Focusing on the challenges in another who we love deeply rather than on the love we feel for them, keeps you from truly enjoying the give and take that a relationship brings.

When you recognize a fear response in your partner; he's afraid of losing face, as a good example. See that response for what it is, and respond with sympathy for their human distress over the situation.

His fear and his pain does not need to be yours, nor do you need to take it on.

If speaking your truth is going to cause difficulty, then you must do so knowing the pain will be created, choosing when to do so, with discernment.

When you realize that you have created pain in your love, the only way to keep from pulling the pain back in is to transform it from pain back to love again. Pity, sympathy, whatever emotion feels best to suit the situation.

It takes practice, but you do not have to own how people react to your actions. Being one with yourself does not mean that you will not have conflict. It simply means that you will have a place where you can find peace while all hell about you is breaking loose.

Meditate. Your spirit will show you the way to peace. -- Melody

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 just wish to practice reading your own, join our Tarot Forum at http://canadiantarot.com

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.

On the Topic of Ferrets as Pets; not to be Confused with the Topic of "Familiars".

Before my first child was born, I had two ferrets. They make great pets. I like running a dog, so I hestitate to say they are the best, nothing beats a dog.

Things you should know about Ferrets:

They are explorers and are able to get into the oddest places. You won't be able to figure out HOW they got into them, so you need to ferret-proof the rooms where they are going to be released. They also like chewing on things, like wires, so you have to keep those away from the ferrets as part of your ferret proofing. Interestingly, they use ferrets to wire airplanes because their natural inclination is to go into tunnels. When you see a ferret running into a pipe in a movie, it is not because anyone trained them to go in there, it is because they LIKE to go into tubes, so your cage or room in which the ferret will live needs to be a mini jungle gym for ferrets. Your daughter will really enjoy "building" this space because the funkier it is, the better the ferret will like it. I'll explain why... Ferrets have two speeds... asleep and whirling dervish. There is nooooo middle ground. When they are awake, if there is no-one around, they will play with their environment. Kinda like giant gerbils or mice. Probably why people think they are rodents, but they aren't.

Ferrets, like cats or dogs, need to have shots and be spayed or neutered. The male is much larger than the female of the species and because they are pack animals, are better happier pets if they are part of a pack. In other words, get two ferrets or become an alpha ferret. You can get a ferret manual at the local library or on Amazon. I recommend DD read a couple before becoming the mama ferret. But, it sounds like this is right up her alley if she really likes animals.

Ferrets eat like cats, so feeding a cat is the same as feeding a ferret, EXCEPT, you have to feed it ferret food or ASH-FREE cat food, because the ash in dried cat food is bad for ferrets; it's probably bad for cats too, but it expressly causes respiratory problems in ferrets. You can purchase the food directly through your vet, they get good discounts. If you buy the food in bulk, it's cheaper. Btw, there is a small-animal vet that will have better knowledge of ferrets than other vets, so choose carefully. Ferrets are like cats in that they like to poop in the same place all the time. So they will tell you where to put the litter box once they've explored the room. Btw, the bigger the area, the more litter boxes you will need. They don't like to travel very far when they want to poop. Like cats they like to cuddle and need to wear a harness if you're going to walk them outdoors on a leash. Like cats, who also like to explore on a leash, they are freaking lazy, so don't expect long walks... but more on that in the "like a dog section".

Ferrets are like dogs, so you can train them to do things, like come when they are called and they are fun to play with. Please know though that you do not need to train them to do what they do in the movies, because those things are just things that the ferret will do naturally, they are highly inquisitive and really intelligent little buggers. They're FUN! Now, as lazy as ferrets are, they "tunnel" when they do not want to be awake anymore too, so they will cozy up inside your jacket or wrap themselves around your neck like a fur stole or even curl up in the inside pocket of the carrying purse you bought for just such purposes and it will hang out of the back content to let you do the walking while its nose explores the environment where you take it. Then, when you stop, they love to sniff around the ground exploring wherever you've stopped until you're ready to go again, so they're fun to putter around with. Much better animals for talking for walks and chillaxin the way teens do than cats who mostly don't like to be carried for long.

Ferrets need to have their talons clipped (or sanded down) regularly, (I walked my ferrets on pavement, we lived in the city, so that took care of a lot of the talons, but I still had to clip them once a month. That is like one would do with a dog. You can use one of those teeny buzz sanders made for manicures to do it yourself.

