Or the Farmers Market in Portland, Oregon surrounded by aromas of fire-roasted peppers, bins of giant Mary Hill peaches, alder smoked steelhead, bushels of lavender and 23 varieties of apples, for starters. Flavors, aromas and personal interactions with their creators pique my curiosity.
Follow Your Clues
If you really knew me, you would know that my involvement with the Modern Elder Academy has led me to tap back to my roots in culinary/hospitality school in the 1970’s, and to follow the curious clue of another sensory experience: becoming a Sommelier.
For one fine vintage week at MEA (April 23-30) I am jazzed to be co-leading Being Present For Your Future with Chip Conley and Jeff Hamaoui. While our workshop is not focused on food and wine, the MEA culinary team certainly provides a balanced and pronounced experience that improves with age.
Throughout the workshop week, we will immerse ourselves in sensory delights, creating new neural pathways, illuminating curious clues about moving through a liminal space into something fresh and simply being present for your future.
Find Your Intersections
The intersection of wine, culinary arts and regenerative design is evolving my soulful passion and purpose, revealing my 3rd Act. Wines are characterized by more than 100 aromas and flavors such as fennel, peach, honeysuckle, licorice, brioche, butter, ginger, cooked plums and wet stones. Imagine those sensations for a moment right now. What might be the flavors and aromas of your 3rd Act?
Tap Your Stories
Stories about wine are often imbued with the energy of devoted souls who tend to grapes, sometimes on steep and stony slopes, in mistral winds, building legendary narratives that span centuries, interacting with the terroir, culture, and climate in memorable, regenerative ways. Concocting liquid alchemy with the finesse of their craft and the Colors of Perception. How might your legendary narrative evolve?
Satisfy Your Cravings
With wine and spice, as in life, there is comfort in following a familiar path, yet we crave the ability to see what is coming around the corner. We crave having a life narrative that is meaningful and rich with deep memories, yet simmering in new possibilities that land into our future scenarios. We crave the future.
Immerse Your Senses
Having produced numerous Sensory Immersions for a wide spectrum of organizations and teams over 30 years, I have experienced the catalytic conversion of new ideas forming, however nascent and raw, from curious clues that are ignited by instincts, free from judgment, drawn from our subconscious minds, decanted with the artful vessel that MEA provides.
Become More Present
I hope you can join Chip Conley, Jeff Hamaoui and me April 23-30 for Being Present For Your Future Together we will create future scenarios and curious clues, widen your aperture, see a bit further over the horizon and begin to explore what’s yet to come. Just like special wines or culinary creations, the experience is thoughtfully conceived, providing a generous balance of structure, depth, reflection and length.
While we won’t necessarily focus on food and wine, we will focus on your life vintage and how your future can be as sweet as the perfectly ripened grape. And, we might even do a wine tasting of great Baja wines.
Michael Perman is an MEA alumni, head of C’EST WHAT? LLC the future innovation consortium, a life coach using the Positive Intelligence method and author of the book CRAVING THE FUTURE.
After a career in trend forecasting, Michael is currently practicing reverse mentorship in Level 3 of the Wine Spirits Education Trust sommelier program, enabling him to rekindle his roots in hospitality and culinary arts.