In London 1960 I was born into an immigrant Irish Catholic family, the second daughter of three. My childhood was pretty busy with family connections, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins all living close by. It was a big family, with my Dad’s 3 brothers and my Mum’s sister all living in London.
Cousin’s galore.......The family spread its wings when in 1966 & 1968 two brothers immigrated to Australia, our family followed in 1970.
I loved Australia, I loved everything about being there, reuniting with Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. Australia was fun, great, wild, open and wonderful.
Yet two years later we returned to England. I became a stranger in a strange land, even if I were born here. I had picked up an Aussie accent and many found it difficult to understand what I was saying.
To this day, when that free- spirited child emerges, unbeknown to me, unconsciously, out comes that Aussie accent.
I left school with enough qualifications to enter into an engineering apprenticeship with the Quality Assurance Division of British Telecom.
Here I excelled completing a double apprenticeship and gaining sponsorship for a double degree in Electrical and Electronic engineering.
I went on to train over 10,000 engineering staff in all manner of engineering, management and training of trainer courses. However, one late Friday afternoon in July of 1992, my world fell apart following a comment made by my boss’s boss saying: “The trouble with you, is you’re a woman!”
As a consequence, this led to several hospitalizations, significant weight loss to being one third less than lean body mass. I tried to return to “normal”, but it was impossible.
I was changed, very changed and changed for good. After many failed attempts to return to work I was granted medical retirement.
At 34 years old, there was nothing more doctors could do, nothing more could be done. I rapidly put on a lot of weight, some 5 or more stones. I was lucky my older sisters’ neighbour introduced me to Brenda Coverdale of Naturecare.
It was she who walked with me to a very different, sense of normal, with the use of Australian Blackmore’s celloid mineral therapy, aromatherapy, reflexology and a change of diet.The next 10 years I meandered the world of complementary medicine, trying to figure things out, move beyond survival mode.
Then, in Summer of 2002, I met Michelangelo founder and teacher for the Natural Life System. I embraced his teachings, philosophy, natural practices and ways of eating. It took about 3 months to fully transition.
Thereafter, I have never deviated from the YES food list. I attended as many English - speaking seminars as possible, hungry, constantly curious to discover, evolve and learn as much as was viable. Michelangelo has described me as a very difficult case, yet here I am, some 23 years on, alive, trudging on within many limitations, still navigating my way through this voyage we call life.
With the Natural Life System, I entered into a whole new world of ingredients and taste experiences, a new world of discovering what it means by eating energetically.
As a child I loved cooking and now I am again a child of the universe, playing with new toys, conjuring up new dishes daily. Dishes that have never been on the planet ever before.
A return to nature, simplicity and seeing everyday as a miracle. I love it!!
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