Ferrets are blind as bats like moles but not quite so bad because they are diurnal (I think that's the right word) -- they are mostly day creatures, when they're awake. Because they don't see very well, you never want to move really quickly near their faces, they will bite out of instinct.

Ferrets sleep 17-20 hours a day, so they need a nice safe dark place to go to during the day, that's where their cage comes in. My ferrets had their own room, rather than a cage, and that room had shelves and ramps and ladders that the ferrets could climb and play on. They love to jump and play.

The hammock is just another playplace for the ferret, they might even sleep in it. They are community-oriented, social animals who like to sleep in a lump, so they are accustomed to sleeping in a pile. The hammocks are simply unnecessary, but make for a comfy place for the ferret to nap. (Did I mention, they sleep a lot!).

Ferrets are great pets for high school kids because they'll curl up in your lap while you study or play video games, and when you want to be interested in them, they're totally ready to play.

Ferrets are mustilidae (sp?) like skunks or weasels, they are NOT rodents, so they have to be de-scented. You get the ferret de-scented BEFORE its first heat, which is also when you will get the ferret fixed. You have to fix them. I recommend getting all domesticated pets fixed though. It's hard to be natural and wild when you are a pet so hormones are not good for it.

If you've ever got into any video game for any reason, you are going to LOVE your daughter's ferrets. They really do make great family pets, and they will make a point of sleeping when there is no-one around to play with.

Oh, and did I mention, they make GREAT pets!

A little background.

My course began when I was really little. I didn't know it then, but with 20/20 hindsight I can see it clear as day.

When I was about 18, I had my first vision. I was walking along the beach with Jesus. And he was telling me that I was here to do something important, although he didn't say what. But he basically told me to trust that no matter what happens, he would be with me all the time and that in the times that I felt most alone, he'd be carrying me, even if I didn't know it.

About 17 years ago, I had another vision. My husband was killing himself on drugs and there was nothing I could do to stop him. I had been attending al-anon and had shared that night that every time I shared my anxieties, I felt better. In the vision I saw myself reciting those same words to the women in the group and stood up and looked behind me and each time I saw that when I had made good choices, those choices had been guided by the hand of God. So, then and there I made a commitment to God to look for those pathways that would lead me to the good choices and so long as God made it clear to me, I would follow.

So far so good, or so I thought.

Then my husband committed suicide, leaving me destitute with two small children and about $120K in debts that could not be written off.

And there I was thinking... But, I'm doing what you said, I'm going where you say, why arent, things getting better... But I couldn't see what was good and right and coming for me in the future.

I was so taken up with my husband's death, and the way that even my own family behaved because of it, that I moved out into the middle of nowhere to be alone with my kids.

Then about a year later, I met my current husband. I wanted nothing to do with him, but my heart had other ideas.

When he asked me to marry him, I thought, "what are you nuts, you have nothing, I have less than nothing, what good is this going to do?" but my heart thought "yes, yes, yes, yes, yes"...

We were married five months later.

Everything doesn't go exactly according to plan. Things are not always bright and rosy, but I actively look for the good in things. Doing the exercises in the ACIM helped me to realize the lack of real value to things and the real value to my emotions.

I think, although, even for me, it would take a lot of work, that I could handle just about any strife that God chose to throw at me. I swear to God, I say to my husband regularly, I am Job. I truly am.

But, I have to trust in God's plan anyway.

In the meantime, what happens is that I have come to grips with the knowledge that I am not my credit rating. That any morning, no matter how bad yesterday was, today has the potential to be better and so, my first thought is, today will be a better day.

Sometimes, when I'm slogging through a hell of a day, it's all I can do to find the good in what is going on, because I want to pull my hair out, I ran out of gas, filled up, forgot the fill the windshield washer reservoir, got turned around, was a half hour late for my appointment, ran into traffic that would make me an hour late for another appointment, then get home after a really stressful day to learn that I have a choice of tea or tea to calm my nerves because my beloved drank the last glass of rum.

Life isn't easy, it isn't meant to be.

Melody has taught me that we are here to experience these things because WE CAN. God cannot step into this illusion and do any of what we are doing, because God knows that at the wave of a hand, his riches would be right there on the table in front of him. He does not fear, he does not feel pain, he does not desire riches or even comfort, for he HAS all these things.

What we as humans fail to EMBRACE is the knowledge that WE are God and as such, We do not fear, we do not feel pain, we do not desire riches or comfort for we HAVE all these things...

