The Anthologist

Hello, my name is Annie Yeoman and I’m the Anthologist for the Tribe of Elders.  I am the one who is collecting and collating the Wisdom.

I have had a very rich and varied life with many ups and downs.  But the one thing I’m sure of is that if each and every thing that has happened in my life hadn’t happened I wouldn’t be where I am now doing what I am doing, being the person I am.  I love my life, there are a few things I’d change but who wouldn’t, but on the whole I’m happy being me.

I am a fully qualified Holistic Therapist with 5 diplomas and 12 years of experience including teaching aromatherapy, massage and reflexology in New Zealand.  I was the NCO for a new mother’s charity in New Zealand with 21 branches throughout the country, training and motivating volunteers, facilitating workshops and fundraising.  I run Mind Body & Spirit healing workshops and give spiritual counselling.

I travelled around Australia for a year on the back of a motorbike, visiting just about everywhere you could imagine and the bits I missed I went back to visit 18 months later.  I backpacked around New Zealand, India, Nepal, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, USA & Canada.  I worked in backpackers in Australia and Instow in Devon.

I worked on a dairy farm in Taranaki New Zealand, milking cows weeks after my 2nd child was born and when my son was 5 months old I left the farm and moved into town with 2 babies, a twin stroller and a dog.  I knew no-one.  I’d been in New Zealand for 10 months out on a farm in the middle of nowhere.  I got a job, bought a house and lived a great life with many good friends.  My kids got to have a real childhood – like the one I had.

I came back to the UK to escort my father to the pearly gates.  During one of his lucid moment he asked how come I was always happy, I’d been in an emotionally abusive marriage, lost all my savings to a con-man, suffered severe depression after my son was born, was penniless and homeless.  I laughed.  What else could I do.  If I didn’t laugh I’d cry and if I started to cry I didn’t think I’d stop.  So I made the decision to be happy.  To be grateful every day for all the blessings that came my way.  Even the most simple or tedious thing could be turned into a blessing. After all, feeling sorry for myself was just a thought and a thought can be changed so I changed my thinking and changed my life.

And those are my words of Wisdom – be grateful every day for all the blessing that come your way – if you can’t see them, look for them, write them down, keep looking and keep writing.  They’re there.