In honour of International Women's Day, March 8, 2013.

I'm blessed. Being born in Canada, I am recognized as equal to men in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. I have legal recourse in the event that someone trods on my rights.

To whit; it reads:

15. (1) Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.

Today is International Women's Day. Last year, women in the Middle East had their privileges whittled away by the Muslim Brotherhood, Indian women and girls continue to be tortured and raped without legal protection, and American women continue to go unmentioned and unprotected in their constitution. I find it surprising that many American gun enthusiasts, including women are threatening to hold a major revolution over their right to own a tool of killing, yet those women are still not equal in the eyes of the law. That this fact doesn't seem to scathe them, befuddles me.

Contrary to popular belief the Women's Rights' amendment long fought, continues to not yet be a reality. That is sad, at best. Although, in 1977, the UN adopted a resolution proclaiming today the day to be observed for Women's Rights and International Peace; said date which had already been being celebrated by American women for the two previous years. By now, there should be change?

This year's Women's Day theme is "A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women." It seems unfortunate to me that in 2013, UN Women, CEDAW, Amnesty International and other rights groups continue to strive to have equality and protections for all women.

It's not easy watching the way that women get treated in this world on a day to day basis. It is different, if you're a man, I suppose. Little girls get shot in the face for daring to go to school, women are raped, daily, while citizens turn a blind eye or worse male passersby will jump in and participate in public gang-bangs. Women's rights are erased from existence with the twist of a pen in Egypt. It is bittersweet that yet I enjoy a freedom that other women can only dream about all at a time when "one woman" is celebrated as being the face of true freedom and equality... just it's not for women's equality, it's for someone else; albeit a very important "someone else".

Because we live in North America, we are living in a world that lies to women on a daily basis. YOU ARE EQUAL, they tell us. Women have rights too. Well, here in Canada that is certainly true, but my US friends have no such guarantees. Even though Susan B. Anthony fought so hard as she did, and even though NOW, the National Organization for Women continues to put the women's rights amendement on every ballot until the bill is passed and ratified into law! Yet, 75% of Americans believe that the law was passed. I found it interesting that President Obama ran on a women's rights platform that has been virtually unheard of since taking office. Just this last month, he honoured a woman who has changed America and the World by refusing to go to the back of the bus. She didn't stand up and do what she did because she was a woman, she did it because she was black and there was no justifiable reason for her to be a second class citizen as a person of colour, yet, sadly, were she alive today, Rosa Parks who could sit on the bus, would still not be protected by her own nation as a woman.

Rosa Parks

Perhaps it means not much, being the privileged woman I am, living here in the Great White North. Seriously, though; what does it mean to ME to be equal in the eyes of the law? Well, it means that I am respected by the males of my nation as a human being, and THIS, whether THEY like it or not.

Over 600 million women live in countries where domestic violence is not a crime. Nearly 70% of the world's women have experienced violence against them both physical and sexual and over 60 million girls worldwide are forced into marriage before the age of 18. Worse, fully half of all the sexual assaults the world over happen to girls under the age of 16!

My daughter and step-daughter are adults now, but still, were they to leave Canada to go to certain nations, they'd instantly become second class citizens. Scary that one of those nations is the United States.

This isn't the kind of world where I thought I was being raised. It hurts to think that women have no legal recourse for even so much as asking to be treated as a human being! And this fully 30 years after women were written into the Canadian Constitution.

This year, lets find a way. Let's work together to bring an end to violence against women, and lets wake the world up start by getting women's rights ratified into law EVERYWHERE. Enough is enough.

Rosa Parks is one woman who stood up for equality. She is regularly heralded for her work in furthering the rights of all men, yet she was also a strong supporter of the women's rights movement and she lived in a nation where one woman CAN be heralded as having changed the world; but who is still not equal in the law of the land. I think it's time to change that.

In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton along with Lucretia Mott, penned the now famous Declaration of Sentiments. Would that one day, all North American women can enjoy equality. Their words marked a cornerstone that has come to be known as the women's suffragist movement and was instrumental in women in many countries, including Canada, being given the right to vote in the early 1900s.

There is a statue of the valiant five I had the honour of seeing while in Calgary in 2012.

