Hi there. My name is Amanda van Niekerk and I live and work in South Africa. Until a few years back I was a full-time yoga and pilates instructor from the small sun-filled studio at my previous home in Johannesburg. Previously I lived in Cape Town for ten years, and it is there that I first learnt about yoga, and completed my yoga teaching and therapies training.
I was born in West Sussex, England, and arrived on these sunny shores as a four year old. I still feel a strong affinity for my country of birth: I returned to live there for a while in my twenties, and have maintained my dual citizenship.
More recently my focus has turned to writing (my blog and short stories) and helping to ‘raise’ the garden and renovate the home that I share with my husband, our elderly cat and the wonderful array of creatures and plants in our Johannesburg garden. Some of the things that inspire me to write are: Nature in all its forms, creativity, kindness, simplicity, sustainable living, yoga, taoism, wisdom and health (individual and planet). I hope to live near the sea again some day and I have a place in my heart for all kinds of animals.
As human Beings, we live with and within nature, sharing a world with a myriad of micro-organisms, plants and animals which live and move all around us and some even take up home in the tissues of the human body. The natural world is not separate from us, it is part of us. I believe that even though we are are not all ‘lover’s of nature’ (not everybody’s first love is gardening, hiking or even keeping pets), we should as individuals at least show respect, gratitude and awareness of the consequences of our actions in being part of the natural environment that gives us life and sustains us.
Jasper
