Follow your Dream

Have you ever done the exercise to dream where you would like to be in 5 years? It sounds so simple but it is exactly what we did 5 years before we moved to France and we landed up fulfilling it almost 5 years to the day later.

If you have read Caro’s books you will know some of the story of how we left Ireland to follow our dream to make organic wine in France. We bought a rundown farm in liquidation and jumped into a new life. Recently Caro Feely wrote an article for Image Magazine in Ireland that explained how we started to actively move towards that dream. In this post Caro’s shares part of the article and the link to the full version Caro Feely on Creating your Vision and then Following your Dream.

Create your Vision

The vision we created was impossible at the time but it turned out to actually be ‘I’m Possible’.

Take the time to sit down and picture exactly where you would like to be. Imagine everything, where you are, who you are with, the details of what’s around you. Go wild! Dream big! Don’t let anything constrain your vision.

This is useful for your personal life, but you can also use it for a wider picture, like what kind of world you would like to live in. I am currently using this technique to envision how the world can be more gentle ecologically, how we can live more lightly on the earth.

Start moving towards it

‘Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.’ – Goethe

This is such a powerful idea. Almost without realising we were doing it, we started to move towards our dream. We took night classes, we saved every penny we would. We still were not sure how we would actually do it or if we would. Until the moment we signed on the dotted line of the purchase contract for the farm we had doubts, but having the vision and moving towards it meant we had more chance of getting there.

As so many have said before ‘If you dont know where you are going how will you get there?’.

Transformations at Chateau Feely

The first transformation was to convert the farm to organic farming and then to biodynamic. We are passionate about farming without pesticides – read about why its so important to choose organic.

Then we diversified the business into wine tourism creating a wine school, accommodation, walking tours and gourmet wine tours in the region. In 2019 we won the gold trophy for education and environmental practices at the first French wine tourism awards in Paris.

We are in the process of third transformation into online courses and experiences in wine and yoga with a focus on environment, health and wellbeing.

Conclusion

Lockdown offered us the chance to revisit what we do, to remember those words of Goethe about the magic of moving towards your dreams and to meditate on the words of Ghandi to be the change we want to see in the world. These are both guiding us as we move into this decade so critical for the environment, social justice and all our futures.

Read the full version of the article at Follow your Dream.

Experience a taste of France with virtual wine experiences.

Visit www.frenchwineadventures.com for details of the wine school and tours in the wider region. Find us at social media at www.facebook.com/chateaufeely and www.Instagram.com/chateaufeely and find Caro Feely at www.Instagram.com/carofeely .

Read the full story of our vineyard adventures in the book series; ‘Grape Expectations’, ‘Saving our Skins’ and ‘Glass Half Full’.