The Valiant Five;

• Emily Murphy (1868-1933) - The British Empire's first female judge
• Irene Marryat Parlby (1868-1965) First female Cabinet minister in AlbertaNellie Mooney McClung, Suffragist and member of the Alberta legislature
• Louise Crummy McKinney (1868-1931)  First woman elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta and any legislature in Canada or the rest of the British Empire
• Henrietta Muir Edwards (1849-1931) Founding member of the Victorian Order of Nurses.

Canadian women owe their equality to these five. I look forward one day to celebrating the similar equality of all women.

They were five women in one nation who succeeded. This is one world, we are one people; we are one woman and together, we can make equality a reality.

In the immortal words of Human Rights Activist and Comedian, Dick Gregory;

Never before in the history of this planet has anybody made the progress that African-Americans have made in a 30-year period, in spite of many black folks and white folks lying to one another.

Writing Again

I haven't felt like a writer in a while. writer's block, life gets in the way? Who knows. Anyway, it seems the bug is back. I've known it was coming back for a while now, but here it is. Suddenly I have refound my muse? Maybe it's just that I have something to say?

Perhaps my Virtual Assistant Suzie Kummins-Poirier owner of Ace Concierge asked me to participate in a blog roll. She wanted articles that her customers could use to improve their business.

Here's a brief exerpt of what I wrote...

How to Increase your Bottom Line and in so doing Rescue the Economy by Changing your Eating Habits.

A loud refrain during the latest Presidential election was all about creating jobs in order to help the economy. Both sides trumpeted how it was going to happen. But nobody really presented a solution that seemed workable at the John Q Public level.

As an outsider looking in, it seems pretty obvious to me that the easiest way to fix the economy is to improve the productivity of those employers who are already feeding the economy, lower their bottom lines and they'll quite naturally invest further in their company feeding the coming economic boom.

Click here to read more.

Butterflies

So Teresa Deak sends me butterflies. Once, ONCE she sends butterflies!

Suddenly I'm seeing them everywhere:

Everywhere.

Security Bubbles and Butterflies

The other day a friend and tarot client contacted me in a tizzy. His sister is in Israel and was freaking out because, as seems to be a daily occurrence in that area of the world, rockets were landing all around her! Knowing that I am able to throw remote bubbles of protection around people, he wanted me to protect her.

How could I say "no"?

I settled into my spirit and I proceeded to throw the bubble around the girl and her neighbour who was with her in the basement. Everything was going fine until I realized that for the first time ever I had to struggle to erect the bubble, and once it was erected it felt fuzzy and not quite solid as it usually does. Worse, I could feel a hand reaching out of the bubble to the hand of the neighbour who WAS NOT inside the bubble!

So, rather than just sit back and hope for the best, I put out a call for support from my esoteric and spiritual friends. The call was answered in spades, as usual. I have such loving supportive friends.
Well, a tarot friend of mine, who is probably more familiar with the sort of situations that Southern Israelis must go through, living in essentially a war zone, she was rather more calm, cool and collected about the situation. Good thing, for I don't think I'd have known how to take the incidents that transpired as were talking.

I contacted Ruth Stefanovic, aka Modern Day Ruth via Facebook to ask her to look at the situation for me. I was very concerned for the safety of the neighbour for I couldn't for the life of me get her into the bubble.

Well, Ruth took a look at her cards and she saw what I was seeing; the arm sticking out of the bubble, and we could both feel the danger that seemed to exist at that moment for the neighbour. It seemed distant, so long as the hand inside the bubble held onto hers. Meanwhile, I put out a public call for help to my esoteric friends. And answer the call they did.

As we were looking at the situation, esoterically, of course, I suddenly felt/saw the neighbour slip into the bubble, as if she were pushed by an unseen hand. Then the bubble strengthened and solidified.
I could see the two girls sitting on a bench huddled together, obviously afraid, but the bubble solid around them told me they were suddenly both safe.

Then a moment later, my office was filled with butterflies. The flock was akin to the sort of thing you'd see during a wedding or a memorial when the critters are released, and they seemed to be flocking around me. I wasn't too surprised as I've spent my entire life seeing things that aren't "there" or at least aren't visible to other people. But I was pleased, I've never been surrounded by butterflies before.

