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Meditation SIG
Functional Meditation-
Part 3 of a 3 Part Series
Presented
by Jacquie Wollins
Moderator: Sally Ekaireb
Monday, June 15, 4:30-5:10 p.m.
This period of social distancing is a great opportunity to get quiet and meditate.
Jacquie
Wollins will present
content from her
Functional Meditation
course to establish a foundation to this meditation practice.
We are in stressful times, and we all react differently. Starting from
the beginner perspective, Jacquie will lead you to your meditative state
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to a place where you can find refuge and appreciate your strengths and vitality while taking away the mystery of meditation
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There will be three successive programs in this series.
You will learn how to get to your
Alpha meditative state
and develop your skill and achievement for easy access.
You will also learn how to use your meditative state, that's
where the "functional" aspects come in
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Jackie has been teaching
Functional Meditation for many years at OLLI. This practice is based on the Silva Method and incorporates different aspects of the Feldenkrais Method.
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Link to Join Zoom Meeting to join on June 15:
Meeting ID: 726 8736 4915
Password:
531629
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For questions and the link for this series, get in touch with Meditation SIG contact: Sally Ekaireb:
skekaireb@gmail.com
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Elisha Mitchell Audubon Society (EMAS) Special Program
"A Murder of Crows, and Other Clever Corvids"
Tuesday, June 16, 7 p.m.
Facebook account not necessary
The Elisha Mitchell Audubon Society invites you to join international bird guide Aaron Steed for an informative
talk
about the fascinating Corvid family. Crows, ravens,
and blue jays
have long been maligned, mythologized and misunderstood. Often living near
people, they are easily recognizable but not necessarily the most beloved of birds. Recent research has shown that they are highly intelligent birds. Their behavioral traits, unusual in most bird species, include cooperative breeding, long-term pair and family bonds, caching of food and use of tools. Aaron will provide insight into the complex behaviors, social structures, and incredible intelligence exhibited by members of this group. A special focus will be given to those species which occur in WNC, and how to identify them.
Blue Jay by Brian Kushner/Audubon Photo Awards
Aaron Steed is a graduate of the UNC-Asheville Biology Department and has worked on ornithological field research focused primarily on endangered species. Aaron is currently office manager and tour guide at Ventures Birding Tours in Asheville. He has led international bird tours to Panama, Belize, Peru, Cuba, and Spain as well as tours all across America.
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The Future of Intercollegiate Athletics
Wednesday, June 17, 11 a.m.
Have you wondered what the landscape of intercollegiate athletics will look like this fall and beyond?
will be joined by North Carolina's Director of Athletics Bubba Cunningham and North Carolina A&T's Athletic Director Earl M. Hutton III in a Virtual 101 Webinar. The webinar will be hosted by Larry Griswold, formerly with Sports Illustrated and Sports History Instructor at the College of Seniors/OLLI Center.
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How We Are Coping:
OLLI Members Report (and Learn From Grandchildren!)
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OLLI member Kirk Borland reports that two of his grandchildren have used some of their time staying at home to try to learn sign language (and others were learning or brushing up on musical and artistic skills) |
The Benefits of Quarantine
by Kirk Borland
Much has been written about the negative impact of our 3-month stay-at-home imprisonment, especially on children. Deprived of normal social interaction, one's tendency for depression, stress, and anxiety reportedly increases. But might there be a silver-lining?
A survey of our grandkids, ranging in age from 2 to 16, was illuminating. When asked how they utilized the time confined to home, a pattern emerged. The first weeks were tough, with expressions of boredom and pleas for friend visits ("We'll stay apart if they come over to play"). But as weeks stretched into months, solutions began to emerge. Two decided to try to learn sign language; another taught himself how to do a handstand; several turned to the internet, bridging the distance between friends with social networks or educational games.
Even more inspiring was some of the non-digital creativity. One of our youngest began piano and art lessons; another learned to make watercolors using food dye. One grandchild sharpened his illustration skills creating dinosaurs and turning them into videos; another wrote stories and used YouTube to learn the guitar. As restrictions eased, our oldest girl decided to repaint her room; and our eldest boy successfully applied for his first real job.
For proud grandparents, it occurred to us that a little confinement can have its benefits.
