Week 10 - Zayin, the Illusion of Fear, and Letting Go of Being Cool

 
I sure love you guys. Your online discussion last week was so beautifully profound, I wish we could get all the youth in the world to take a peak at it and see how great it is to be collaboratively seeking truth and helping each other dig deeper into how to joyfully live. You are incredible. I think you should try to continue commenting on quotes and questions in the future when you can - I believe it helped deepen the class discussion for everyone.

So the class discussion was also wonderful - we talked about how to stop judging ourselves, how to be still and how to practice calmness and joy through gratitude and love. We also listened to music as we made ourselves slashed names (like it talked about in Guidepost 9: writer/cook/philanthropist etc). If you were not in class, I encourage you to try this - use your patriarchal blessing as a guide too - and make your name as long as you want. Most of us had awesomely long names. We talked about how we are all unique and we need to stop pigeon holing ourselves into "one identity" that we are known by.

We also go into teams and made plans for a collaborative project to work present to families. You guys came up with such great ideas in just 10 minutes! Impressive.

Here are this week's inspirements. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Watch: Jim Statley talk about Zayin in the Hebrew alphabet.*
Read: The Illusion of Fear 
Read: Guidepost 10 and Final Thoughts
Write: A goal from last week's reading/discussion, and a quote and question from this week's video or readings. Comment on other people's questions and thoughts if you'd like.
Prepare: Take your writing from last week, and prepare a 5ish minute presentation to teach our families what you have learned this semester. You can do it in any creative way of your choosing - speech, skit, game, video, song, poem, art, powerpoint, etc.
Collaborate: on this Google doc to help with the collaborative presentation we will be putting together on Friday.


*Jim Staley is a Hebrew scholar and a preacher. I love his talks on the Hebrew alphabet. The letter Zayin is the letter of perfection. I think you will see connections to what we've been reading and discussing.

Here is another song about stillness:

And here is the song we played on our hike, if any of you were interested:

Week 9 - Letting Go of Anxiety and Self-Doubt

This morning was so nice and peaceful. I am glad some of you could join us for the temple and I hope everyone had a reflective hike.

We wrote and talked about things that "get in the way" of our spiritual daily habits, educational goals, family relationships and our joy and creativity.

We hiked with things that got in our way (with arms tied to each other's and then feet tied to each other's feet).

And we talked about why we let things get in our way. It was discussed that it is often because it is easier or more comfortable to get distracted or just go with the status quo. But we agreed that hiking with "things in our way" is much slower and difficult than when we let things go.

It was mentioned that chains can be broken one by one and how uncertainty is like faith (described in Alma 32) and it is where curiosity, inspiration, and creativity, growth and experimenting take place. As we feel truth swell in our hearts, enlighten our minds, enlarge our souls and become delicious - it grows into knowledge and our faith becomes dormant in that thing. Then we can get curious about the next adventure in growth.

We just have 2 weeks of class left before our family presentations! Any of you  are welcome to come over anytime this week to get going on them and we will make some time to work on it on Friday. We are available Tuesday before 5, Wednesday before 3, and Thursday after 2 and before 5:30.

Plan on an extra long class on March 18th (I had it on the calendar from 2:30-6:30) we will have a simulation and finalize our projects.

Here are your inspirements for this week:

1. Read Guidepost 8 and 9 in GOI,, comment below with: your goal for this week (from Guidepost 6 or 7), a favorite quote (from Guidepost 8 or 9), and a question by TUESDAY.
2. Carve out 30-60 minutes to sit quietly outside (somewhere without people) with a pen and reflection book, your Gifts of Imperfection book and the this printout with a review of the semester. Write down what you have learned about yourself and wholeheartedness through the last couple of months.**
3. Type out what you don't mind sharing.  Include a personal example. Post it in your own blog, a google doc, or on our discussion blog  by Wednesday. Type the link to your writing in the comments below. Several in the group are out of town this weekend and will need to see your writing so they can comment by Thursday. 
4. Comment on at least 4 questions and 4 writing links (8 total) by Thursday.

There are 15 youth in our class,  so we should have 16 goal/quote/question comments by Tuesday (including mine) and 16 more writing links by Wednesday (32 total). And don't forget to comment on 8 things by THURSDAY night.

