Dream Reality Workshop

The Dream…. and the obstacle.

| Mairead
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(French sunset)
This weekend I had to make the difficult decision not to run my Dream Reality Workshop in April. We didn’t get enough people signing up to make it financially viable. So….. it won’t go ahead this year. This isn’t the end of workshops in France. And it’s not the end of my dream.
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(French food)
It’s an obstacle….. a helpful tool that increases determination and creative solution solving! (I suppose it’s only right that I read my own posts.) It’s a normal part of the journey to the dream and it requires lots of creative ideas. So that should keep me busy for a while.
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(Sunshine and Shadow)
In the meantime I’ve started to put together my Creative Morning Workshop (in Greystones), there’ll be details of that soon.
Be well, Mairead.

The bread maker

| Mairead

Spelt Bread

(Spelt Bread)

I was watching a documentary about a Buddhist monk who travels around the world going to different retreat centers teaching break making. He told of how, when he was ten, he went to visit his aunt. She baked her own bread. He wondered at the time how it was that everyone seemed to buy the horrible white slices of bread when they could have this beautiful homemade stuff.

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(Through the cafe door…)

He decided there and then that he was going to learn to make bread and teach over people to do the same. So, after the holiday with his aunt he arrived home to his mother and asked her to teach him how to make bread. But…. she told him she was afraid of yeast and didn’t know how.

Eleven years later when he was twenty-one he went to a Zen retreat center. He worked in the kitchens in payment for his food and board and he saw the chefs making bread. He asked if they would teach him. They were more than delighted because to the chefs it was just another chore and here was this young guy willing to do it for them.

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(I hope there’s no fire – Avoca)

He finally uncovered the secret of bread making and the secret included a way of being in the world that nourished him. Thirty years later he’s still baking bread and teaching others about this nourishment. The seeds of our dreams are in our childhood and if they were not nourished then, it is not too late now. The longing to touch the dough or to play the note or to draw the paint filled brush across the canvas is a calling to yourself.

Listen for the call, Mairead

The Dream Reality Workshop

| Mairead

Well, I finally got the information together for my workshop in France. The seed of this dream was planted six months ago. Now it’s time to expose it to the world. And that’s not a comfortable thing. All the doubts, all the fears come to the surface. What if….. this is just too crazy? Too silly? Too ill-timed? Too much to expect? Too big? What if….

Then eventually the drive to go for it pushed ahead of my fears. And now it’s exposed and there’s no going back… only step by faltering step forward. Only movement in the direction of my dream. Only action and work. Only a journey…. begun with a seed, a small idea, a wish, a dream, a hope.

All dreams are different and all dreams have a similar process and a similar way of hiding behind our fears and our old beliefs. This is my dream, I am afraid and I am still moving forward…. what’s yours?

All the information is at www.maireadhennessy.com/workshop and here’s a poster…

 

And onto the next step, Mairead.

 

 

 

 

The Christmas Decorations

| Mairead

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(Light and dark on New Year’s Day in Cork)

I took down the Christmas decorations yesterday. I had been itching to do it for days, but there’s a “rule”. Yep, they can’t come down until after the 6th of January…. Waiting that long gave me the motivation to really get them out of the way. The very deserved celebration included a visit to a new coffee shop, where ideas and plans for the coming year flowed forth with each bite of a very nice apple and almond scone. So all in all the decorations have been very inspiring or at least their removal has been.

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(Amy’s Christmas boots)

So the ideas will soon be on the website and I will be depending on you readers to spread the word about the April workshop in France and the weekly creativity mornings and of course the ongoing Success Teams.

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(Tea and blank paper)

Also, we will be touring on the motorbike again. Where to this time? Then there’ll be the visit to my sister and family in Canada, by plane not bike. You can read all about it as it happens here in full Technicolor.

Can’t wait, Mairead.

The Dream

| Mairead

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(Detail from art in the Louvre Metro station)

Yesterday, I told you we were all on our journey to our dream. Every time we do what we want we are in training for that dream. Like the Beatles in Hamburg we are doing the work now putting in our time in the 10,000 hours university.

But the problem is… most of us are not doing the work now. We want to do it… but we feel guilty doing what we want to do. Back in Liverpool when the Beatles were offered the opportunity to play as much as they wanted in Hamburg, they didn’t say “no, I have to stay here and find a steady job to pay the mortgage”. They said “you bet, when do we start.” And in the end (after lots of hard work) this decision did allow them to pay a mortgage or two.

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(Beautiful building….. in Paris)

Another problem is… it’s a lonely road, the one to what you want. Not many people will walk with you towards your crazy dream. Not many people will encourage you to do what you want. Not many people will believe you can succeed that way. Not many people will want you to live that way. So… you’ll have to have courage and….. you’ll have to be willing to look stupid! But…. if you’re lucky, the pull to the life you want will be so strong you won’t care what anyone else thinks.

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(Door Knocker)

But whether you’re lucky or not it helps to have a few supporters. On the workshop each participant will become a supporter. They will believe in you when you can’t and they will continue to remind you that what you want is important. It is important.

For now, let me ask you… what do you want to do today? Mairead.

Les Invalades

| Mairead

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(Les Invalades)

We’re home. It’s been snowing here today and it’s very cold… but at least there’s no queues. On Sunday after our visit to the video game exhibition we went along to Les Invalades. It was built by Napoleon for the soldiers who were injured (and retired) after his wars. It’s a very beautiful group of buildings. It now houses a war museum. As I’d been here before I decided to skip the museum and sit in the warm restaurant while Denis took the audio guide tour.

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(Fun and games in the War Museum)

I had my laptop and I had some ideas about a workshop I want to run in a small town in the Loire area of France. As it’s in France it’s easy to recognise why I want to be there but I wasn’t sure why I wanted to bring my workshop there. So I needed time in an inspiring place. The restaurant was more like a canteen so it wasn’t all that inspiring but it didn’t matter, all I needed was my intention…..

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(Beautiful building in Le Marais area)

So it turns out the reason I want to bring people to this small town in the Loire is because its a place that has inspired me. Not in the beautiful buildings type of way (although there are some beautiful buildings). Not in the amazing shops kind of way (there are no craft shops!). Not in the luxurious accommodation kind of way (although the beds are comfortable). Instead, I was inspired by the people I met, by their stories and by their courage.

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(Door Handle)

Michele runs a small b&b in a very old town house which she is renovating bit by bit. She moved from a comfortable life in England to an uncertain life in France. Although she didn’t know how to make it work, she knew what she wanted. And although she has had moments wondering if this was the right thing to do she held on tight to her dream.

The first step is uncovering what you want, the second is holding on tight, Mairead.

PS more about the workshop tomorrow.