Caution Fatigue and How to Combat It
We have been having many serious conversations as a staff about the difficult decision about when we can safely gather again at the Reuter Center as we balance the risk of spreading COVID-19 to our members with the reward of gathering together. When the pandemic first began, a number of our members said they would not feel safe until there was a cure or a vaccine. Some of the same people are now asking us to be more creative and flexible in convening small gatherings.
I have continued to confine myself to a couple of monthly trips to the grocery store (masked and gloved and sanitizing when I return home) and walking on the relatively unpeopled trails and sidewalks around our homes. I have been surprised on a couple of drives on the Blue Ridge Parkway to see a full parking lot and every table at Craggy Gardens occupied by unmasked picnickers (and not just those who were eating and drinnking). I was even more alarmed during a trip to Hendersonville to see the streets crowded, about 90% of the people unmasked, people waiting in line with no social distance to get into bars or a bakery, all this while cases of Covid-19 and hospitalizations continue to rise in our state and our region. I have worried about the people doing the important work of protesting to call attention to the Black Lives Matter movement who could not practice social distance, although I noted that they wore masks, protecting themselves and the people around them.
As I see so many people who seem to be ready to return to our "pre-quarantine" life, I begin to doubt myself. Am I being too cautious? Do I overestimate the risks that others are taking? Is the "stay-at-home" life easier for me to justify than for others who don't have family, pets, or work to keep them occupied? If our county and state government are asking us to practice the "3 Ws" (wear a face covering, wait six feet apart, and wash your hands frequently), why do so few people seem to be practicing those guidelines?
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Photo from Charlotte Observer
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College for Seniors program manager shared a CNN report on "caution fatigue" (
click here to read the CNN story and watch the video). Dr. Jacqueline Gollan is quoted in the CNN report, and you may want to
click here for an article from Northwestern Now that includes an explanation of the brain mechanisms and emotions that lead to decreased energy to maintain safety guidelines. Dr. Gollan offers some ways to "quiet chronic stress response" with gratitude practices, physical activity, mind-body practices and healthful eating and drinking that curb hormone and mood swings. We hope that you are all staying safe and able to find ways to connect while we stay apart.
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UNC Asheville, Healthy Aging NC, the NC Center for Health and Wellness, and UNC Health Sciences at MAHEC have created the Social Bridging Project that connects isolated older adults with trained volunteers for a friendly check-in, referrals to community resources, and help troubleshooting basic technologies to stay connected.
I
f you or someone you know would like to receive a call as a check-in, to get some training on technology that helps you connect to others or allows you to take advantage of telehealth opportunities, or if you need access to resources and are not sure where to begin, please contact Dr. Tasha Woodall
at (828)771-3445 or send an email to
Tasha.Woodall@mahec.net with your
phone number and preferred day and
time for a phone call.
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The Forum SIG - Virtual Edition!
Friday, June 26, 1 p.m.
Online
Topics:
June 26: How can we help Asheville recover from the current situation?
July 3: Current events and selection of topics for July.
The weekly Forum encourages a free-flowing dialogue designed to enrich and expand participants' thinking on a wide variety of topics; the group frequently focuses on current events. All OLLI members are welcome to attend. Contact
Beth Johnson, the Forum SIG coordinator, to get a link for the meeting: johnson1ea@earthlink.net
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Death Cafe: Online
Let's Talk About Death and Dying
Friday, June 26,
5 - 6:30 p.m.
Since the onset of the
Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic,
Death Cafe
has moved from the Reuter Center to online.
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How We Can Help:
Community Volunteer Needs
We know that OLLI members are for the most part over 60 and therefore considered particularly susceptible to COVID-19, even as organizations and businesses begin to re-open. We suggest that before you sign on for any volunteer opportunity that you gain a full understanding of the precautions that will be taken to protect volunteers and diminish spread of the virus.
Become a Reading
Tutor
with Read to Succeed
Asheville/Buncombe
OLLI's Civic Engagement Committee Chair Kathleen Mainardi writes with the following request from Read2Succeed, a group the committee partners with.
Did you know that children who aren't reading on grade-
level by the end of 3rd grade are 4x more likely to drop out
of school? You can help close the literacy achievement gap
and give students both the skills and confidence they need to
succeed in school and life. Become a volunteer reading tutor
with Read to Succeed Asheville/Buncombe and work one-to-one with a kindergarten-third-grade student in one of our local Asheville City or
Buncombe County schools 1hour per week. Young students are going to need literacy support more than ever following the COVID-19 crisis, and you can make a difference!
