Well Monday, September 17th has come and gone!! The start of our Fall Session took off with a BANG with the successful completion of our Good Learning Anywhere SHARING CIRCLE!
Our first circle of the fall term began with a retelling of a popular traditional oral story. The difference this time was the fact that the story was from the Icelandic cultural tradition. Why you ask? When developing our Sharing Circle content, I always try to incorporate a story that ties in with our guest speaker. It might be one close to their heart or it may relate to the topic or topics which they will be speaking about. This month’s oral story was “The Sealskin.” Similar stories can be found in Ireland, Scotland and Norway as well as Iceland.
I chose this story to tie into the fact that our guest speaker, CLARA CORBIERE, had travelled to Iceland as a participant in the Arthritis Society’s Joints in Motion. Clara suffers from Rheumatoid Arthritis but hasn’t let this agonizing, debilitating disease stop her from living her life to the fullest. This past July she travelled to Iceland to hike some “hills” (Clara didn’t agree with her guide – they weren’t hills, they were mountains!) and in so doing, helped to raise funds for arthritis research. To read more about Clara’s experiences in dealing with her disease click on the blog links below:
In Clara’s own words, here is the reason she chose to do the Joints in Motion Iceland trek:
“I chose to do this, to prove to myself that having arthritis does not mean the end, that I can still live my life to the fullest, that some way, somehow, maybe the funds I raise will be the dollars that find the cure to ensure me and millions like me will wake up each morning for the rest of our lives pain free with no symptoms, that we’ll be able to sleep through the night and never have to worry about a sleepless night due to arthritis again.”
