Zooming for Fun

Tired of all the zoom meetings?

Let’s change the picture and use this technology for FUN. It does provide a means of connecting, although second best to actual face-to-face contact.

Changing the picture might have various landscapes:

Family Zooms can be informal or semi-formal:

- a weekly zoom is helpful to just visit with close siblings or others.

- a  semi-formal monthly family zoom may suit others.  I have numerous first and second cousins on my Dad’s Mennonite side of my family and we have a family zoom as the spirit seems to move 3 of us to initiate.  This June, we will be inviting up to 84 cousins and second cousins to take part.  If it turns out to be a large group, we will use chat rooms in which each person will be invited to introduce him/her self in terms of who their parents were and what is one gift or legacy that was left by our parents. Then we will come back to the large group and ask for a few to share how that experience was for them. We have found that storytelling has been a great way of connecting with each other.

Faith sharing groups: this would involve a group that regularly meets (weekly) and it is customary that each person takes her turn in preparing a brief reflection for the group which is sent to the group a day or two ahead of time.  Screen sharing can be used if requested by the person presenting for that week. The group, by coming together weekly, to share in a respectful way of just listening to each other, develops a close bond.

Nurturing relationships groups: I have the privilege and opportunity to engage with a group that we have named “the Monthly Musers” which consists of 6 settler women and 4 Indigenous women all of whom have been co-facilitators of the Kairos Blanket Exercise.  At first, we met monthly and “checked in”. It does get to a point, though, when “checking in” is not enough, so we do a brief checking in, followed by a Land acknowledgment, some brief input ( a 20-minute YouTube or video on some aspect of the TRC). Then one of the Indigenous women leads us in an Indigenous style sharing Circle.  Our experience of these “Monthly Musings” together has proved to be very meaningful in getting to know each other and appreciate the struggles we all have, telling the TRUTH of our respective past histories, and working together towards restoring harmonious relationships with each other as settlers and Indigenous women.

Formal Teaching and Sharing Circles provided by Kairos:

Register Today – June is National Indigenous History Month

This National Indigenous History month you can help to build bridges of reconciliation! Register today for a KBE Teaching & Sharing Circle – Indigenous-led, interactive online sessions that help to foster ‘right relations’ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people through truth, sharing, and open dialogue.  The Summer sessions are now open for registration ($25) at:  https://www.kairosblanketexercise.org/event/

• Tuesday, June 1 (7-9 pm ET) -- The Impacts of Residential Schools

• Tuesday, June 15 (7-9 pm ET) -- Métis Teachings

• Monday, June 21 (7-9 pm ET) -- We are All Treaty People (*National Indigenous History Day)

• Tuesday, June 29 (7-9 pm ET) -- Social Injustice in the Courts

Prerequisites:

1. a desire to connect

2. a Zoom account to invite participants  (40 minutes is free); with ONE other person the time is unlimited

3. ability to share screen is helpful

4. the incentive to ask for help if needed.

Happy Zooming for fun!  It is well worth it.

 Submitted by: Sister Kathleen Lichti, CSJ

“To Zoom or Not to Zoom”, that is the Question

With the radical ways of being moving and changing so drastically because of Covid-19, we are drawn to ponder the question:  “To Zoom or NOT to Zoom?”

In my own personal experience of connecting with people, I have found that Zoom is right now the new “normal” for connecting with family, friends, organizations.

Just recently (Sept. 17th) I had the privilege to host a Zoom call with 45 participants all across Canada to be engaged with an Indigenous helper and knowledge keeper on her experience of “The Impact of Residential Schools”.

We literally “zoomed in” on her personal experience and engaged in the experience by expressing how we were affected by what was heard.

I was on the de-briefing residential schools’ Zoom call with a few people when Jean came in and joined in this small gathering as we were de-briefing. Jean shared what she experienced in Jeff Thistle’s presentation, and we shared our experience of the circle Zoom call that had just ended.  We connected through and because of two Zoom calls that had been experienced at the same time, both involving relationships between Indigenous and non Indigenous peoples.

I share this by way of indicating how Zoom has made it possible for people to truly connect across geographic, cultural, and social lines.

We, Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada, experienced this in our recent beginning of Chapter 2020.  The conversations we had were respectful, well-paced, and came from deep reflection. Kudos to the many Sisters who have learned how to Zoom!

It seems to be one of the effective ways of linking people together when the world seems to be falling apart.  What the world needs now is truly effective ways of communicating involving sight and sound if possible.

So if you are asking yourself, “to Zoom or not to Zoom?” I highly recommend it for connecting with your families, friends, reflection groups, community members…and possibly at unexpected levels of depth.

-Sister Kathleen Lichti, CSJ

Zoom for Dummies

Confronted with the necessity of learning to use zoom, and wading through a variety of apps, I managed to install a zero-cost Zoom app on my computer.  I had already mastered the skill of opening a Zoom meeting by clicking on the link sent to me via e-mail.  I bravely joined a small group of learners in an on-line webinar taught by Sister Kathleen, a patient member of my CSJ community.  With some extra private coaching, I succeeded in learning computer etiquette, to check the volume of microphone and speaker, join a meeting, move between gallery view and speaker view, adjust my camera, mute, unmute, leave the meeting, etc. Now I was ready to learn how to initiate meetings - on to the advanced class!

In the first session, I was expelled because I somehow managed to render my Zoom app “encrypted” and the resulting cacophony made the meeting inaccessible to all.  My teacher refused to give up; more private tutoring followed.  In the second class, I was again invited to exit the session early after a guided exercise in leaving and then rejoining the group resulted in my computer having two almost simultaneous versions of the meeting occurring, not quite synchronously, for all participants.  Nevertheless, our instructor has not despaired.  More private tutoring and assurances that I could master this next step have given me a modicum of confidence.  This evening, I have a semi-private lesson scheduled in which my intrepid teacher will coach another student and me in learning how to invite each other to schedule a Zoom meeting. Fortunately, our teacher can rove between her students’ adjacent locations to coach each of us.  I wish her success and hope for a happy outcome.

“Computers are a means of teaching us humility”

In my deplorable state I am encouraged by knowledge if children can learn to use computers then so can I! And I am comforted by a remark from Connie, one of our most accomplished staff members (who has shown remarkable restraint and patience in dealing with my computer woes).  Computers, she says, are a means of teaching us humility. Developing a new skill will yield added benefits.

- Sister Patricia McKeon, csj