To learn more about this unique opportunity and upcoming volunteer training dates, contact Julie Claywell, Volunteer Coordinator, at julie.claywell@r2sasheville.org /
We appreciate the spirit of OLLI members who want to help, while we urge caution as we learn to live with the virus.
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Staying Together Apart
We realize that we would all like things to be "back to normal" as soon as possible, to be back in our "home away from home," especially at this beautiful time of year. We also realize that the best way to stay safe is to stay home except for essential travel. We here at OLLI are trying to make the most of this challenging time by finding ways to use technology like Zoom and social media platforms to stay connected and to understand "creative retirement" in new ways. We encourage you to try all of these new ways to capture a feeling for our OLLI community even while we have to stay apart.
We all look forward to being back together at the Reuter Center, but until then, we want you to feel connected and to continue to look to OLLI for great opportunities to learn "together apart."
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Gray Matters: Creating Connections
Video Rollout Continues
Click on the image below so that you don't miss instructor Jim Lenburg's video recalling how reassuring President Franklin D. Roosevelt's fireside chats were during the perilous times of the Great Depression and World War II.
Have a story you want to tell? Perhaps as a Witness to History, or a unique, compelling personal life story of your own? Please contact Kathleen Mainardi (
kkmainardi@gmail.com) or Judy LaMée (
judylamee@gmail.com)
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Gray Matters Episode 2: Jim Lenburg:
FDR Connects with the Nation |
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The Leadership Is In
Tuesday, June 16,
2-3 p.m.
We are entering a new phase of our programs that is at least temporarily very different from our familiar territory. We want to find new ways to hear what you are thinking and to talk about our OLLI community's plans, our hopes, and our challenges. Our first two calls went well, and we hope to continue for a while.
During these sessions members of the OLLI staff and steering council will share their ideas about planning for the future. You don't have to have a question or idea.
Feel free just to stop by to say hello.
We want to know how you are thinking, feeling, and coping, and to stay connected to the organization that we create together.
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What's Next for OLLI at UNC Asheville
We had a successful first week of Summer 2020 College for Seniors classes, and we are turning our attention to fall preparations. UNC Asheville is awaiting word from the UNC System Office for a final approval of their fall plans.
The university plans to reopen for undergraduate education, beginning on Monday, August 10, and ending the fall term on Friday, November 20, with the hope of minimizing the times when large groups of students will be leaving and returning from campus by eliminating fall break. Our university's senior staff is managing a staggering number of decisions and details to maintain the university as a vital and important institution in our community. University leaders have to manage best and worst case scenarios that include enrollment numbers, finances, and state appropriations. They are working with guidance from the UNC System, UNC Healthcare, MAHEC, and Mission Health to make good decisions about safety protocols based on the best available data and our community's capacity to care for people who contract the virus. They are designing classrooms for social distance and safe entrances and exits, designing and ordering masks and hand sanitizers, creating protocols to serve food and manage libraries, and planning how to manage outbreaks of the virus when they occur.
They are also considering how best to meet the needs of OLLI members, who fit into a demographic most vulnerable to the ill effects of the disease.
College for Seniors program manager Herb Gunn and our curriculum committees are working on fall plans as well. At this point 40 instructors have agreed to offer remote courses. To manage the impact on our enrollment numbers, we will be reaching out to communities who have not traditionally participated. We are working on ways to reach audiences at some of our area continuing care retirement communities and to communities like those at Asheville Terraces Apartments. We are learning a great deal about remote learning that will help us serve a broader community during current pandemic conditions and also after we are able to return to face-to-face instruction.
We know that many of you will be disappointed if we cannot gather face-to-face. It is also likely that many will not feel comfortable returning to shared public spaces, particularly people over 65 and those with underlying medical conditions, as long as there is no cure and no vaccine for Covid-19. Some people have already told me that if the university opens we should open, even if we have a very different financial model and different epidemiological concerns. I have been so grateful for the positive and entrepreneurial spirit that so many members of our community are showing as we work to remain vital and engaged. I am also grateful to those who ask challenging questions about how we are making our decisions and who remind us of the great value in the ways we have traditionally gathered.
