Just as wonderful with both feet on the ground…
And so, here Jacques and I are back to clicking chickens with Bob Bailey, this time in Maryland, and this time with the addition of the very bright, and always-enthusiastic Parvene Farhoody, who in my view adds significant value, and in whom, in my opinion, Bob has finally found a worthy protegee.
When I finished the chicken workshops in Sweden almost two years ago I knew I wanted to come back for more. Last year did not work out mainly for scheduling reasons, so for this year I signed up and paid many months in advance, and got it on my calendar right away.
So, why was I so determined to have a second go at chicken clickin’? Well, to put it in a nutshell, taking Bob’s workshops is a lot like reading a really good book in that each experience leads to new insights, new understanding, and stronger, broader skills. So, I approached and experienced the first round with what knowledge, skills, and personal attributes I had on board at that time, and this time I have more and different knowledge, skills, and attributes on board, and sure enough the experience has not been the same – not intellectually, not skill-wise, and not personally. This experience definitely has built on the previous one along with everything else that has happened in between.
In addition, this year some of the lectures have been changed, and/or rearranged, and two exercises were added that we did not do two years ago. So, I am different, and so was the workshop this time around.
Another thing that is different this time is that instead of taking the whole five weeks at once – which is NUTS! – I chose just two workshops to redo. Taking it all at once seemed like the right decision two years ago, partly because I was traveling all the way to Sweden, partly because I really believed it when Bob said it was absolutely, definitely, unquestionably the last time he would do it, and I did not want to miss out on anything. I am very glad I did it, but would not do it that way again.
Based on the Sweden experience I have concluded that two weeks is optimum, and after that you tend to reach a point of diminishing returns if only due to mental, physical, and in some cases emotional fatigue. Therefore, I am repeating weeks two and three this year because those are in my experience the two most technically challenging workshops. Week one is required for all other workshops, week four builds on the knowledge and skills of weeks one through three, and week five is an different thing from any of the other four.
Yesterday we completed the Cueing workshop, and next week is Criteria, which is definitely the most technically challenging of the two.
This last week was an excellent experience for me. At times I saw how far I have come since the first time around, and at times I saw how much farther I can/need to go. I was lucky to have a really good partner. We worked together really well in a cooperative, and mutually helpful spirit, free of competitiveness and drama. She definitely enhanced the experience for me. I learned from watching her work, and from listening to and applying some of her suggestions. She says she learned from me. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Disappointingly, I did not complete every exercise to my satisfaction, but it’s not really about that. I DID get to do some work on each of the exercises, and gained something from everything I heard and did, and that is what it’s really about.
So, enough of this rather dry “all about me” introduction to my second Bob Bailey chicken workshop experience. Next I will try to get into a bit more detail about the workshop itself, and include some video of some of the sessions.