EXCEPT

That in order for us to EXPERIENCE the richness that life has to offer, we CANNOT know who we are, so we have this curtain that draws down that keeps us from knowing the truth. Even when it is right in front of us, our ego refuses absolutely to accept it for if it did... WE would cease to exist, for as Gary Renard described it, the Universe would just disappear.

Now, when Melody started introducing me to the Law of Attraction, things got interesting.

But that's another lesson plan altogether.

Both of these "Grand Designs" work because at the end of the day, WE are who we are.

BUT, if we allow our Ego to fight the good fight, we will not believe it and no manner of desire or wishing for the peace will allow it to be.

We must convince our Ego that in following the lesson plan, the ego will become all that it can be and life will be wonderful... even when it is horrible.

New Year's inspiration

I've been reading my pals' posts on Facebook about their New Years' resolutions and what they are planning for the coming year and I figure it's a good idea to share what I'm going to do with the coming year.

Perhaps you can help?

First let me tell you how I got here and why I am going to do what I am planning, it'll make more sense.

When I first met Melody I had no clue about the Law of Attraction or the Course in Miracles or even about where she was leading me. All I knew was that she had been leading me quite well on a pathway that I was quite willing to follow.

I have gone from being a stressed out, overworked lunatic with very odd idiosynchracies to being a calm, happy, loving person. At least most of the time. As I say when I have the few moments I still do, be patient, Melody isn't finished with me yet.

Well, about the time, I had begun planning my career as a professional Tarot Reader, but Melody had different plans. Or I, at least, had a different pathway to walk before that could happen.

Well, things have happened, I have grown and changed. I have stepped through the aperture of a black hole and seen beyond the event horizon, or, in the words of my friend Gary Renard, I have seen the universe disappear.

And then I have willed it back into existence, because I'm just frankly not ready to step on over and stay there. I rather like it here.

AND, I might add, given the number of people who have come to rely on Melody for guidance, she isn't quite done over here yet either.

This year, I will be launching a spiritual guidance club. Said club will be open to all comers, and will provide them with unlimited access to Melody. I am planning on writing a newsletter and daily blogs that will come straight from Melody through me... I don't know how that is going to go, so I'll be finding a couple of "guinea pigs" for the project. I've already asked a couple of people, who know who they are, and they have accepted. There are a few people to whom I have yet to make the invitation but they will receive that soon enough.

The goal is to make it so that I can afford to bring Melody's wisdom to people without putting me into a position where I am doing more tarot readings for free that are encroaching on my income making time. Those who find value in Melody's guidance will, I believe, agree that this is the right way for me to go.

The project will involve the receipt of an email message specifically for the reader direct from Melody. I haven't figured out exactly how this is going to happen, especially if the mailing list gets too big, but that is the general gyst of it. This message will be free for all those who want them, but for those who need more, they will be able to subscribe to a paid system where they can have all the immediate access to Melody they need. Subscribers will be able to request a message from Melody on any given day, and have access to full personalized readings.

Anyway, there will be way more to it than that, but that's the gyst of what I'm working on right now.

Any thoughts on which way I should go? Feel free to comment.

Profile of a Tarot Reader

Tina Brooks comes from a long line of gypsy Tarot Card readers. Her Grandmother was Madame Laurette. A well-known professional reader and psychic who passed away in 2008.

Tina began reading cards at the age of 14, under the Tutelage of Madame Laurette and began with the very difficult task of memorizing the meanings and imagery of 52 regular playing cards. It was not until many years later when Tina saw her first Tarot deck, a Crowley Thoth, that card reading began to have real meaning. The painted pictures in the Thoth deck gave way to images, thought patterns and ideas that the regular playing cards could never invoke.

In 2004, Tina's much read and much beloved Thoth deck was lost in a house fire. For a year, Tina didn't even think to pick up her cards. But one day, she found herself searching for her cards, to no avail and realized she would have to purchase a new deck of cards.

That was when Tina discovered the Revelations' deck, the cards she currently reads with.

They say all things happen for a reason, this discovery was no accident. Tina could suddenly see and hear the thoughts, images and ideas displayed in the tarot quite clearly and with great emotion. Shortly thereafter, Tina discovered that these cards were a window to the essence of the universe and she began to discourse, through the cards with the spirit known as Melody.

Melody has explained to Tina that although she can be described as many things, a spirit guide, an angel, perhaps even a demon by some, she is none of these things. Melody is, purely and simply, Tina's direct connection to Source. Source can be described as the energy that is life.