We can still dream big and be part of a community of learners, even if temporarily that may look different than populating the Reuter Center. We will always strive to preserve the best of who we are, and we are learning all the time about the possibility to add new communities and tools to the work we do. Thanks so much for your patience and creativity as we enter a new phase of lifelong learning.
Stay tuned. Stay positive. Stay together apart.
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Sharing the Talents of OLLI Members
Please keep sharing stories of how you are staying in; just send them to me at cfrank@unca.edu. We want to know how you are staying safe and learning. Pictures and even videos are encouraged. We would love to hear from you.
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This Day in Sports History
by College for Seniors Instructor Larry Griswold
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Michael Jordan's 1998 NBA Championship shot |
June 14, 1988:
Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, the subjects of ESPN's recent miniseries, "The Last Dance," defeated the Utah Jazz, 87-86,
for their sixth National Basketball Association Championship in eight years. Trailing with less than six seconds left at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City,
Jordan hit the winning shot with 5.2 seconds left, led all scorers with 45 points, and was named NBA finals MVP for a record sixth time.
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Rangers captain Mark Messier holding the 1994 Stanley Cup
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June 14, 1994:
The National Hockey League New York Rangers finally ended a 54-year championship drought with a 3-2 win over
the Vancouver Canucks in game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals. Five nights earlier with the Rangers leading three games to one
at Madison Square Garden, the crowd, many holding miniature Stanley Cups, expected the win, but the Rangers lost 6-3.
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GreenWorks 8th Annual Pollinator Celebration Events
POLLINATOR PHOTO CONTEST
Now until June 30
Break out your smartphones and cameras this June and start snapping pics of WNC's native pollinators!
Enter your best photos in our contest for a chance to win incredible prizes, like a $250 shopping spree at Reems Creek Nursery, and to see your photo posted on Asheville GreenWorks' Instagram!
Stream "The Pollinators" and Live Q+A
Live Q+A on June 23, 7- 8:30 p.m.
It's a "movie screening" with a twist... We're offering access to this critically acclaimed film, but you get to watch it from your own home, on your own schedule!
You register, we send you a link, you stream the film between June 19th and June 24th - easy as that. But it gets better - on June 23rd, we're hosting a Q&A with two of the bee researchers from the film: Maryann and Jim Frazier!
Released in 2019, "The Pollinators" is a cinematic journey around the United States following migratory beekeepers and their truckloads of honeybees as they pollinate the flowers that become the fruits, nuts and vegetables we all eat. While the film is focused on honeybees, they take a hard look at the pesticides that impact all pollinators.
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Wishing They Were Here
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Charlayne Hunter-Gault (left) with
Mildred Barya,UNC assistant professor of English,
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While it seems a lifetime ago, Charlayne Hunter Gault gave the keynote address for the 2020 Martin Luther King Commemoration at UNC Asheville back in January of this year.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault is an award-winning journalist of national and international stature, the author of four books, and a pioneer of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement who successfully challenged segregation in court and gained entrance to the University of Georgia. She is
best known for her 20 years with the PBS NewsHour as a national and international correspondent and anchor. She later became NPR's Africa correspondent and then Johannesburg Bureau chief for Cable News Network.
Her two books about life in the U.S. are, To the Mountaintop: My Journey Through the Civil Rights Movement, a historical narrative for high school students and In My Place, a memoir of the Civil Rights Movement, relating her experiences as the first black woman to attend the University of Georgia, in 1961. In this interview on "Democracy Now" Hunter-Gault talks about her experiences at UGA.
Our time apart has helped put in perspective the many enriching experiences OLLI members enjoy both at the Reuter Center and throughout the university, and we hope you enjoy these reminders and begin to look forward to the time when we can again share these experiences in person.
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Food and Shopping Options
Special Shopping Hours and Delivery Options
 Who Is Still Offering Takeout?
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Join OLLIChat, the replacement for OLLITalk.
It's free for all 2019-20 OLLI members and easy to use. It's also a great way to stay connected as we are all trying to find ways to manage unprecedented challenges.
OLLIChat is an online community where OLLI at UNC Asheville
members may share information of common interest with each other. It is designed to look and function like the old OLLITalk.
Introducing OLLIChat Companion
Several times a week, the volunteers at OLLIChat send entertaining content to our subscribers - humor, old movie clips and games. The service is free. Please email
OLLIChatAVL@gmail.com
and a volunteer will reply and send you an invitation.
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