Natural Living in Dominica Blog

Hi;

I grew up in a loving family in a small town in Ontario, Canada.

I started studying healthy living and yoga in my late teens through a Richard Hiddleman Yoga Book. Around the same time I started my process as a vegetarian. Back to Eden was my first mind opening book; then Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.

My first degree is in Computer Systems Design and Business Management; to date me, computers were the size of a large room then. I left that corporate world but I love working on the PCs of today.

I took a 6 month Vegetarian Cooking Course through the Seventh Day Adventist Church in the 70’s then in 1979 I spent a little over a year travelling through the Caribbean, studying Vegetarian Cooking and Traditional Herbal Medicine.

When I landed on Dominica, my 8th island in my travels I had a dream I would live here.

I returned to Canada after I visited a few more islands to spend 16 years working in the Health Food Industry.

During that time I studied healthy living through various workshops and courses on: osteoporosis, vegetarian nutrition, medicinal uses of aloe vera. I also took a 2 year Thuna Herbal Medicine Evening Programme in Toronto.

I have lived in both the country and the city in Canada and Dominica and considered myself to have the richest of lives as far as friends and kind and gentle encounters with people everywhere I have been.

My children were birthed naturally, breast fed and raised with a vegetarian natural foods diet. We used herbal teas instead of aspirin and only utilized antibiotiotics once or twice in 20 years. My children were not immunized, yet we had excellent health and rarely were sick.

I believe children are our gifts from God and we raise them in the way we feel best, they were born to learn from us. There are many right ways; there are many wonderful mothers; most important is the love.

While my children were young I operated a vegetarian, eco day care and an eco cleaning business as well as a mail order health food buisiness.

My children had a range of experiences; they were  homeschooled, and enrolled in the traditional school systems in Canada and Dominica.  We had an art table at home that they used when they wished. Lot’s of recycled dibs and dabs; glue; sizzors and recycled paper.

I taught in both the alternative school system and the city and country public school classroom in Canada.

I taught craft and art classes for adults recovering from drug addiction as well as natural living workshops such as Basic Vegetarian Cooking and Simple Herbal Medicine for our Families. 

I finally took a 2 year yoga teacher programme with Archa Mati of Sahaj Yoga Centre in Toronto.

The dream to live in Dominica never left me, so I returned with my children to live on this beautiful island in 1996. I am lucky enough ever since to wake up every morning and thank God I am living my dream! Thank you Dominica for all the kindness.

In Dominica I assisted in the writing of tourism and eco tourism standards and facilitated customer service training within the tourism industry. I had the privellege of teaching at Pioneer Preparatory School, a private school, well known for it’s focus on holistic education for 3 years.

I now work as a consultant assisting teachers and home school facilitators to add science experiments, art and hands on learning to their programme.

I teach yoga regularly to a wide range of people.  Right now I hold regular weekly classes at my home studio in Upper Checkhall and Ross Medical University. I also offer private classes, day tours, lectures and workshops on yoga, specializing on getting people into nature to practice yoga. I provide destination management services to those wishing to host a holistic holiday in Dominica.

I write about healthy living, heritage foods, local foods and eco living for local papers, magazines and Ross University Newsletter.  I also love to write and research about healthy living, there fore this blog.

I am ever so thank full for my life, my husband, my children and my friends.

Namaste