Lyndy Summerhaze – Universal Woman
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NAME: Dr Lyndy Summerhaze
AGE: 68 LOCATION: Crabbes Creek NSW Australia PhD (University medal), BA (1st class honours); Dip.Mus.Ed. A.Mus.A; Educator; Writer; Editor; Esoteric Healing and Massage practitioner at Gaia Retreat Health Spa, Brooklet, NSW; tutor at Kip McGrath Centres; retired University teacher of English Literature.
At 68 I feel vital, warm, gorgeous. My 44 year-old daughter recently described me to my brother as ‘looking really hot’. And it’s true! I really look forward to getting up in the morning for the fresh new day . . . choosing my clothes and putting on make-up, ready to engage with the day that awaits.
I have always been deeply and naturally philosophical, questioning why we are here. I love people and connecting with everyone. I have a strong sense of our inter-connectedness and that we are all kin, this being something very vital to me. What is life without this warm love? What is life without knowing the sheer joy we naturally are? Without our connection to love we are nothing!
The integrity of things really matter to me. In my teenage years I talked into the night with my father about religion, philosophy and politics, and what kind of society we could create that was not full of greed, corruption and suffering. Did it have to be this way? Was there another way we could live?
I remember hearing Peggy Lee’s throaty cabaret voice singing ‘Is that all there is?’ and saying to myself, ‘No that’s not all there is – I know there is far more to life’ – a truth that was always being communicated to me, especially when I walked amongst the trees, when I looked up into the deep night sky studded with shining stars. I am often astounded at the exquisite nature of our universe and the fact that we are somehow part of it Nature has always provided a steadfast reference point that harmony is somehow a possibility in this world. Being in the beauty and freshness of nature, with its delicate and sometimes intoxicating scents, always felt so joyful. I loved the tiny birds, the leaves, gum-nuts and twigs, the sun-warmed embankments, and the grasses – all the different kinds talking to me in their different ways. Just feeling a little breeze ruffling my hair would bring a spring to my step and I have always been aware of a quality of multi-dimensionality that I knew came from deep within myself and was timeless.
In the middle of all this I was of course partying, surfing, singing in a rock band, and dating gorgeous men . . . falling hook line and sinker for life.
I studied philosophy at University and was disillusioned with what was on offer there. It felt to me that most of the philosophers we studied didn’t give a hoot about truth. This was what I was always looking for – the truth about the universe, the place of mankind in it, and who I really was.
After obtaining my PhD in English Literature I ended up specialising in studying the natural philosophers and alchemists of the 16th and 17th centuries in England. I loved reading these profound views on life which talked about our return to the divinity we have come from, and were inclusive of everything from the science of the universe down to the detail of our everyday ailments – they considered the whole of life. There was always this sense of life emanating from a ‘wholeness’ which appealed immensely to me. I wrote three books on this subject, the final one, published by Cambridge University Press won an award ‘Outstanding Reference Work for Britain in 1999’ and was celebrated in a launch at a major city bookstore.
But where did all this get me? While looking successful on the outside, I was tired, struggling, anxious, and cautious. After all this study and work I was no closer to finding that seemingly elusive philosophy of life that would deliver that vital something I was looking for. At 59 I came across ‘The Way of the Livingness’ and Universal Medicine
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Dr Lyndy Summerhaze
Slowly but surely, as a student of this way, I came to realise that these ‘disciplines’ were not something to be studied only, something outside of everyday life, but were in fact an integral part of the practical nitty gritty of how I ran my life moment to moment, how I inhabited my very body – how I love and relate with myself and others, how I treat my body caringly instead of cursing it and ignoring its true needs, how I establish a true and steady rhythm in life, these are the golden keys to living authentically and richly.
Having found and re-connected to this amazing source of life within me I now know the possibility of living from a whole different quality – from a beauty and intelligence that deeply comprehends life and that considers the consequences of all we do and express. One of the most beautiful and freeing things I have discovered through this intelligence is the acceptance of my own and others’ imperfections, and that there is no perfection on earth. This has opened up the gateway to the possibility of our divinity being able to have a real presence on earth.
I used to wake up every morning with a vague but all-encompassing feeling of dread for the day to come. I was often tired, and felt on edge about life. Sometimes the endless round of days seemed futile. Not so now.
The amazing thing is that I now feel healthier and work longer hours than I have ever done before in my ‘pre-retirement’ years teaching at University. I enjoy tutoring students at an Education Centre, and love my work as an Esoteric Healing and Massage therapist, seeing people re-choose to rise and claim responsibility for their lives, flourishing and expanding in their health, wellbeing, and their whole relationship to life. I deeply care about humanity, my larger family. As a child this took the form of rescuing wounded birds, animals and people and bringing them home. And now I’m simply there, ready to support people if and when needed.
Before the ‘working day’ begins, I enjoy being a volunteer writer, editor and proofer for a ground-breaking magazine for women; and on a number of projects, books and websites in the fields of relationships, education and philosophy. I love writing articles, and especially enjoy catching some speculation or question about current life in the media – for example ‘Why is consumerism rampant, do we use it to fill our emptiness?’– and then plunging in and writing an article about this that will take that extra step to expose and unravel what lies beneath. I deeply care about the truth and integrity that we can all bring to life and to each other.
How do I do all this on top of full-time work?
And this all because I came across a philosophy of life based on the Ancient Wisdom that opened my life to whole new dimensions of living and loving.
I have a gorgeous daughter, grand-daughter, and brother, and many precious friends with whom I laugh, talk and explore ever-deepening relationship, and, in all of this, am rediscovering a depth of love that is without end – an ageless love that is simply there, holding us as one community. I’m celebrating life, every day!
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