I don't know who "pushed" the neighbour into the bubble, whether it be someone from the Tarotholics Anonymous group or someone else (I did post the request to both my wall and a lightworkers' group that I belong to). I don't know who sent the butterflies but it was beautiful.
I had a discussion with my husband about it last night. We decided that the butterflies weren't actually mine, nor were they actually here (unless someone tells me differently), but rather that they were a gift of visual perception. We decided that the tarotist Teresa Deak who sent butterflies to the girls was the source of the butterflies and that although they seemed as if they were in the room with me, it was more that I seemed to be in the room with the girls and thus could see the butterfiles.
The good news is that a few hours later, a cease fire was called, the all clear sounded and the girls went home to their own beds.

I wanted to know what Greg thought of the whole thing. He thinks that most people would simply lock me up for being crazy, because he's studied brain science and knows how the psychiatric industry behaves. Of course, when I asked why he doesn't think I'm crazy, he replied "because I believe in magic".

Melody Reading Price list

About Tarot

Life is a cycle. Within each person's life are a series of cycles, each one with a beginning, a middle and an end. Many cycles overlap during a person's lifetime, others begin when others end. It can be said that the Tarot represents these cycles. Tarot allows us to truly examine these cycles, making life and love easier.

Advantages of hiring a Tarot practitioner:
* Personal exploration and growth.
* Awaken yourself to the choices available to you.
* Find a focus for your problem solving.
* Help you clarify goals.
* Help you understand the past, present and future.
* Help you make decisions about the future
* Fortune telling, in its most basic form

What Tarot can do for you and your business:
* Provide dialogue and personal insight.
* Annual business planning.
* Mission and Vision Statements with real meaning.

Tarot History

Many believe that Tarot began in Italy in the early 14th century although the basis for modern-day tarot was created in the 19th century by a Catholic Priest named Eliphas Levi. A learned scholar, Levi was schooled not only in Catholicism, but Judaism, Hinduism, Cabalism and Masonic religions. He also studied astronomy, astrology and metaphysics. When he created his first deck, he incorporated his knowledge (and understanding) of these religions, the elements of nature (fire, water, earth and air) as well as astrological symbols. Some cards even refer to Biblical scripture. By the late 19th century, the cards were being used to predict the future.

There is nothing more mystical and magic to Tarot than there is magic and mystery to the Universe. Tarot unlocks these mysteries, when you know how to read the cards.

About Melody

Melody is the name that I have chosen to give to my Source Spirit. I believe that within each of us resides an energy, a guidance system, if you will, that uses emotion to show us the best way to meander through this existence we call human life. That existence is at its very core, if you think about it, designed for one sole purpose... the experience. It is the very journey between birth and death that is of import and in order to navigate that path we have built in energy systems. It's rather tricky to explain given the fact that no two people can ever possible 100% agree on all of the icons that must be used to describe what I'm talking about, but know that deep inside you, you can FEEL that energy. It is what makes you feel good when you win something. It is what drives you when you're on the path of something you truly desire and it is the wondrous emotion of love and power that you feel when you exchange spiritual connections with someone or something else.

That energy, which I call my Source Spirit, speaks to me, and the "voice" I hear, I have named Melody.

Interestingly, it is through the tarot cards that Melody speaks and as such, my readings are, as my husband likes to call them, eerily accurate.

I do not pull punches, I do not play games. I am not one of those readers who is all hung up on the "ethics" of tarot that they cannot tell you what they actually SEE in the cards. I believe that IF I can see it, it is because it is meant to be told. I won't sugar coat what I see, although, I always strive to deliver what I see with love.

Some people call it channeling, I simply call it being completely in touch with the higher self within me that is able to connect to the higher self within you. Melody is not a separate entity that exists outside of me, consider she is more like an imaginary friend, or more appropriately, my burning bush ala Moses of the Bible fame.

Prices:

Personal Consultations: $100.

Corporate consultations:
$250 plus $75 per additional employee Includes a Mission Statement reading (3-6 cards), an Annual Business plan reading (24 cards) and two key employee readings: Double Horseshoe reading (14 cards each).

