The Journey and the Gift - Cheryl

Mar 31

“Go slow, go soft and go far!” a teacher once told me.

I was in my 20’s, full of passion and idealism and motivated by a strong drive to create a life that was meaningful.

The Beatles had just returned from India in the 1960’s which led to the practice of meditation and the mind, body and spirit connection that surfaced for me during that time. These ideas captured my imagination and took me to the USA to seek a position in a medical clinic (as a nurse) who’s values, I thought at the time, encompassed these engaging notions in the field of medicine. I was wrong.

Things did not go well. An early marriage did not work out. I was working in a clinic that expressed one thing and practiced another and I had no family to help me when I started one of my own. It became toughen-up time! Following the dream job turned out to be preparatory work for what was to come, when one day many years later, I would create the place and circumstances myself. I would engage with a community in a far away country that would become my home with the love of my life, and unfold the vision I had spent so many years searching to clarify.

To follow your bliss, you need to know what It is. I think I always did and it was very simple, almost too simple to seem that important; I loved to be creative and make things. I also deeply enjoyed being out in nature and exploring and I was good at gathering people to form groups for different functions whether hiking groups, working groups or meeting on the beach groups.

Fast forward 45 years: I was certainly doing what I loved, running art retreats and working with students and teachers. At first it was all over the world, in eleven different countries, but then ended up in just one, Ireland, the village my husband was born and raised in. Approaching my 70s’ now I had partially created the infrastructure to realise my dream, but then thought it was time to let go, slow down, and relax into elderhood. It was not to be. A piece of waxed wood changed all of that profoundly.

As a kind gesture, an arts retreat guest, Anne Wright, presented me with a small gift of encaustics on wood. Anne was on one of the last retreats I had planned and that small gift changed the course of everything!

This is where I say : “Never under estimate the power of a small gesture of kindness!” Her gift was to become the catalyst for unimaginable change in not only my life, but that of others as well.

I had not come across encaustics before. I had no idea it was an ancient art form using beeswax and pigments. Some of the early Egyptian works still exist today and are quite impressive, but this small piece of wax covered wood intrigued me so much I decided to find a teacher and take a course to learn more about it. Easier said than done! Ireland is a small country and the choices here are often limited. Finding an encaustics teacher took me over a year and it was not until Lora Murphy, who was living Denmark, decided to return to Ireland and teach a course, that I was able to enroll.

It seemed that destiny had not finished with the creation of my dream job yet. In reflection, everything that I had achieved prior to this had led the way, but the dream, a place where well-being and creativity flourished, was not fully realized. Now, after meeting Lora, who cherished the same values, things began to change.

There is another part of the story here that is worth mentioning as it reflects how adverse conditions can also be the catalyst for change in a most positive way. I call it a ‘redirect’. I had a few of those. Having been forced to close down my retreat centre because of zoning issues and a contentious neighbour, was one of the reasons I had decided to let it all go and slide into the rest of my life making art perhaps, but leaving the people part out. I needed a smaller house anyway, as the monster I had built to accommodate our students over time, was too big to grow old in.

That was when Conan came into the picture. Conan is a local young man with a big dream too. As a newly married, talented musician and guitar maker, he had been searching for premises to no avail and he was seriously thinking about leaving the country to find work elsewhere. This is when Lora, Conan and myself put our dreams together and in a flash I knew what I had to do.

Nearby, a 120 year old convent building had been for sale for over 10 years with no buyer. It had been taken off the market several years back and remained occupied by the current owner. I did not know him, but asked to meet, and within a week, an agreement had been reached for Pádraig and myself to purchase the building for an Arts and Music School. It was simple, easy and suited everyone!

Then came the pandemic and everything came to a halt. However, this too has had its part to play in the unfolding of this life adventure. A business model has been developed that is unique and mutually beneficial for Conan, Lora and myself. We have had time to think, to plan, to reach out to students in a new way and all along the promise to blossom our dreams led us deeper into the conviction that what we are doing together is going to be special, amazing and deeply fulfilling for us and those who participate.

My teacher was right, go slow, go soft and go far, turned out to be so true. In the end it is each day that counts and within each day, it is the moments blended together with the underlying notion that in holding the vision softly, a plan is unfolding, even if we can’t see it. The ups and downs need time to render the energies at work. It is only in looking back that we see how far we have come.

It has taken almost a lifetime to fully manifest my dream. In my 20’s it was the search for the dream job. In my 70’s it is the creation of a place for others to hold their dream jobs and hold space for many people to get in touch with their own creative power in the form of art and music in a beautiful setting with gifted teachers.