Living With Gladys Full Time

Welcome to my world, each day brings a sprinkling of magic, lots of laughter, joy, lots of love and sometimes moments of sadness and fear. Emotional freedom is given a high priority in our home so much so that we have what is fondly referred to as ‘the crying chair’ (soon to be stored ready for Pippin to take; who and what these are will become clear as my story unfolds).

I am Rebekah and life has woven me a really rich tapestry. I work with my husband Alistair and our daughter Candace (AKA Pippin) as a therapist in our Private Practice. I have Diplomas & Certificates aplenty and a Bachelor of Science degree yet none of these qualifications truly describe my passion for what I do. They merely qualify me legally to work as a therapist. I see myself these days as a Natural Healer (not the laying on of hands kind) and as I cut the rigid ties that bind me to conventional theoretical practice and the dogma that surrounds it I have felt a much more powerful flow of energy in my work. Being unconventional is beginning to be a theme.

I gave brief mention to Alistair a few moments ago and yet his presence in my life and that of our family and our Practice is far far from brief. On the work front he is simply the Great Master. A brilliant, naturally gifted healer, again, with a plethora of qualifications but too long at the coal face to pay heed of the latest bit of scientific research drummed up by a post grad young enough to be his child espousing evidence based stuff that Alistair has been doing for years. He trusts his own instincts and in so doing has a rare quality that cannot be taught or learnt by academics. In our family life his presence just IS.

We have 5 children between us and over the years our whole family life has blended to become something of wonder. To each of the children Alistair has become something of a legend, bringing his own unconventional yet rock steady brew of wisdom and insight to the metaphorical table for them to feast on and grow. My children live with us and love Alistair as if he was there dad.

Candace has become an incredible therapist, she has definitely been around before, she draws strength from her beliefs in all things magical and has an uncanny knack of just knowing things. Her interest in alternative practice has really grown and after witnessing her sisters distress at the hands of the NHS during labour she has included hypno-birthing to her practice. Roy is Candace’s partner, he has just achieved his lifetime dream of becoming a trader, a really brave and courageous move.  He has embraced our way of life really well and his mind is open to new ideas.

Kirt is blessed with  an ability to make people laugh, when Kirt is around you can be sure that your cheek muscles will ache for a week. He is also sensitive, creative and an absolute whizz with anything to do with computers, hence his company Monkey Tail Web Design. Strange name isn’t it… well not if you knew that Kirt had grown himself a monkey tail beard, google the image and you will get the idea.

Finally our menagerie is completed by 2 cats Brian and Morganna (fondly known as Nitten) and 2 dogs Laddie and Ebony (inherited from an acquaintance after a less than honest description of her)!!! We did have 6 chickens but due to circumstances that you will soon learn about they sadly had to be re-homed.

So that’s my family, richly blessed with difference, loyalty, love, sensitivity, honesty and humour. My family, the most important thing in my world, along with my Husband Alistair, my best friend, my souls partner, my true love.

And about me, well my qualities are for those around me to describe, I know that I try to do all that I do with love and a good heart and if I can’t do it with good grace I would rather not do it at all. Cooking I am especially passionate about and like to fill my family with wholesome fresh food cooked with a kind heart. I dislike anything that has a rigid structure to its organisation (religion and teaching to name a couple). My soul feels happy outside in nature and I follow a very undisciplined practice of  Shamanism. I would definitely qualify to be burnt at the stake!

Our tiny little cottage house in Brentwood has been our nest for the past 8 years, and I think the house truly chose us to be its occupants. This tiny house has brought us all together, rifts have been healed here, I have my lovely sister Kate and her family back in my life and damaged relationships have been released here. A tiny house with elastic walls that has brought security to those that have lived here, deepened relationships, developed spiritual pathways and watched over us as we slept. A tiny house in which we have evolved from being like the Royal Family ( the one with Nanna not the Queen Mother) to centred, grounded, secure and spiritually developed souls. A tiny house that has had the wings of a guardian angel wrapped around it and the love from an angels heart poring out from inside it.

And boy… do we now need our belief in all things celestial. So here’s the bit where it becomes a bit like the X Factor sob story… you know; my Nan died, my leg fell off and I lost my job and my house and if I can just get through singing this song everything will be OK. Sorry went a bit off piste there but it sort of whets your appetite for whats coming.

Life threw us a curve ball in December 2011 when Alistair was diagnosed with a fairly nasty type of Prostate cancer. The medical profession gave their usual narrow-minded view of things, you know, burn it out with radiation (even though radiation causes cancer), have a radical prostatectomy (non- nerve sparing so definitely impotent and high possibility of incontinence) or palliative care in the form of anti androgen blockers ( all with their own delightful side effects).

Over the next few weeks we read anything and everything we could get our hands on in relation to Prostate cancer and cancer per se. Wow what a fantastic amount of brilliant information we found, old research and studies that have had remarkable impact on helping people to heal themselves from cancerous cells. From the shock and fear instilled in to us from the totally allopathic medical  profession began to emerge a glimmer of hope that perhaps we could find another way to help Alistair heal himself.