Gift consultations:
Birthday Readings:
Double Horseshoe (14 cards) or Celtic cross reading (10 cards) $100
Wedding Gift: $150 includes one Relationship reading (8 cards) and one Double Horseshoe reading (14 cards) for each of the bride and groom.

Tarot Parties $450. Includes a Double Horseshoe reading (14 cards) for the host/hostess and one Simple Horseshoe or Life Strategy reading (7 cards) for each of a maximum of 8 guests. (Time frame: 5 hours).

Readings are done in person, on the phone, skype, internet messenger or by email; by appointment only.

Referrals are welcome.

If you are interested in learning how to read tarot cards or how to improve your relationship with yourself and your own Source Spirit, request an invitation to join the Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/222715774453593/

A healing meditation for Sally.

Sally is my helpmeet and one of my best friends. We have some important plans together to save Haiti or at least part of it, and the whole world by spiritually overly-optimistic intention. She and I met on twitter and became fast friends during the Haitian Earthquake crisis. Sally is very dear to me is an absolute angel to everyone whose life she touches. And I need her. So, I'm asking for your help to save her. Melody is sitting with her now and holding her hand, except she looks like a little old woman, who Sally will recognize instantly as her mother. (There are literally tears streaming down my face as I describe this vision I have just been blessed to feel.)

Anyway, I'm already late, so let's get this out there!

Sally is currently in a battle for her life with pancreatic cancer. The doctors have given her two months. We want to call their bluff and go all in. So, we're calling on lightworkers everywhere to participate in a global healing. The more people we can get praying, the more effective the efforts will be, so please, pass it on.

You can use your own healing meditation/prayer if you are more familiar with one, but this is the Meditation I will be doing. I welcome you to follow it.

Please, share this prayer/meditation request with anyone and everyone you know who might comply and ask them to pass it along as well. The power of prayer is the most powerful tool we have.

In light and love,

Tina (and Melody).

Full credit for my meditation must be given to Copyright © 2003 - Guru Rattana, Ph.D. Learn more, by clicking here: http://www.kundaliniyoga.org/kyt23.html

Here it is:

Healing Meditation Instructions

Yogi Bhajan has said that the mantra RA MA DA SA SA SAY SO HUNG is one of the most powerful healing mantras on the planet. The power of this mantra comes from its ability to connect earth and ether. This mantra is used in many meditations taught by Yogi Bhajan. Below I explain one of the most popular meditations.

RA MA DA SA is the earth mantra.

This part of the mantra pulls the healing vibration into the physical plane.

SA SAY SO HUNG is the ether mantra.

This part of the mantra resonates with the universal healing frequency.

RA - Sun
MA - Moon
DA - Earth
SA - Infinity
SAY - totality of infinity
SO HUNG - I am Thou


Activating the Chakras
The mantra can be vibrated up the spine, chakra by chakra. Slightly pull on the energy centers as you chant each sound. This internal stimulation helps activate and align the chakras.

RA - base of spine
MA - belly (ma aa)
DA - navel center
SA - heart
Pause - hold at heart
SA - heart
SAY - throat ( say ay)
SO - third eye
HUNG - out the top of the head


To Begin
Set your intentions and ask for healing for yourself, others you wish to include, the Earth and Yogi Bhajan. Then release these prayers to the universe. During the meditation concentrate only on doing the meditation, the mantra and the effects you are experiencing. Get into the sensory experience and awareness. The more you are present to your experience, the more effective you are in creating a sacred healing space. You will use the space that you have created at the end to share healing energy.

Position - Mudra
Sit in Easy Pose (or full lotus) with your upper arms resting against your ribs, slightly in from the sides. The elbows are bent, and your forearms
positioned upward and slightly angled out from the upper arms. Your palms are flat, facing upward and pointed out from your body at a 45-degree angle.
(to form a 45% angle point the hands are over the legs toward the knees.)
The fingers are together with the thumbs stretched out towards the side away from the fingers.

