have been held to scrutiny by the class leader – a Master Certified Coach – who wanted to know when I was going to KNOW that I am a masterful coach, a coach who makes difference (in front of the whole class!!).

Just this last week, I led my first group coaching call to a group of my classmates – and one of the participants gave me this feedback: “Give yourself credit for a job well done! Really let the comments on all your strengths sink in and allow you to really believe in you! I have had the pleasure to work with you several times now, Karen! You are a treasure!”

And with this history (and all that mind-talk that happens at moments like these), I read Joanna’s post about Realising the Power of our Words. It was like all these pieces of a puzzle that I have been collecting and diligently placing on the table suddenly grouped themselves together and became the most delightful picture, lit by soft glorious sunbeams.

I need to recognize and really know, deep in my heart, that I make a difference in order to make an even bigger contribution to the world in which I live.

I'd like to take a loan of Joanna’s words, and make them my own:

Because I know it will take me out of my comfort zone (waaay out there!).

Because it will force me to learn new skills: how to connect with people individually and en masse to really get to the heart of what they need, and how best to make a difference in their lives; how to listen even deeper to the words left unsaid; and how to shine my light brightly (another challenge!) so that the difference I make can be felt by all who need it.

Because it will get me out of my own fear and have me moving forward. 

Without the belief that we can make a difference, we live smaller lives – lives with less meaning and purpose. Lives stunted by our own self-imposed limitations.

I’m accepting the challenge… and I really want to know if you’d join me in knowing that you, too, make a difference in the lives of others.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

        - Eleanor Roosevelt

 

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Karen Wallace (finally) believes she makes a difference to the lives of others; helping them find that sense of calm that allows their hearts to sing with joy.  Karen is editor of The Calm Space - a virtual magazine that is like a day-spa for your senses... launching October 1st!