The major factors that are totally dismissed by the medical profession are Stress and its part in helping normal cells to turn cancerous, nutrition and the key part it plays in both assisting the growth of cancerous cells and helping them to commit suicide. Of particular interest was the relationship between dairy and hormone based cancers (one of which is Prostate cancer). To give him his credit Alistair’s consultant did mention to come off dairy. Also of interest from a nutritional perspective was that our traditional western diet of meat with every meal is far from helpful both from a preventative point of view and as a healing point of view.

So a plan was beginning to take shape, a plan that seemed empowering, a plan that didn’t have gross side effects attached to it an a plan that would strengthen Alistair’s immune system rather than further obliterate it. Along the way we found out about the Gersen Clinic, The Budwig Clinic/Diet and a few other alternative centers that offered hope of healing and more to the point continued wellness.

So it became clear that things had to change. The very nature of our profession brings an amount of stress with it. Alistair had been working intensively long-term with some fairly troubled clients and it had certainly taken its toll on him emotionally. So time off to begin his healing was the first thing to create, our home has always been a very low stress environment but I think Alistair’s internal environment was pretty stressed. “This is one hell of a burnout” was his conclusion!!

Secondly, from all the literature we had digested we knew that the only sane thing to do was to become vegetarian! Anybody that knows me will tell you that I could give Fred Flintstone a run for his money in terms of being the best carnivore. Alistair on the other hand had long been whispering about becoming a vegetarian. But I could not deny what I had read and Alistair and I are a partnership, if he needed to do it, I would do it to support him. Apart from 1 piece of fish a week we haven’t eaten meat since Boxing Day 2011! Dairy went too, quite quickly. Alistair is now almost Vegan. Refined carbohydrates, sugars, flavourings, preservatives, they all went too, caffeine, that went too, although it does go in another entrance to aid the removal of toxins from his liver!! Alcohol and tobacco had been eliminated from our lives from quite some time so that wasn’t a problem. So what were we left with? Wholesome fresh vegetables (Organic only) and fruit (not too much for Alistair, cancer cells love a sweet acid anaerobic environment so he has to watch the fructose even in natural fruit). Spelt pasta, brown rice, some tofu, lentil, barley, nuts, spelt cous cous, herbs, spices especially turmeric and cayenne pepper, garlic, ginger and loads of freshly squeezed organic vegetable juices. (Samsung juicer and Abel and Cole organic deliveries have literally become a life saver). Nothing fried, only lightly steamed or grilled and a high content of raw food.

And an amazing thing happened, as our thirst for knowledge grew and we became more and more involved in eating an unrefined diet, Candace and Kirt become drawn into this . Its an incredible thing to see your 23 year old son juicing pints of fresh vegetable juice and using Bee Propolis throat spray to SUCCESSFULLY treat tonsilitis when the GP had offered him nothing more than course after course of anti-biotics.

The next step was to chose a ‘treatment ‘plan to kick start Alistairs recovery. He chose the Budwig Centre went to Malaga in Spain for a 2 week in patient stay. Superb! Dr Johanna Budwig was a Biochemist and her research shows that Flax Seed and Flax Oil are key players in killing cancerous cells. Since his return he has continued with the Budwig protocol and his PH (mine too for that matter) is generally around 7.5. Good news for us, cancer cells love an acid environment, so too do other ailments.

What next then? Well running a house is expensive, having a hefty mortgage doesn’t really allow for 1 partner to take too much time off before things become a bit tight. What to do?

We had long been toying with the idea of a barge, seemed like a good time to explore this a little further. We did and we couldn’t afford it simple as that.

What was the next best thing; A campervan ( bit small) a motorhome (good for hols but really to LIVE in? with 2 dogs and 2 cats and 5 children that will want to visit/sleep over and a grandson too. OK how about an American RV, they seem pretty big, pretty well equipped, pretty good to live in. Ahh the plan is hatched, Alistair, who could live quite happily in a paper bag as long as he had his own seat and a side table full of crap, became like a man possessed. Quick, before Rebeks changes her mind, lets do it. So we did, we have, we are doing. We have sold our tiny angel wrapped house, Candace and Kirt have moved out (boo hoo) and we are about to set off for a life on the road. A life that will allow us to heal, work, rest, play and live life for as long as we have it. A life that will allow us to spend weeks at a time in Spain where the Spanish winter sun will provide copious amounts of Vitamin D for Alistair. A life that will allow Alistair to write and publish his books, a life that will allow us to live simply and healthily not bound by the constraints of our mortgage payments. A life in which we can be free.

We are on the count down now, we have Gladys our 33ft RV, we have places to stay sorted out and we have a completion date of around 7th June.

Imagine, packing everything up, selling stuff, giving stuff away, really really deciding what bits of a whole houses contents are actually that important so that what we are left with fits snuggly into 33ft of mortgage free space. Well very soon I won’t have to imagine it, I will be able to share with you first hand exactly what it is like and I promise I will tell you the truth.