It is very important to stretch the thumb away from the fingers. The stretch in the webbing keeps the hands flat and helps maintain a stretch at the wrist. You can use one hand to push down the other hand in order to get a feel of the correct stretch in the wrist. It is this stretch that helps balance the brain. When the thumb is not stretched, the wrist relaxes, the hands move upward and the mudra and its effects are compromised. When the mudra is accurately done, you will feel energy or a pull in the center of the palms. This creates the power to heal with your hands.

Your eyes are focused at the tip of your nose and the eyelids are nine-tenths closed. The focus at the tip of the nose, creates the pressure to cross the optic nerves at the third eye. You should be able to feel an awareness at the third eye and be able to hold your attention there.


Chanting
The mantra is to be chanted in either of the following two versions:

Inhale deeply and chant the mantra all in one breath. Ra Ma DA SA SA Say So Hung. There is a pause between the two SAs, but NO breath. Adjust the speed so that you can chant the full mantra on one breath, without a cheat breath on the pause.

MA and SAY are slurred making two notes each, "MA AA", "SAY AY". The first SA is short. HUNG is forcefully vibrated in the skull and out the top of the head.

Chant for 11, 15, 22 or 31 minutes.


Effects and Powers
This meditation gives one the power to heal long distance and to heal with the hands.


To End:
Now is the time to use the healing space that you have created.

* Inhale deeply and hold the breath. While the breath is held, concentrate on yourself and feel the sensations in your body. Feel or allow the vibration of the mantra to penetrate every cell of your body. Feel the mantra continue to resonate in your body. Become the healing vibration. Allow yourself to be healed.

Repeat the above process 3 or more times with the following variations.

* Inhale deeply and hold the breath. Feel the healing love pulse in your heart. Invite in friends, members of your family and situations and allow them to be bathed in the healing vibration. Hold them in your body, in your heart and in the healing vibration that you now resonate with and embody.

* Inhale deeply and hold the breath again. Feel that your heart is so big and the love so infinite that you can hold the whole earth in your heart. Let the earth pulse with the mantra and be healed with this love.

* Inhale deeply and hold the breath for a last time. Invite Yogi Bhajan into your heart to be healed. Be very attentive. I personally find that my heart space increases dramatically when I invite Yogi Bhajan in. I feel he is also healing me.

The above sequence can vary according to what you are intuitively directed to do

Another thing to do is to feel the Sun or a golden light in you heart:

* Chanting RA creates this energy.
* Expand it to fill every cell of your body. Then merge with the group's light if you are doing this with in a group.
* Feel the light expanding to radiate through the room, the vicinity, the area, country and then the whole earth.
* See/feel the earth healed.
* See/feel the hearts of every person penetrated with love and peace.
* Merge everything into Universal Light.
* As you come back, i.e. focus only on yourself, know that you can maintain this healing energy and light in your being.
* Intend that simply by smiling and greeting others, you share this love and light with the world.

End with the prayer "God bless this Earth with peace." Repeat five times.

If you don't know Elyse Bruce or Thomas Taylor of Midnight in Chicago, reading this blog is a waste of time. But you're welcome to read along.

Elyse Bruce, the musician is a very old friend of mine. She and I go way back. In fact, she would have been the maid of honour at my wedding to my current husband had her son not gotten ill. Well, she used to read tarot cards with me regularly. In fact, it was her tarot cards that predicted that I would be getting married to a "magician". Click here to see a tarot "magician" card. But later, she met this guy Thomas D. Taylor and things changed, a lot.

Because of Thomas, Elyse put away her tarot cards. Said she had to hide them from Thomas because he didn't like them. So, MIC's suggestion that they know nothing about my "magic" is an outright lie.

Eventually Elyse broke up with Thomas, or rather she told me that she had, but she kept him as her business partner.

I haven't had reason to think of Elyse since last July, the week before my step-daughter's wedding. And I'm looking forward to having no further thoughts of her once this blog is written.

See, what Elyse knows is that last July, she took it upon herself to write a letter to a fruit company with whom I was helping negoticate a win win situation for a Haitian farmer. That result was published in the Montreal Gazette, and Chenail Fruits, helped out someone they didn't have to help out. A little paperwork error, one might say. But the win was negotiated contrary to what Elyse tried to do; which I might add, could have her charged in a criminal court. I decided at the time that I would not press charges BECAUSE she had been my friend for so long and also because I believed, and mostly still believe that she is under some form of control of Thomas D. Taylor. But trust me on this, if ever the question comes up in a court of law, Elyse, whether it be me or someone else, I've still got your email in hand and Libel is a pretty easy thing to prove when untruths are written in emails. I've also got the email you sent me telling me to stay away from Ari Ne'eman of ASAN because he was bad news. Maybe Ari can use that in his lawsuit if you two don't knock it off?