With the help of the Revelations Tarot deck, Melody whispers messages to Tina that she can translate into English or French, giving new insights and meaning to the people who sit for her readings.

Whether it be about love, work, money or health, Tina's readings hit uncannily close to home.

Tina can be found reading on Twitter, where under the Twittername "Pepperfire", Tina and Melody may offer 140 character Tarot Twreadings.

We invite you to open your heart and your mind to the messages that Tina and Melody have to offer and hope that you walk away with insight and love in your heart. Failing that, we hope you find the readings entertaining, for life is meant to be fun.

On Shifting your Vibration

On shifting your vibration...

Why do you want or need to shift your vibration?

Well, without getting too weird, "vibration" is what we all do. That is how we manage to "exist", mostly because we don't really -- I'll explain that in a later blog, though. The more in tune you are with the Source energy, the more strongly or "louder" you can vibrate. Surprisingly, very much like the Force in the Star Wars Saga.

Vibrations dictate what is. Our intent alters those vibrations to how we want things to be, but Vibrations take time to shift. One does not vibrate "I am fat" every day of their lives suddenly to "I am thin and vivacious" and physically become so immediately. It takes time for the lifetime of fat to dissolve itself from your body. And according to Deepak Chopra, every single cell in your body recreates itself once every two years. So, with that as a rule of thumb for something known and something physical, I contend that it could take up to two years for a particular intention to materialize.

Ultimately, One needs only to set an intention into motion and it will come to be. Adding more vibration to the idea will alter and change how the idea can or will come into being. The more focused your intention is on the outcome, the more focused the ability of the intention to manifest.

Esther Hicks' Abraham in describing this truth, likened it to setting your vibration to; "I want to be in San Diego": And so you begin travelling to San Diego. You have set your mind on going to San Diego and are on your way. But suddenly, about halfway along the road, you've stopped to realize that you aren't in San Diego yet. Unfortunately, now you've set the vibration to become: I am not in San Diego. And until you reset your vibration to I want to be in San Diego, you cannot BE in San Diego. Some people become so focused on the idea that they are still not in San Diego, that they end up going back to where they started from.

Being in vibrational alignment, one needs to keep the faith. When you speak about what you want, focus on what you have towards that goal, rather than on what you are missing. If you feel good, it is good. If you do not feel good; something has gone wrong and you are not in vibrational alignment.

Example. Hey, my clothes fit better than ever! I really am a skinny-ass bitch, is a positive affirmation that you are on your way to becoming the skinny-ass bitch you so desire becoming -- ie vibrational alignment. "Damn, my favourite jeans still don't fit.", is a one-way ticket to them never fitting - vibrational misalignment. Ooh, I look good -- vibrational alignment. "I still look a little jowly" -- vibrational misalignment. Are we getting the picture?

The trick is to notice when you are saying things that are vibrationally misaligned with where you want to go. A little game I heard about on a mid-afternoon talk show; Put a rubber-band, bracelet or watch on your wrist. Everytime you notice that you've said something negative. Switch the "bracelet" to your other wrist. Consciously recognize that the thought is not in keeping with what you desire and spend the next 17 second creating a We Good statement about your body shape and size; this will get you back into alignment; and as hard as that sounds, it only takes 17 seconds of focus in order to activate a new vibration.

The idea is to recognize thoughts that make you feel good and thoughts that make you feel bad. It is the thoughts that make you feel bad that keep you from your goals.

Your intention is to truly get to the point where you can say "We GOOD" and understand what I mean. Although, hopefully by that point, my "WE GOOD" will be some other sound or expression that is altoghether your own. Rather like the concept of the now mistakenly commonly-used meditation tone; OM, you use WE GOOD until your own feeling sound becomes more apparent to you. Then use THAT. That is YOUR vibrational tone. Use mine until you find yours.

How will you know when you've found it? You'll know, because you'll feel-hear it.

Oh wait a minute; I'm getting ahead of myself here. Can you even feel-hear the vibration? No?

Here's how you can feel it:

You're going to spend 17 seconds finding a vibration. First I'll show you a good vibration.

I want you to remember one of the happiest moments of your life. One where you felt loved, all-important, totally taken care of, well-fed, etc. Remember if you've ever felt "bliss".

That is a good vibration. And in order to counter any negative vibration (this is easier with practice), all you have to do is focus for 17 seconds on a positive vibration and you can shift vibration.

Now, because it is actually "contrast" that you are looking for, you need to know and understand what a bad vibration is, all you have to do is think of something that gives you any emotion other than bliss. Bliss is where you want to go. Easy.

