Grace G. Payge
Grace was born in Cape Town, South Africa and moved to America before she was 20. Her next hop was to London where she climbed the corporate ladder in the prestigious Square Mile. Her high pressured career ended abruptly with a realisation she was not cut out to wear a navy pant suit everyday, and do battle in a boardroom. A subsequent nervous breakdown further confirmed that all was not well. At the age of 29 she began and subsequently graduated with an Honours degree in Forensic Biology from the University of Kent, Canterbury. She attributes her degree to a fascination and mild obsession with CSI Las Vegas.
During a break from all things science related she pondered when life would begin life. After "divine guidance" (voices in her head) she packaged many unnecessary items into a black samsonite bag and headed to the Far East to fast and do something "spiritual." That was the beginning of the inner journey and the premise of her first non-fiction book.
She is currently back in the fishing village she grew up in working as a speaker, and corporate trainer. She is also an aspiring belly dancer and a closet hoarder of all things shiny.
“I thought that I was praying for external peace and quiet, when it was internal tranquillity that I craved.”
“The die cast, I really was living out of a suitcase, feeling as though I had fallen off the grid.”
“From that moment no human face ever looked the same. I saw me in everyone and everyone in me.”
“My angel, my heart, love is your protection.”
“It was a new experience, the “I” watching “my” mind freaking out!”
“I knew only that my thoughts and external events were inextricably linked.”
“In Thailand the customer is always wrong.”
“There was no turning back. I had created the situation, and having come this far I wanted freedom, I wanted liberation, I wanted deep orgasms and most of all I wanted to meet God.”
“I had experienced God first hand. In my polka dot pyjamas.”
“My tears stopped flowing, and a warmth spread through me. In my inner stillness, the answer found me “ you are the same person you have always been but never dared to see.”
“How the heck I was supposed to have a spiritual awakening without a flush toilet?”
“What’s an Ashram?” he asked, blankly. Misunderstanding my hesitation, his face lit up in comprehension. Winking slyly, he asked, “Is it a place you go to smoke weed and have lots of sex?”
“I knew we had to celebrate, not the breakup of a marriage, but a woman prepared to be brave.”
“I had made the vital realisation that my life was a series of events in which one merely had to keep on putting one foot in front of the other”
“I had never climbed a mountain, but standing at the bottom, looking at the summit, thinking, “How the fuck am I going to make it?” was pointless.”
“I did not know that I was deep in the throes of fighting my shadow; my shadow being reflected in all those things around me, distracting me from the true problem, and blinding me to myself.”
“He, I was sure, would have all the answers, and these answers he would find in my vagina.”
“No one knows what path you should follow except yourself. You are your own wise teacher. You are your own Guru.”
“Your life is not a personal story.”