The Ministry Of Imagination

I am about to run a life mapping and personal development course called 'Field of Dreams', named after the Kevin Costner Film of that name....If you build it, they will come.  A while ago I came across a poem by Theo Dorgen that really spoke to me and connect beautifully with the whole zeitgeist of Field of Dreams, so I thought I would share it with you now. The Promised Garden by Theo Dorgen There is a garden where our hearts converse, At ease beside clear water, dreaming A whole and perfect future for yourself, Myself, our children and our friends And if we must rise and leave, Put on identity and fight, Each day more desperate than the last And further from our future, that Is no more than love and respect shown To all blocked from the garden that we own. There is a garden at the heart of things, Our oldest memory guards it with her strong will. Those who by love and work attain there Bathe in her living waters, lift up their hearts and Turn again to share the steep privatio

At the start of the year I decided to try a new venture in my attempt to move some of my business online and also get a little more social media savvy. I'd attended some free co-working supportive sessions with a wonderful woman in America, Tara Mohr , and wanted to pass on the same support to lonely, isolated creatives in East Anglia. So I came up with the idea of The Ministry Of Imagination having a planning house for freelance creatives to meet and work side-by-side online. The copy read as follows..."The Planning House is a place to go where you can feel valued, connect with others and support each other. This is a space to do your creative planning and find the head- space to reinvent, explore and adapt your craft and working methods or just get that work done that you haven’t found time to do. This is a chance for you to nourish yourself and find inspiration from others. We are travelling companions, helping each other stay on the trail. Connection is our Medicine."

I woke up this morning thinking about 'Norwich A Kind City' as opposed to a 'fine city'. Just like a drop of water in a pool, the ripples start from within and radiate out. Kindness given or received makes us radiant. It goes with the 'pay-it-forward' movement, which I love. There, that's my Friday thought.  “ Kindness is a choice of how one acts towards themselves and others around them. It’s a choice that is free of charge, a choice that is available to everyone, no matter the level of education, cultural background or geographical placement.” Anita Velican   The Ministry of Imagination staff have decided to adopt this approach to everyone we meet and how we go about our work. If we put kindness at the heart of everything we do the ripples will radiate out.

Permission to be daft! Last nights Creative lab session ‘Shape and Colour’ allowed us to spend a couple of hours listening to music, having fun, creating crazy art and even crazier stories to go with them. We connected with each other and gave ourselves permission to be daft. We had such a joyous experience, with laughter and smiles and full of surprises. So what was involved, you may ask? Spontaneous art making to a range of music, story making, playing with words and images that sparked memories and running around our houses finding objects. And the result? creative team work involving a ceramic cauliflower sheep, the portrait of a murderer, a sea witch, a tin of teeth, and a toilet cistern. I kid you not. You couldn’t make it up, but we did exactly that, with joy and laughter. No one had to be a master storyteller or a fine artist but just as a single musical note becomes a symphony when put together with other notes so our creative team found that each persons small contribution ad