All good and well while you're sitting here unannoyed reading what I have to write for you, but what do you do when someone really ticks you off?

Well, here is the law in action: Set an affirmation that says: "I will reach for the best feeling thought I have access to right now. And I'll be proud of myself when I find even the slightest relief." Then do it and keep doing it until you find your way back to bliss.

When you try to feel better, you will. And here is where the greatest words ever spoken by a character in a science fiction movie come into play; There is no "try". There is do, or don't do. So, FEEL better. When you feel better, you release resistance. When you release resistance, you are in vibration, to stay in vibration, be appreciative of everything that you have, and everything you want will come to be. THAT IS THE LAW.

You don't have to actually DO anything at all. You simply have to vibrate. I vibrate WE GOOD and it's bloody well working! When you are fully completely utterly and totally vibrating and in the moment, and one with everyone and everything that you perceive, then you are in WE GOOD.

Our true self is a state of pure bliss. Love, Peace, Fulfilled. In being in that state, we live in that state and the Universe disappears. In desiring to become one with that state, we set our life focus to maintaining our level of bliss the more we feel bliss, the stronger our vibration. The better everything becomes.

21st Century Tarot

For some of you, it may come as a shocker to learn that I read tarot cards professionally. For others of you, it's a given. It's just something I do, something I've always done and it's not a big deal.

I started posting on twitter a little while ago, using the tweetname Pepperfire. When I created my profile I posted that I read tarot cards professionally. Someone asked if I was any good, so I tweeted a couple of cards I pulled for them. It's snowballed since then.

That's when I got the idea to use Twitter as the medium for practicing my craft. I created the concept called Tarot Twreading. Essentially, a Tarot Twreading is a tweet that in and of itself is a tarot reading. I began with three cards, read them, then reduce the reading to a tweet.

A tweet? Well, for those of you living in the dark ages, a tweet is a 140 character statement made through the Twitter.com website. For ordinary tweeters, it's a way to have conversations with each other, to share relevant and sometimes irrelevant information and sometimes it's just a way for people to advertise (read spam) their particular business, whatever that may be.

The beauty of twitter, for me, is that I am required to reduce my thoughts into the tightest most concise space possible. That's not easy for someone as verbose as I, but being pedantic has always been one of my things, so it's a glorious place for me to spend time. Reduce, rewrite, retweet.

Add me on twitter and request a Tarot Twreading. I'll add you to my queue. Don't worry, I'll tweet you just before your twreading comes up in the tweetstream so you will know it when you finally receive it.

Blogging...

It seems it's almost a year since I last posted a blog... I've been so busy, that my writing seems to have simply fallen by the wayside.

Called to my attention by a friend, I shall make an effort to find my way back to the blogboard... I have so many words rattling around in my head, they must somehow find a way out.

In the meantime...

I have to run, I have a meeting.

Me out.

Why I no longer post at Ryze.

If you actually read my blog... and why would you? You'd know that I use it to draft stories and articles and sometimes just to write about stuff.

I don't require commentary, but I like it when my friends do. I don't solicit commentary, but I like it when people point out things I may have missed or give me new information that didn't exist when I originally wrote the blog, I even like it when people point out that I made an error in calculations.

Those are the great sorts of commentary that one expects to receive as a blog-writer.

What one doesn't typically receive and I wonder why people feel inclined to write them are commentaries that are deliberately insulting. Recently I received a comment, signed "anonymous", of course, telling me that the reason I was having a hard time with ex-employees was because I wasn't a kind person. Right on the heels of another comment suggesting that they didn't like the colour of my blog and therefore it wasn't worth returning.

Well, for starters, my ex-employee didn't leave because I wasn't kind and I really couldn't care less whether or not the person commenting, likes the look of my blog. I didn't create it for them.

That said.

The commenter hails from California; Fountain Valley, in fact. And the even more interesting thing is that I actually know someone from Fountain Valley... Isn't that weird? And to add insult to injury, something happened shortly before these two posts that would lead me to believe that this person was mad enough at me to want to get back at me.

But for some unknown reason, that person isn't wise enough or savvy enough to know that NOTHING you post on the internet is anonymous, even if you make a point of not signing your name.

So, I bet you're wondering what happened to cause this woman to hate me so much that she'd post hateful things to my blog?

Well, I'm not proud and since libel is only libel if it is untrue... here's the story, because frankly, the whole incident was childish, insulting and never should have been given the light of day.