**if you were not in class Saturday. It would be helpful to start your writing with the questions we pondered on our hike:
1. What gets in the way of your spiritual daily habits? Why do you let it?
2. What are your daily and long term educational goals? What gets in the way of your daily ones? Why do you let it?
3. What gets in the way of joyful family relationships or what causes contention in your home? Why do you let it?
4. What gets in the way of your daily joy and creativity? Why do you let it?

Week 8 - Things That Get in the Way

What a wonderful discussion last night! Thank-you for coming prepared with questions and quotes to make it so meaningful. I hope you learned as much as I did. It was fun watching Ashley be a shepherd to all of the blindfolded, baa-ing sheep as she tried to clap and whistle you into your sheep pen. I enjoyed hearing how you related it to the power of one person with vision, and the importance of uncertainty and it's value to faith. I hope you'll remember that weakness and uncertainty are good things as they help us desire to tune in to God's voice. I thought it was interesting how you all decided to find each other when you were blindfolded and then try to listen to Ashley's signals together. It showed how we can help one another and also hinder one another - depending on our ability to listen and how well we have learned to see and hear.

Remember, next week - March 5th is a Saturday morning activity. We will meet from 9am-12. Some of you wanted to stay after and work on your creative projects for the family presentation so please feel free to do that too!

Here are the inspirements for next week: I put the Gifts of Imperfection readings on Google Drive so you or your parents can know where to cross off swear words in your own books.

1. Read: The Things that Get in the Way  (GOI 31-53)
2. Watch: The Power of Not Knowing 
3. Read: Guideposts 6 and 7
4. Act: Today (Saturday) Write a goal from Guidepost 5 on the comments below and work on it this week
5. Discuss: Write a discussion question and a quote from your readings on the comments below
*Work on anything you were assigned in your collaborative project group and on your memorization

And here is a video I put together with some highlights from last night ;-)

 

Week 7 - Blindness

Thank-you to those who participated in a wonderful discussion on The Great Divorce yesterday. We had a small class, but you had great, edifying things to say. I love hearing your insights and watching you inspire one another.

We missed those who were not there. If you could not make it, please read and do #1 below:

#1 We discussed Cassia's question while we cross-country skied last week: "What hope do we have? If the Youngbergs, who are good skiers, still fall; and people like David (in the Bible)who knew so much still fell - what hope do we have for making it through alright?"

In class we talked about vines and how when a plant is connected to it's vine - it grows. When a plant gets disconnected it starts to decay. Unlike plants, because of the atonement, we can reconnect to our Vine whenever we have lost connection. But no matter how much we know - if we disconnect from the Vine because we put anything else in front of Him, we have no hope for growth or for reaching our potential.

The Great Divorce is about some of the things that entice us to put them in front of God. As a class, we wrote out the enticements and the way to overcome them for each person in the book.  If you were not in class, I am asking you to do this on your own for the following people:
                                               Enticement                            Remedy
The Frightened Ghost:
The Cynic:
The Grumbler:
Painter:
Robert's Wife:
Pam:
Ghost with the Lizard:
Sarah Smith and the Dwarf:

Example:                            Enticement                               Remedy
The Bishop:  Power, Position, To appear smart and new     Take time off to connect with God and check his motives.  

  Everyone: Please do the following for next week:
#2  Read: It Isn't a Sin to be Weak
#3 Read: On Certain Blindness in Human Beings 
#4 Watch: On Being Wrong 
#5 Write: A quote and discussion question below
 
What some need to catch up on from other weeks:
#6 If you haven't done so - write your thoughts on perfectionism or wholeness -  If you are stressing out about the "essay" - just write what you have learned so far about one or the other - don't worry about making it professional or essay-ish. It doesn't have to be perfect ;-) Even a paragraph of your thoughts would be alright.
 #7 If you didn't read Guidepost 5 last week - read it this week. We will be discussing it in class. Keep working on your gratitude goal this week.

Note: If you are behind in class and didn't attend yesterday - you have 7 things to do this week (8 if you still have to finish The Great Divorce), so get started early.
If you are all caught up and came to class yesterday - you just have 4 things to do this week.

Please be sure you check them all off before Friday. We want to inspire one another, not set the bar low for each other about what is expected in this class. I know everyone feels very busy right now. It's that time of year. But as much as I LOVE you all, I'd rather not mentor a class where the bar is set low. <3


 

Week 6 - Catch Up!