For the record, this is the wonderful hot sauce project that should have been: http://www.thehotzoneonline.com/2007/12/14/raising-the-heat-for-autism/

Yes, it ended up selecting Autism Speaks, but Thomas tells the story just a little differently from the truth, we call that obfuscation and Thomas is really good at it. I had no clue that AS was supporting eugenics, and through what strikes me as creative ostracization now, then struck me as a really good reason to NOT work with AS. And we cancelled the project, but that wasn't good enough for Thomas. Thomas and Elyse believe in guilt by association. See, people aren't allowed to be ignorant of things like Eugenics as pertains to AS because well, you should know that they're into eugenics, EVEN THOUGH, it is written NOWHERE on the AS website or in any of their documents. But you know, that's enough for Thomas to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Now I bet you're wondering... What do they think of YOUR friends and family? Do any of your friends or family support AS? You best disown them because if not, you're in Thomas' target sights.

Interestingly, in the last 24 hours, since I became the target of the attacks, I have learned of a frightening history of MIC going after people, as is repeatedly seen in her blog, like a dog after a bone. Elyse believes that if you do something, like allow your autistic son to go somewhere, and he somehow ends up murdered, its YOUR fault for letting him go.

I should mention that although it's pretty easy to guess which one of the two of them is writing because I know Elyse so well, for someone else, it's hard to tell which of the two of them is posting on the Midnight in Chicago blog, because neither of them sign their posts other than as "Midnight in Chicago". So, it's not really Elyse or Thomas that is doing this, it is Midnight in Chicago. Odd to not separate THAT from your "company". At least what I'm posting is personal, on a personal page in Facebook and here on what is clearly labeled as my PRIVATE blog.

But then, they've done this to how many people?

So, now we come full circle and the possible reason you've landed on this blog... What you want to see is my response to her last post with all her acknowledgements about my company, because, it seems, although she'll allow posts that say I'm a devil worshipper, she won't allow this one... Well, here is that response:

I really appreciate the publicity, Elyse. We’re very proud of our company. It makes great products and is actually changing things for people which is more than I can say for MIC.

You see, if someone wants to do business with me, it will be because Brooks Pepperfire Foods makes amazing gluten free hot sauces and other food products. And frankly if the only reason for not doing business with me is because I have friends who DO support Autism Speaks, then by all means, go find another gluten-free hot sauce. I’ll help. :)

So, I’m curious, how many people do you think will read this? Should I be concerned that my sales will drop off? You’re awfully full of yourself.

I could take the time to rebut your BS and obfuscation, but I’m not going to bother, my Daddy taught me long ago that when you roll around in the mud with pigs, you get dirty and the pigs like it. I prefer not to roll around in the mud with you, I have a business to run and I’m going back into that little forum that you and your bully friends are so not welcome in and I’m going to continue to find support and succor and share it with the other people who are in there. And I’m going to do a lot of other things that are way more important than what you think you have to say.

And if you’d like to report the group to Facebook, by all means do so, but the reason the lock is on the door is so that people can post in security. Self-help groups require that as a key to their effective operation. But you knew that.

Which reminds me… I have to wonder now if maybe the reason that Brady White, DDS got so angry at Sympatico because you were doing exactly THIS to him back then? Maybe I owe him an apology for defending you to him? Say did you save any of THOSE screen shots?

You make your own bed in life and you choose your path, Elyse. Try to choose a better one. This one is just ugly.

Now, I've had about enough this, Elyse Bruce and Thomas D. Taylor of Midnight in Chicago. So, it seems has pretty much anyone and everyone in the autism community that you have previously targeted.

Regardless of what anyone thinks of Autism Speaks or any other autistic support/advocacy group, we as aspies, Dx'd or not, with friends, family, and connections on the spectrum, owe it to each other to work together to make autism awareness, support and advocacy number one.