Back in August, a woman by the name of Althea Garner got into a flame war with a couple of fellows on Ryze. Althea claimed to Ryze Administration that they were harassing her, and both of them got suspended; no questions asked.

Well a horrific, uproar ensued and Ryzers began a write-in campaign asking for either the reinstatement of the two men or the equal suspension of Althea, since she had given as good as she got in the flame war.

Well, the suspension was granted by Ryze Admin.

Shortly thereafter, I came up on the receiving end of Althea's radar and she sent a misplaced email to Ryze Admin, calling for my suspension. Without question or explanation. I found myself on the receiving end of a suspension.

Two months later, I was lurking, still waiting for my "suspension" to be lifted or even acknowledged by Ryze Administration, when Althea went into a network and posted the outright lie to everyone and sundry who could read it that she had no idea who had complained about me to Ryze Admin, but that she had nothing to do with it and she went so far as to suggest that I had upset someone else on another network.

I lost it.

Me losing it isn't pretty.

Well, I decided that since Ryze Admin was blatantly ignoring me anyway, and that at this point, I really didn't care whether or not I ever got back into Ryze because anyone that ran a network like that didn't deserve any hit generation that I might be party to. So, I created a persona and I named it: Althea Garner is a bold-faced liar. And then I posted this story and included a copy of the email that Althea was stupid enough to have forgotten that she'd cc'd me on, when she complained to Ryze Admin calling for my suspension. Duh!

Well, before I knew what had happened, Althea had finally shown her true colours publicly, had insulted the owner of that network and everyone who posted there, gone into her own, now no longer existent network, and posted how outraged she was over the indignity she was being made to suffer at my hand. She made nasty hateful PMs to the owner of the network, threatened her children with horrible diseases, etc. And ultimately came in here and posted those two hateful posts.

Well, suffice it to say, I was right about never being allowed back into Ryze. I apologized for losing it, and asked to be let back in.

Well, I've more pride than that... So, here I sit, receiving hateful posts to my blog, that will never see the light of day and the only thing Althea Garner can do about it is pout.

So now, Ryze Admin is in the unwelcome position of having been used to further Ms. Garner's ends, of having acted on her lies and made to look foolish and of losing my business, although truth be told, they hadn't received any yet, because I'd made my decision to become a paying member at the beginning of the tight cash flow period and as such, hadn't given them any money yet.

But I'll be damned if I'll do so now. Well, truth be told, and all humility aside (I did write the admin and apologize for my "you're a liar" post. I also asked if he could let me know when this suspension (which was based on a liar's lie and uncalled for to begin with), would end...

I was told to come back in a year or two.

Guess what...

Ryze Admin... You can feel free to share this with Althea Garner: THIS is for you:

In Search of Fair Trade

I’ve been using fair trade coffee and fair trade for many years in my home kitchen, but had never thought of actually using these products on an industrial level until one evening watching George Stromboulopolous on CBC tv’s The Hour talked about Fair Trade chocolate. The two most important things that caught my attention were that FT cocoa beans are not picked by children nor sprayed with pesticides.

In passing, I asked my husband why we weren’t using FT ingredients in our business, he replied that sometimes we did, but he hadn’t really thought about it. Discussions ensued and we realized that we were going to an awful lot of trouble to find great quality chillies in countries where Fair Trade was probably already working and we could save ourselves a lot of trouble by letting them do the work.

We were wrong.

When I contacted the Fair Trade Certification board in Germany I learned that there are currently no standards set and no market for Fair Trade chili peppers and in fact the reason for this is because nobody with the expertise required was involved in Fair Trade. Well, we use several thousand pounds of chillies a year, so in my eyes, there certainly is a market for them and we’ve already established standards for the peppers we use, so I took the leap. I volunteered Brooks Pepperfire Foods Inc. to source peppers for Fair Trade. Well, I quickly learned that every country has a regional board called TransFair. Here, in Canada, it’s TransFair Canada, in the US, it’s TransFair US, well, you get the idea. I also learned that the reason that each country has it’s own regional board is because of regional government import rules differing. I also learned that in order for someone to sign on to Fair Trade as an importer, they need to be sponsored by their regional board. So, I contacted Rob Clarke, the Executive Director of TransFair Canada and told him I wanted Fair Trade peppers. Some discussions ensued and lots of learning began, and several months later, here we are, well on our way to creating Fair Trade standards for chili peppers, registering farmers and creating a market.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve spent a great deal of time studying the prices at which other vendors are selling peppers. I’ve learned more about pesticides than any woman has a right to know and learned that there is a serious need for fresh clean peppers year round. It’s a daunting task infiltrating a well-established market with produce that surprisingly has never been available, even though there is a huge demand for it.

