I have been a vegetarian for nearly 30 years. There are so many 'categories' of vegetarian these days - so I'll just add to that by saying my diet is 'satvik' vegetarian which means no eggs, onions, garlic, mushrooms and of course no eating of dead animals! I also stopped eating dairy products in June this year. No alcohol and drugs are also part of the diet - and I avoid coffee as well. This way of eating is followed by many of the Taiwanese Buddhists and also by many people in India. It's also the diet of the Hare Krnsa's so those of you who have Kurma Dasa's fantastic cookbooks will be familiar with it.

I became vegetarian at almost the same time I started learning Ananda Marga meditation and my vegetarian lifestyle is very much a part of an overall way of looking at life. The understanding is that "all living beings of the universe belong to one family...The entire universe is everyone's homeland, and all the animate and inanimate entities are the various expressions of one and the same Supreme Consciousness. "  So in a 'nutshell' the 'gist' is that  we're all connected.

I have been working with clay as a ceramic artist for 30 yrs and for the last 4 1/2 years have been teaching Art/Ceramics to teenagers at Orana Steiner School. I also continue to make and sell my own work and from time to time work on public commissions. One huge commission I was involved with a little while back was helping create a 50 metre mosaic/tile pathway at Birrigai Education Centre with a number of schools and another ceramic artist.  The photo on the left is a tiny section showing the head of a teradactyl.  The mosaic was a timeline from the beginning to when humans arrived with all the volcanic eruptions, dinosaurs etc in between.  It  illustrates the tiny fraction of time that  humans have walked the earth.  The planet and creatures have been around so much longer than we have!

One of my other passions is organic gardening. My father had a huge and amazing one acre garden.  I first started digging around with him 50 years ago, and have been doing something with dirt ever since. I think I'm happiest in my garden.  I'm quite a physical person and love to walk and cycle. When it's not winter I can often be found kayaking on the lake with my husband Dieter. I  enjoy music and the visual and performing arts. Humour is also a very important part of my life - nothing like a good laugh to put everything into perspective!  Enjoying time with family and friends is also an important priority.

Dieter and I have three grown children - Taranii 22, Nitya 24 and Karun 27. They are all life-long vegetarians.   Karun has been home again after 4 yrs in Melbourne completing a Master in Computer Science but is about to head off to live in Germany.  Taranii is a graphic designer specializing in website design.  Nitya spent  2 1/2 yrs working at the Lotus Children's home for orphans and street kids in Outer Mongolia. While there she started Mongolia's first Vegetarian Restaurant.  You can read more about this wonderful place by going to www.lotuschild.   What started as being a 'gap' year for her has extended to many years ...  She has been working in Germany as a meditation/yoga teacher for the last few years after completing full-time training in Sweden.

Over the years I have been involved in various social justice issues and have also worked with disadvantaged children, physically disabled adults, aged ladies and gentlemen and Indigenous teenagers.  I was involved with the Vegetarian Society for a number of years awhile back, at that time as President for about 7 years.  And now I find myself back working in the Society again after a few years break.  And here I am,  in the role of President once again...Things have certainly changed with most people being connected to the internet.  It's so much easier to communicate quickly and to 'grow' groups and projects.

Everything that I do in my life is informed and inspired by the understanding that we are all connected and part of a 'bigger picture'. This connection includes animals and plants, everything in fact - from the smallest to the greatest, from the ant to the planets...

I'm very happy to be involved with the Society again. It's a great time to be 'out there' with information about vegetarianism as individuals seek to reduce their carbon footprint - not eating meat is such an obvious step!