If Elyse and Thomas think that this goal is best served by going after and attacking everyone in the autism community, by being nasty and divisive, then, that is their path. We each get to choose our own. If they think that calling in the troops to attack me, make fun of my company using lies and obfuscation is going to knock me off my game for more than a short while, then, they think far too much of themselves.

Finally, since I've logged onto your blog no less than 20 times in the past 24 hours just to see what shite you've been posting, the calculated repeated activity by someone else you've targeted for ostracization, means that nobody but those posting here are actually reading your blog.

And guess what? Given the ridiculously low number of hits THIS blog has gotten. You're stirring this stuff up amongst basically nobody.

So...

Stick a fork in this issue, it's done.

For those of you who are more interested in awareness, support and succor of each other, well, just keep doing the work required, because this divide and conquer the autism community ridiculousness isn't doing anyone any good and sadly, as a result, neither is Midnight in Chicago.

Elyse and Thomas, I have one suggestion... Start figuring out why you feel the need to ostracize all these people and maybe then you'll realize that you've both got far better things in life to do than this and if you don't, go find something!

Maybe plan your wedding... Happy things make life much more pleasant, don't you think?

Bless you both.

Welcome to my blog!

So nice to have you.

I hope you find your visit here most pleasant.

Why stop here? My home website is http://www.pepperfire.ca my flagship brand, is http://www.peppermaster.com and finally our latest Pepperfire Initiative project: http://www.haitianfire.com

I hope you're having a wonderful day!

Let me know if you'd like a Tarot Twreading. They're free.

Of course, it helps if you're on twitter, so feel welcome to follow even more of my insanity there!

Thanks for stopping by.

Yours,

Tina Brooks

Tea and little boys and why stories are meant to last forever

One of my best friends in the whole world, one Ms. Ali, aka, All in One on Aeclectic Tarot and one of my Soul Sistas, has at the ripe old age of, well, slightly older than me, learned how to drink tea. Snicker says the newfie.

Well, I told her to get a brown betty. There is nothing else in the world that one should, could or would make tea in, so that is what I recommended.

Well, I was at a tradeshow last week and in the booth next to me was Al Cadenas' tea company. These guys were pretty cool, they must have had a hundred different teas. In the booth they had a whole bunch of teapots and I thought of getting Ali a teapot, except that, Greg and I haven't had a bodum since the fire, and they had one... so we traded. I got my bodum and Ali is on her own for a Brown Betty.

So, then, here we are.

The whole point of this post is not my new bodum. It is in fact a showcase for a cute little story for cute little Nico (Ali's boy, who I suggested should have been a dog, although, she turns out to have been 100% absolutely suited to being a mother... lovely thing. But, ahem, I digress.)

So, here goes...

Once upon a time there were a pair of Peking ducklings. Their parents had been killed in a natural disaster and they were all they had left to the other in the whole world.

These ducklings were loved and coddled by Tina who lived in Montreal. Montreal is a city in Canada, the land of true freedom, way up north where the entire country freezes over in the winter and so much snow falls that everyone has to move into an igloo built on top of the snow until the snow melts in the spring.

Well one morning, the ever so slightly older Peking duckling heard that Alison had learned to like tea. So he shook his slightly younger brother awake and quacked, "I have to go to California! Alison MUST learn to LOVE tea!".

At first the slightly younger brother Peking duckling was surprised but he came to accept the idea quite readily when he realized that the two beloveds could stay in contact, as often as they wanted, daily, several times a day even and all they had to do, as a team, was to have both Tina and Alison turn on their PCs every so often enough that they could say a quick hello and how-goes-the-duck-race, if you will. So it was decided. Slightly older brother Peking duckling would go to California.

So, Tina put Slightly older brother Peking duckling into a little box, along with a little surprise for Alison to enjoy with her tea and sent it off via Canada Post.

Btw, you can track the voyage of Slightly older brother Peking duckling by going to http://www.canadapost.ca and track this package: (insert CP tracking number here).

When Alison receives slightly older brother Peking duckling, she is most graciously asked to Meme in kind by completing the tale of Tea.