International Lifestyle Magazine Issue 57 | Page 36

In September 2014 we stepped
onto a ferry boat in Dover,
england, and began a new life.
We were heading to Gijon in the
north of Spain, from where we
would drive (in our packed to the
brim converted ambulance) all
the way South to the Alpujarras,
the foothills of the Sierra Nevada
mountain range, in an area of
Spain called Andalucia. We had
spent some time here in the past,
but this was the real thing, we
were leaving England, and we did
not intend to return anytime soon.
We were off to make our home in a
new land, to make a new start and
create a life with each other that
makes sense, rooted in nature and
community.
A friend has given us a great gift,
a small plot of land in a mountain
village. We hope to create our
home here, a place for us to live
and grow, that we can share with
our community. We have a 16ft
diameter yurt packed in the back
of the van that we will live in for the
first year while we learn the ways
of the land. We also have a small
solar array, a selection of garden
tools, some books and a variety
of seeds for when we are ready to
start planting.
As we step into the unknown
there can be a whole myriad of
resistances, we instinctively cling
to what is known, to that which
feels safer. It takes trust to make
changes in life, is that trust placed
within ourselves or is it easier to
place trust in something external?
Either way we have made a leap
of faith, leaving behind the lives
we knew for a dimension where
there is everything to learn and
everything to unlearn. When
there is trust that we are a part of
something greater than ourselves,
life feels infinite in possibilies. This
feeling is not constant, as we are,
it is ever changing, eternally in
flux. In a breath life can look very
different, it is a dream, a story we
can write in any way we choose.
So many things in life are out of our
control. It seems we are always
blessed with friends who help

along the way. Since arriving in
the Alpujarras we are learning the
Spanish language with the help of
local village folk. Friendship and
communication are good guides
for health, as human animals we
have differing needs depending on
our wellbeing. Sometimes sensing
a need for solitude and sometimes
a desire for companionship. When
unwell both physically or mentally it
is less easy to engage with others.
In a culture that feeds competition
and comparison to others we can
feel seperate, this is not healthy
for human beings as it disqualifies
compassion
and
harvests
seperation. We seek to live in a
culture that is not rooted in greed
and the illusion of separation, but
rather recognises all living beings
as unique elements of the integral
wholeness that is the natural
world.
We were both raised in the English
countryside. Most of Maya’s
childhood was spent with horses,
riding and caring for them at Brook
Farm in the beautiful green county
of Wiltshire. This time with the
horses and nature infused with
Maya’s life in an unforgettable way,
giving her a sense of freedom, and
desire to remain close to nature.
Maya says that her first yoga and
massage teachers were horses,
and that all her later training
built upon the lessons learned in
those early years. She shares this
connection with nature through
her yoga and massage practice,
and hopes one day to share this
gift with her children.
Felix was raised in an intentional
community of spiritual seekers.
His father, known as Nomad, was
initiated in the practise of yoga
as a boy by his grandmother
who had learned about Yoga
and the Hindu religion while
living in India during the time of
the Raj. Her husband was an
officer and had served in India.
She returned to Middlesbrough
in the industrial north, to live
ostensibly as a traditional northern
housewife, though with some
very unconventional ideas about
reality! She would tell Felix’s father

www.internationallifestylemagazine.com