So far, I think the most exciting part of the entire project is discussing the opportunity for certification with the farmers. Explaining to them what is possible for their future and how Fair Trade is going to benefit not only them, but their families and employees as well. We’ve run into some pretty scary situations already in sourcing our peppers. In some countries political unrest becomes an issue when we’re trying to get peppers out of the country, we’ve actually been told that armed guards are required to get the peppers to the airport.

What is so moving about the entire project is what can happen with the social premium that the fair trade farmers will receive for their peppers. As buyers, we are expected to work directly with the farmers to develop commercial relationships, trust and mutual support. We are expected to adhere to what seems to be an extensive list of criteria established by the Fair Trade Labeling Organization, aka FLO-Cert.

We buy a lot of peppers for our own needs over the course of a year and because we have to source fresh peppers all over the world it isn’t much of a leap for us to source the same peppers for FLO. After all, the questions we need to ask for ourselves seem to be the same questions we need to ask for FLO. We are expected to give the farmer a fair price for their commodity and that price point provides a living wage for the farmer. In addition to the price, we offer a commitment to developing a long term business for the farmers so they will be capable of future development and investment in their farms.

They in turn agree to provide good working conditions for their employees, and ensure safety procedures and adequate health standards for all workers. In addition, farmer/producers must employ democratic working processes. The democratic standard ensures that democratic decisions are made concerning how the fair trade premium will be spent. Who better to decide how to improve their living standards, than those living them. Finally, the farmer agrees to use environmentally sound production methods.

Fair Trade generally helps promote human rights, especially those of women, children and people with disabilities and as the local situations improve, they are expected to continuously improve upon these standards.

As we have announced our intent regarding Fair Trade, many people have asked us how this impacts local farmers. Fortunately, it’s not just about where we buy our peppers (or other ingredients), it’s a way of life. Originally, when we first started buying peppers, rather than growing our own, we gave priority to local farmers. We make a point of buying peppers of great quality, with few to no pesticides at a fair price - fair, not just to the farmer but to ourselves as well. We’ll buy local peppers, when they’re ripe, and that’s a huge benefit to our community. It defends our sovereignty, saves us the costs of fuel and energy, helping us lower our environmental footprint and provides us with the freshest peppers we can possibly get. Unfortunately, our community can only give us five weeks worth of peppers in the October, if we’re lucky. The rest of the year, we have to go where the peppers are ripe.

So for us there was only one question left to answer. Does Fair Trade really do anything or is it simply a way for us to feel good about what we would like to think our pepper dollars are doing?

Activists who are against globalization criticize huge companies for not being altruistic enough, because they can probably afford to be even more altruistic than they are. One example of this is Starbucks who, although they are the largest roaster and retailer of fair trade coffee, by far, is heavily criticized, because less than 10% of their bottom line is in Fair Trade coffee.

Visiting Fair Trade plantations, one finds better housing, better facilities and better schooling than in neighbouring plantations. Critics feel this is unfair because neighbouring plantations aren’t benefiting directly from the social premium that the Fair Trade plantation receives.

Critics of Fair Trade suggest that fair trade products are going to cost the consumer more than the non-fair trade equivalent commodity. Generally, this is untrue because the Fair Trade purchaser in going directly to the farmer succeeds in cutting out, occasionally, several levels of middlemen who add a premium to the price of the commodity every step of the way. Fair Trade often succeeds in increasing the price the farmer receives while still leaving ample room for the Fair Trade premium and a decreased cost to the purchaser. Of course this point, in and of itself feeds yet another criticism of Fair Trade. If you had taken economics 101, you would have learned that increased prices tend to stimulate production. Increased supply will decrease prices in the receiving market, thus, an increase in supply will lead to a disproportionate drop in price for North American farmers. So, for our local farmers, it is suggested that Fair Trade isn’t fair at all. What these critics neglect to realize is that our local farmers have no difficulty getting a fair price for their commodity. Where an american farmer might receive $7 lb for orange habanero, farmers in Haiti, India or Africa may only receive .45 cents.

