Kalyanasri

I was ordained by Bhante in January 1986. I was living in Norwich at the time, as a single parent of my two children, and working in what was then called Lion's Roar, a team of women who produced a bi-monthly magazine called Mitrata for Windhorse Publications, which included some of Sangharakshita's lecture series with connected seminar extracts. I got to know and deeply trust Bhante's exposition of the Dharma by doing this work. Alongside this I was the women's Mitra convenor for Norwich for 9 years and when Mitrata came to an end, I worked part-time in several Evoltion shops.

I joined the ordination team at the end of 1999, after having had two beneficial and mostly enjoyable years living alone in a cottage in Wales, after my children had left home, and I have been here ever since. This is the first community I've lived in and even though only two of women are still here from when I first came, it has been and is a very lovely team of women to live and work with. It has been a tremendously positive and important time in my life as well as a challenging experience at times.

I love the Dharma and I love seeing the women who come here on retreat become more confident in their practice and more confident that these retreats make a real difference in their Dharma lives. The Dharma and Bhante's teachings work! I like studying, reading widely, and the country-side around here is beautiful for walks. Very green!