Learning Shire Programs and
Facilitation Services
Transformative Learning with Patricia Webb
“With the tales that really matter,” said Sam, “the ones that stay in the mind, folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually – their paths were laid that way. …But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t. …I wonder what sort of a tale we’ve fallen into?”
“I wonder,” said Frodo. “But I don’t know. And that’s the way of a real tale. Take any one you’re fond of. …The people in it don’t know. And you don’t want them to.”
“No, sir, of course not. …And a long tale, of course, goes on past the happiness and into grief and beyond it…. It’s going on still. Don’t the great tales never end?”
“No, they never end….”
– JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Learning Shire founder & lead facilitator Patricia Webb offers experiential workshops of emotional, intellectual, and spiritual development based on the ‘tales that really matter’ – stories that take us ‘past the happiness and into grief and beyond it.’ These stories never end, because they become part of us, demonstrating possibilities we may never have imagined and challenging us not to ‘turn back’ from the hope they inspire.
Entering such tales is a courageous act of spirit. Our seminars facilitate the journey by incorporating award-winning films along with music, visual art, and group interactive processes as cornerstones for transformative exploration of numerous thematic topics. As we enter these great stories, not always knowing ‘what sort of a tale we’ve fallen into,’ we find the tales themselves will guide us, revealing paths that we, too, can learn to walk – as we grow to fulfill the highest & best purpose we’re capable of envisioning for our lives.
Each of Patricia’s programs may be customized to meet the needs of particular groups of varying sizes, in a variety of community, corporate, and educational settings. Most seminars can be structured to fit within a single work day, or expanded to create a multi-day or weekend retreat experience. Costs vary according to program length and location. Contact Patricia at info@learningshire.com or call her mobile office phone at 724-321-6098 to discuss your needs and program preferences.
Please note that the programs below are also available to consulting services clients, with whom Patricia will work to customize seminars to the specific learning purposes of the client organization. Visit the consulting page on our website for more information.
Program Directory
Journeys of the Body –
Racing with Seabiscuit: Entrepreneurship in an Aching World
Admitted We Were Powerless: Addiction, Resurrection, and the Art of Play
Journeys of the Heart –
Hearts Broken Open: Paths Out of Violence, in the Art of Brokeback Mountain
Seeding Diversity: Finding & Caring for the ‘Other’ – Within
Journeys of the Mind –
Playing God / dess: Becoming the Co-Creator of Your Life
Cry Freedom: Social Research for Grassroots Participation & Action
Journeys of the Spirit –
Soul’s Journey on Brokeback Mountain
Invisible Chrysalis: Becoming the Change
Program Descriptions
Racing with Seabiscuit: Entrepreneurship in an Aching World
“Our horse is too small. Our jockey’s too big. Our trainer’s too old. And I’m too dumb to know the difference!”
– Charles Howard, owner of Seabiscuit, 1937; from the screenplay, Seabisbuit
Once upon a time… in a global economic depression, as machines were fast over-taking the role of people & animals, at work & at play – the world became transfixed on an unlikely group of heroes….
This workshop investigates the entrepreneurial journey through the lens of a remarkable historic time in America – from the Roaring 20s, as industries boomed from Canada across the United States, to the Great Depression that called into question so much of what Americans had come to assume was right & good in the world. Out of this crucible, new kinds of leadership grew, cooperation of a new order began to find expression, and the power of these relationships began to reshape American paradigms of belief. Through the legendary, true story of Seabiscuit & the people around him, we’ll examine these transformations and learn how three heart-broken men & one washed-up racehorse became the epic symbol of hope in an era of despair.
Admitted We Were Powerless:
Addiction, Resurrection, and the Art of Play
We're powerless over other people, places, and things – so teaches the time-tested wisdom of 12-step programs. Yet the inner life holds seeds to rebirth of another type of power – over our own destiny – a power accessible only as we learn to inhabit the present moment, living with intention ‘one day at a time.’
