I was born with joie de vivre, which never leaves me even in my darkest hours. I don't need a reason to celebrate, I just need people.
I grew up in a Communism with catholic values, in the middle of two cultural identities: Romanian and Hungarian, which I am deeply grateful for despite all its contradictions and messiness. I had one set of grandparents who fought against the system and got in prison; the others were part of it and made it work for them. I have both sides living inside me, sometimes at war with each other and sometimes making love. Yep, I am full of contradictions but aren't we all.
We didn't have much, but we had enough. We had many celebrations and gatherings in our family and community. That is when my joie de vivre was nourished and turned into love for authentic celebrations.
I learned that having a social gathering did not depend on financial means. My family was good like that. Nothing stopped them from having fun. And all generations would participate in the fun. I am eternally grateful for my family and those times.
I wouldn't be here without them and I know they support me in all my crazy adventures.
Hi! I'm Nora
I am writing this at the ripe age of 44. I am a playful, heart-lead human, loving everything related to celebrations and events. I am curious about stuff related to healing our shit and self-discovering experiences.
I am a guinea pig always on a look out to try new things that make me learn about myself and others. Oh, and I love solving problems especially those related to personal growth, parenting, events, and heart-based projects.
Here is my story so far.
Please read it, so you get a sense of who I am and help you see if we are a fit. When you work with me, you get the whole of me, and my past is part of it too.
I have many wonderful memories with my grandfather's Trabant. It represents all the good things from those times.
Simple, did the job and authentic.
Then I witnessed raw capitalism after 1989 and saw how ill-prepared we were as a nation for it and how quickly we threw out all that was good in the previous system and fell for the promise that only if we could have more money will be happier. What a big fat lie that is.
Also my parents divorced just around that time and I was caught in the family drama. So I rebelled as a teen and felt like no one understood me, of course. I refused to study and follow the educational system that treated us like robots.
As a result I don't get impressed by diplomas, certificates and titles. However, I am profoundly impressed and curious about ordinary/authentic humans who embody true knowledge from their own experiences.
Maybe this is a good place to mention that I had my fair share of trauma, as you do. Nothing too dramatic, but enough to leave a mark on my soul and have a quite a few characters in my head such as the people pleaser, perfectionist, control freak, and the deeply sensitive and the victim, to name a few.
After years of therapies, awareness, and healing practices, I am not fighting or be ashamed of them anymore; I instead embrace my inner demons, and on a good day, I employ their gifts too. That doesn't mean I don't loose my shit, I do, ask my husband.
In the photo is my grandma, from my mother's side. She was the rock and glue of the family. Deeply flawed, witty, ahead of her time, funny, pain in a butt and in another life she could have lead an army if she wanted to.
She saw me for what I was, maybe because we were similar in many ways. She is very much alive inside me, the good and the bad too.
I have a strong work ethic, organisational skills and the joy to celebrate without much reason from her. No matter what I do: scrubbing toilets, be a school governor, managing a restaurant or volunteers, parenting, event planner, I put all my heart, knowledge and body into it. As she always told me to do my best no matter what I do.
My wilderness years between teenage hood and young adult were a cocktail of falling in love, disappointments, mistakes, not knowing who I am and anger that made me feel like an outcast. I pretended I was fine to the extend that I lost a piece of my hair from the stress of it all. As a result of that experience I prefer honesty.
Also this was the time I disconnected from my body, and it took me a while to come back to it.
In my twenties I left to London, where I discovered freedom to do what I wanted and no one cared where I am from. I worked in an Italian restaurant, learned Italian, how to deal with all sorts of humans and after two years I was the first woman to manage one of their restaurants in central London.
La Porchetta was my home from home and has a special place in my heart.
In the heydays of La Porchetta I met my husband
Dr. Carsten Sorensen, an LSE academic, stubborn Dane and love of my life. We grew up together and we still are.
I quite my job as a restaurant manager after one year into our marriage as we wanted a child so we focused on doing that. It took us two years of treatments to get pregnant.
We also travelled a lot and enjoyed life to the max.
Our daughter Anna, changed our lives. In between I finished my degree in Social Sciences at Open University.
The early years is when our old patterns came to surface. Kids are a mirror to our soul. She is our biggest master and because of her I poured all my creativity in creating a wholesome, rich family life to this day.
Raising a child taught me to love unconditionally, take risks, face my fears, dig deep into myself, that ordinary things are precious and every moment is a once in a life time moment, nothing stays the same, all is impermanent and to trust my playful soul more than anything.
The reason to start my own business and do events came out of a natural progression as my skills were not entirely used by my family and I wish to be of service in the wider community.
Literally, my family said go, organise, plan and create experiences with others as you practiced enough on us and we need you out of the home.
The community around Greenwich Steiner School (GSS), where our daughter went too for seven years had the biggest impact on all our lives.
I got to immerse myself into a way of life that followed the seasons, the natural development of a child, where play, art, music and rituals are just as important as any math equation. I loved it all. In this diverse community I learned about: the Steiner philosophy, Bach Flower Essences, meditation, Osho, Family Constellations, Homeopathy, Art Therapy, Bothmer Movement, just to name a few. I also met interesting, weird and fascinating humans.
As a curious, extrovert soul I was in heaven. In the seven years of volunteering I organised fundraising events, fairs, PTA workshops and events, worked with teachers, volunteers and participated in most school related activities.
I am eternally grateful for GSS as this was when I discovered that I love organising heart-lead events and working with artists and facilitators.
In 2020 I decided it's time for me to share myself with the world. I organised social gatherings and workshops in Greenwich, London until lockdown stopped me in my tracks.
I started a blog where I introduced local people to my community. I dived into the world of embodiment and tried new things. Still do.
And from 2021 I hosted series of online and face to face events at The Monday Club with different facilitators that opened our mind and hearts.
I co-created short courses and workshops with a few of the facilitators.
If you want to know with who I collaborated so far, please check the Collaborators page.
I met wonderful curious souls from all over the world.
Now I want to help heart-lead entrepreneurs, charities, educational settings to organise fundraising events and authentic social gatherings that bring people together through shared experiences.
I am also open to collaborations with other event organisers or humans that need help weaving heart and soul into their events.
Check my Services page for my offers.
From my heart, Nora
© 2020 by Nora's Events.