Fair Trade isn’t about giving farmers something to which they are not entitled. It is about justice. It is about giving second and third world farmers the same price they would receive if there were a level playing field. It is about treating farmers on the other side of the world exactly the way local farmers demand to be treated. Fair Trade farmers are often on the receiving end of an unfair trade system. One where their competition is given tax subidies that allows them to flood the market with below cost commodities. Such subsidies make it very hard for second and third world farmers to compete and is truly, for them, an unfree-market system. Fair Trade helps level that playing field.

We’re going to buy peppers to make our sauces and in helping get these commodities fair trade certified we can empower farmers and farm workers to lift themselves out of poverty. It is our goal to help these farmers develop the business skills necessary to compete in the global marketplace. We’re hoping that the peppers that we bring to market for these farmers will be competitively priced with other gourmet, specialty peppers. We do expect though, that they will be more expensive than mass-produced general quality peppers. It is possible, depending on the farms’ locations that the peppers could be more expensive. Many of these farms lack the extensive shipping and logistical capabilities of the vertically-integrated, multi-national fruit companies from whom North Americans traditionally buy peppers. Also, we expect to see variances in the price at market of peppers depending on the demand the markets put on the various breeds of peppers we manage to get certified.

In the end, though, regardless of TransFair or FLO, it is Brooks Pepperfire foods who will set the price at which we make these peppers available and our pricing won’t be controlled or influenced by either of these organizations. We do expect, though, that the more purchasers we find for these peppers, the larger the market we can create for these peppers, and the more companies, retailers and consumers who support us by joining us in bringing these peppers to market, the more ability we will have to lower prices.

I expect it’s going to be a wild ride and we look forward to sharing the project with you.

Sourcing Peppers, another adjunt to the Naga Saga

We found a supplier in India for the local variety of this pepper. In this area, the pepper is known as the Raja Mirchi, or king chilli.

We sent an agent into the neighbourhood to procure the peppers for us. He tells us that he camped out for three days and found the climate to be freezing, people untrustworthy and a very insecure life for residents. Our agent bribed some people and managed to arrange a meeting with the agricultural minister who shared with us the following information about the product, its quality, the people and transportation issues.

I thought we’d share that with you.

The normal growing season for raja mirchi is between April and October both in plains and hilly areas. During this season the chilli is of good size, weight and has the required pungency and aroma. He also noted that in Northeastern India the chilli is consumed for its flavour rather than for it’s heat. Which is what our friends in England, the Michauds’ had told us.

The chillis grow better in the valleys and hilly areas than on the plains and is mainly found in amongst the bamboo. The first peppers take 6-8 weeks time and the first peppers are never eaten because the locals feel that their colour and flavour is lacking. These first peppers are used as compost. Interestingly enough, our agent tells us that the plants grow to a height of 9 feet! He also tells us that after a couple of fruitings, the plants are cut down and fully renewed. The natives feel that any longer than 18 months and the peppers deterioriate very quickly. The natives then plant new peppers.

At market this chilli is more expensive than other chillies for various reasons. Picking the chilli is difficult because of where it grows, it is difficult to get to and thus is a herculean task. The aroma and pungency of the pepper is so intense that few people can stand it enough to pick them.
Local transport is a major problem so the peppers are transported to the bus terminal, where the public transit system is used to bring the chillies to the marketplace, picture the dreaded Mexican schoolbus, albeit Indian style. At market, the peppers are graded between good ones and ordinary ones based on the size and texture of the chilli. At this point, there is an average 30-45% rejection rate. It is at this point that the peppers are packed for export to us. The entire process from plant to us, takes about 10 days.

The peppers are purely organic and no fertilizers are used. Hence the peppers are SKAL certified organic.

Our agent informs us quite readily that the area is full of thugs and that because of insurgency in the area, it is difficult to move the produce at will.

The email was signed as follows:

“Overall an experience I won’t forget”.

And, I might add, overall an experience we won’t soon forget either.

As you can well imagine, buying something that Americans find mysterious is a source of great amusement to Indians and Bangladeshis who are quite familiar with these peppers.

This quip from a subcontinet forum: credit a poster named “vAtraT”: I recall reading about habanero (pronounced haabaanyero) peppers, which are among the hottest around, that they’re 40 to 50 times as hot as jalapeno peppers, and jalapeno (pronounced haalaapenyo) peppers are not tame. In that article they mentioned a northeast Indian pepper as being the hottest ever. This must be the Naga pepper.

I had wondered how they go about ascertaining the hotness. Turns out they dilute the juice N times and then apply it to a certain part of the anatomy. Then the average distance of the first hop made by the subjects (multiplied by N, of course) determines the strength of the pepper. It’s all very scientific.

Me out.