Drawing on the complementary pair of films, A River Runs Through It and The Legend of Baggar Vance, this workshop explores the journeys of people in the grip of trauma & addictions, as well as the paths of those trying to understand & help them. Through the sweeping imagery of one man ‘haunted by waters’ and the mythic encounters of another haunted by war, we’ll confront difficult questions around responsibility, accountability, and the limits of compassion. Where even love seems to fail, we’ll examine an often neglected dimension of authority – the power to become the author of one’s own story & the artist of one’s own life.
Hearts Broken Open:
Paths Out of Violence, in the Art of Brokeback Mountain
“There are two ways to understand what it means to have a broken heart.”
– Quaker master teacher, Parker Palmer
This unforgettable workshop charts paths of hope in the widely acclaimed short story & film, Brokeback Mountain. We’ll draw back the veil on many hidden forms of violence, their cultural effects, and the cycles of harm they create. We’ll trace our personal responses to violence and explore characteristics of a ‘third way’ of response that transcends rage & retribution, tapping internal reservoirs of strength that make it possible to live in the world a different way.
From the beautiful yet brutal drama of predators & prey in the wilderness, to the human struggle for hope in the face of impossible odds… a broken heart can be a source of power.
Seeding Diversity:
Finding & Caring for the ‘Other’ – Within
Inspired by the community work of African-American Pittsburgh artist, George Hogan, and Latina-Ecuadorian Pittsburgh artist & teacher, Maritza Mosquera – this seminar engages the challenging topic of ‘diversity’ by identifying, embracing, and integrating the seeds of perceived ‘difference’ residing within each of us.
In contrast to diversity workshops that focus on superficial categories of difference among people – inescapably making caricatures out of unique individuals – this program explores difference by entering into the complex world of story characters who are not reducible to categories like black or white, straight or gay. Examining perceived difference through the medium of story releases people from many of the concerns & limitations associated with their own life situations, thereby freeing participants to explore new levels of awareness, honesty, and respect. As they work together to understand the inner journey of characters, participants learn that they share much in common – finding seeds of ‘others’ alive within themselves, & finding compassion for their own journeys as well as for the paths of others.
Playing God / dess:
Becoming the Co-creator of Your Life
Program under development.
Cry Freedom:
Social Research for Grassroots Participation & Action
Program under development.
Soul’s Journey on Brokeback Mountain
“This is how I would die into the love I have for you: as pieces of cloud dissolve in sunlight.”
– Jelaluddin Rumi, 13th century Sufi Islamic mystical poet & teacher
The ‘dark night of the soul’ is a spiritual journey shrouded in mystery & mourning, yet couched in the language of love. In this mystical literature, the path of the soul’s awakening & emergence is traced through the sensuous art of Lover & Beloved, evoking a universal way of understanding spiritual evolution that traverses all faiths, every continent, and ten-thousand years of human culture.
This profound workshop explores the awakening of two unlikely souls to their dark night of passion, sorrow, and transformational love, in the exquisite art of Brokeback Mountain. Unlike educational programs that suggest the meaning of a story, here you’ll consider your unique ways of understanding the many layers & dimensions of meaning woven through this short story & film. In the process, you’ll seize on truths relevant to your own place on the mystical pathway of the soul, and consider possibilities for constructive change in your life, and in your world.
Invisible Chrysalis: Becoming the Change
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart & try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live your questions now, and perhaps without even knowing it, you will live along some distant day into your answers.”
– Rainer Marie Rilke
“I don’t pray to change God’s mind – I pray so God can change me.”
– CS Lewis
Helping professionals are called to be experts in their fields of endeavor, often spending years finding complex answers to questions they face in daily practice. Yet some forms of human service don’t require us to find answers, so much as to identify the most useful questions – questions that can, themselves, guide people and shape the quality of their lives.
Is it possible to ‘love the questions,’ when a lifetime of professional experience has taught us it’s the answers that really count in the world?
In this seminar, we’ll draw on visual art and mythic story to illuminate a path that leads not to answers, but to a process by which participants begin to articulate the questions that matter most in their realms of service. Together, we’ll learn how to forge more penetrating questions, then practice ways of staying with them – ways to ‘live the questions now’ with patience and integrity. At last, we’ll explore what it’s like when the questions themselves acquire power to change the questioners … into people who, some distant day, may know not just answers, but how to embody & live them as well.