I was born and raised in Victoria, Canada.
At the age of 17, I left home to study at the University of Toronto, and I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Mathematics, with favourite subjects Numerical Methods and Advanced Logic. At heart, I'm a philosopher, pondering life's big questions.
At the age of 23, I married Hans, and shortly afterwards moved with him to The Netherlands. Hans passed away in 2022. We were together more than 36 years and the grieving process was at times brutal.
That process resulted in some deep soul-searching and re-evaluation of who I was, what I truly believed, and who I wanted to be. I realised I needed to challenge some of my deepest insecurities and make drastic and long-overdue changes. I started throwing open the windows and doors of my soul to allow fresh air in.
Opening those doors led in 2025 to someone very special entering my life: Stefan. He has brought lots of love, laughter and joy - and new perspectives. The sun has finally come out again, and I'm embarking on life's next big adventures.
Ever since I was a very young child, I've pondered the questions, Who am I? and Where am I? I remember first asking those questions when I was about five years old, standing on the back lawn and looking up at the cloudy sky. I've always found 'reality' a bit, well, surreal; I have a strong sense of being an observer or, more accurately, as if my life is an ever more lucid dream. Those two questions have been a driving force in my life, and led me on a wonderful journey to some surprising answers and a very blessed life.
"Do you believe in God?"
Not in the usual sense.
"What do you mean? Do you believe in God or not?"
I believe that ultimate reality is One.
I don't believe in a personal God separate from the self or the world. I also don't think reality is godless. I reject that whole divide.
"But if you don't believe in a personal God, doesn't that make you an atheist?"
I am not saying, "I believe in God."
But I am also not saying, "There is no God."
What I am saying is, the category itself is mistaken.
I'm neither theist nor atheist. I'm non-dualist.
What I mean by that: reality is fundamentally One. The apparent multiplicity of the world — objects, persons, forces — is not ultimately real in itself, but a manifestation of a single underlying principle, or thought. The sense of being a separate self is not the deepest truth of what you are. The individual and the world are not two different things, but aspects of one thought.
This isn't a moral framework. It has nothing to say about how to behave or what to pursue. It is simply a description of what is — arrived at not through faith or tradition, but through direct observation. The seeing through the illusion of separateness doesn't change the world; it changes what you take yourself to be. One reality, mistaken for many; insight, not belief.