Thank you for being such a great group to take cross-country skiing. I was impressed with your perseverance and desire to help one another. We were skiing for 4 1/2 hours (not counting driving time!)  I hope you all had a good time and learned some things about yourself and how you play the "game of life." Thanks for always being respectful of me and my ideas and trying to discuss while staying balanced on cross-country skis. I heard bits and pieces of your discussions and I loved what you had to say and how you think.We missed those of you who couldn't come :(


It looked like some of you were behind on our assignments so this is sort of  a catch up week. There are a couple of new things so all of you will have some work to do, but those who are caught up will not have very much to do this week. EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE COMMENTED BELOW ON #5 and #6 BY THURSDAY.... please - it is so much easier to plan class (and so much more pertinent to you) when I know what is on your mind by your questions, applications and quotes.

1.  Finish The Great Divorce if you did not finish it. We will be finishing the discussion this week (it was hard to discuss while skiing ;-) )
2. Write a paper on whole-hearteness or perfectionism (or a contrast paper contrasting the two - or some other theme that has emerged from our studies that you would like to look into more). Or find another way to present what you have learned about these attributes. (If you already sent me your paper, or if you presented something, you do not have to do it again unless you want to... that would be  Miles, Gracious, Nathan, Megan, William... I'm guessing most of the rest of you wrote but forgot to send it).
3. Finish Part 1 of On Writing Well
4. Read Guidepost 5 if you didn't last week and write your gratitude goal -  or how you're doing with or if you're modifying it this week it if you already wrote it -  on the collaborative group or on the comments below. 
5. WRITE A DISCUSSION QUESTION, FAVORITE QUOTE AND APPLICATION IN THE COMMENTS BELOW (unless you're Aaron because he is the only one who did it last week).
6. Sign up to help with something below for our family presentation night. We can have several people sign up for each if they want to collaborate - they can write their own ideas and then see which they like best or find a way to put them together. Write your choice in the comments below. You can work on more than one if you'd like. We will start collaborating on these this week in class so come prepared with written ideas.

• Write a new rendition AND/OR a way to present Precious Savior Dear Redeemer to the families.
• Think of a way to present the poem in a creative way to families
• Think of a way to present the scripture in a creative way to families
• Write or direct a skit about the theme of the sememster (whole-heartedness).
• Write a script for a short video (documentary, music video, play, interviews, etc...) about "creating a peer inspiring environment" to present to families and possibly put on youtube for others.  
• Create a different project to collaborate with others on to present to families

Week 5: The Great Divorce

We played with play dough in class today. We talked about how the play dough has the potential to become whatever we mold it to be. We also have everything in us - right now -  to become what we are meant to become.  We are whole. That whole can be make perfect someday as we ask God, "What lack I yet?" and let Him mold us step by step.

Thanks everyone for a great discussion on love, belonging and whether or not we can love others more than we love ourselves. I always learn so much from you and I love spending time with you each week. Here are the inspirements for next week:

 Sat. February 13th 8-1

1.  Post Goal for Guidepost 4 and Read Guidepost 5 in Gifts of Imperfection
2. Read The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
3. Take notes on what motivated each character (and himself) and what keeps them from progressing.
4. Write a favorite quote, application and question in the comments below
5. Work on the Poem and Scripture
6. Work on creative project ideas! Maybe we can start filming while we ski!

Week 5 - Wholeness vs Perfectionism

Thank-you for your participation on Friday night! I loved your thoughts and insights. I have more I want to do for my creative project about a peer inspiring environment, but I will write about that on our creative collaboration google group later on tonight.

You will want to start this week's inspirements soon because you will need to do some research for your writing assignment (you have already done a lot of research in our readings so far, but you will probably want to research a little more on your own - a word study on perfection and one on wholeness would certainly help you). These inspirements go along with Carson's quote from Friday night, "I am most myself when I am serving. We are ourselves when we are missionaries."

Inspirements:

1. Read: Exploring the Power of Love, Belonging, and Being Enough (GOI pg 23-30)
2. Write  Compare and Contrast Essay on Perfection vs Wholeness (rough draft) or find some other way to present the difference between the two. If you want to improve your writing, and work on your essay skills - here are some guidelines to a "Compare and Contrast" essay. Bring 3 copies to class.
3. Act: Work on Guidepost 3, read guidepost 4 on GOI