A Boston Hedge Fund with over $20 billion in assets; a company buying up potato farms with the explanation they planned to be the largest potato producers in Ontario; the truth – a mega-quarry that would destroy prime farm land, the water table needed by millions of people and disrupt the lives of residents and holiday makers with earth shaking dynamite and dust; the pay-off? A few local jobs and some gravel. << MORE >>

By Sue Ellis of Key Life Journeys

The Vancouver Sun Newspaper reports a consequence of the earthquakes that started on Haida Gwaii on Saturday 27 October.

"The famed hot springs of Haida Gwaii have gone dry, apparently a casualty of last week's major earthquake.

Parks Canada officials at Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site said all four of the popular geothermal pools are empty.

It's not yet known whether the source of ...

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By Sue Ellis of key life journeys

Rhythm from a strumming guitar. The music of Jesse Cook. The location - Woodbine Park in Toronto on Sunday October 21st for Soupstock. Last year there was Foodstock held on potato farms, location for the proposed Highlands Mega Quarry. They expected 20,000 people to protest and fund raise and on a cool wet windy day 28,000 showed up. Last years blog and photos. The facts are still the same ...

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By Sue Ellis of KeyLifeJourneys

I’m suspended in space speedily, yet in slow motion, orbiting the earth. Six times in 24 hours I will complete the circumnavigation. Sometimes the passage is in darkness, sometimes a red and yellow disc highlights Gaia’s curved surface. But on other occasions all her beauty is displayed for me; all her tragedies; all her pain and all her joy. I see her snow capped peaks; her multicoloured desserts in pristine clarity. Her ...

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By Sue Ellis of keylifejourneys.com

With my back to Silbury hill near Averbury in Wiltshire- the largest man made mound in Europe and 2000 years old – I deposited £2 in a metal box and began walking up hill through a wheat field.

So as not to disturb any of the firmly standing crops, I walked in the tramlines –indented by the tractor wheels ...

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By Susan Ellis of Key Life Journeys

Today I received an email. It needs prompt action on our part to avert a crisis. Prime agricultural land, used for growing potatoes in Ontario, is about to be turned into an aggregate mega quarry which will displace water from our precious aquifer, clog country roads leading to Georgian Bay with gravel trucks and put food growing land out of service.

 

 

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By Susan Ellis of Key Life Journeys

The question "Who Is Joseph Kony" has gone viral. Pose that question in Google and over 69 million sites will come up in answer. People are wanting to know.

 

Dictators and bullies seem to have great influence on our lives making us feel helpless and powerless. But the world we now live in has new rules. Social media has seen to that. We ...

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By Sue Ellis of key life journeys

In the early hours of Thursday morning the sun was stalled over the tropic of Capricorn, paused and then began moving north again. Light was returning for more moments, and in greater strength, to the northern hemisphere. In that more conscious light, I went back to St.James Park in ...

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By Susan Ellis of Key Life Journeys

Michael Stadtländer 's Letter to Ontario says it all. I quote part of it here -

 

“If you have ever seen the film Avatar, James Cameron’s story about the futuristic destruction of an alien planet’s environment by humans hungry for natural resources, you’ll be ...

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By Susan Ellis of Key Life Journeys

As the world as we know it is in crisis, the first tentative breaths of the new era are being taken. After the crash of 2008 we thought everything would change - but all society wanted to do was to restore itself to the way it was, changing non of the fundamentals.

Now we get to do it all over again – will we look for a different outcome this time?

The world is demonstrating how civilization behaves when the individual ...

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By Susan Ellis of Key Life Journeys

So I was out of the country for two weeks this spring, fulfilling a life long dream to wander though historic landscapes in Turkey. But while there three world events occurred making me confront today’s reality. But they all became interwoven in the dream fulfilled.

Since a child, Constantinople evoked wonders and mysteries in my mind and I hoped one day I might visit the modern day Istanbul. Later in my life, once I had started traveling, I went to ...

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By
Susan Ellis of Key Life Journeys

It has been many months since I last recorded on this blog. Oh I have written in my caregiver blog the story of my friend dying of cancer who wished to stay at home till the end. But my last entry here was a story of crisis of faith and trust; A facing of ...

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In so much as anything belongs to me, this is my city and my country and I vote and therefore have a right to express my opinions, values and beliefs. This I can do so long as they are not considered hateful by the law of the land. I attended the Friday Protest March against the G8/G20 on 25th June 2010. I object to people in power flaunting their entitlement by spending copious amounts of money to have a party. What ever "work" was done could have been done by teleconference and Skype and the group could have ... << MORE >>

Since reading her books "The Field" and "The Intention Experiment," I have enjoyed Lynn McTaggart's blogs. I have included her latest below. With the Gulf oil disaster still at crisis level we continue to see human reaction as one of laying blame. We all distance ourselves from the cause of the problem. This is the behavior of those who believe in separateness; the mindset of those who have not grasped the fact that we are all one and that what one person does impacts on the rest of the whole.

... << MORE >>

Slowly ponder these facts about water.
How do you as an individual or community or town or country figure into these statistics?
If you have abundant water in your life - how do you show your gratitude?
You have a chance to on June 11th at 8pm local time.
That will be WATER HOUR when it's about falling in love with water…all over again.
Learn more at www.waterhour.org ... ... << MORE >>

The fishing industry, the tourist industry and the oil industry have all talked about the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico as gallons of oil spew forth and test our ability to undo the damage and recompense those with losses. The essay below was written by Carol Watson who speaks for the lives that will never be recompensed. I do not have any photos of the US Gulf Coast, but at the end of this post are some reminders for me of its beauty as seen in Mexico and Honduras


... << MORE >>

By Susan Ellis of keylifejourneys

Although there was a cool edge to the wind, the sun shone in Toronto this week. Spring has been evident by the bursting forth of blooms. What a joy it was to walk through High Park on Monday and share with many others the rapture of cherry blossom and the first out door ice cream of the season. The most mature trees were planted in 1959 as a gift from Tokyo to Toronto.
So many babies in strollers, adults ... << MORE >>

Today is the day to celebrate the Earth by turning out your lights for WWF’s Earth Hour! Whether it’s by having an intimate dinner at home, a family games night, dancing under the stars at a neighbourhood party or enjoying some music at an Earth Hour concert, make Earth Hour your own. Take pride in the fact that you are standing up against climate change and that you are doing it with up to a billion people worldwide in over 120 countries!

Remember, Earth Hour takes place at 8:30 p.m. ... << MORE >>

By Susan Ellis of Keylifejourneys

A photograph in the Toronto Star on 23nd March by Harry Hamburg/AP filled me with disgust. It was a picture of elitist self interest, corrosive entitlement and arrogant primitive social behavior. The title is "View from Washington" and it shows angry middle class Americans - all looking healthy and well nourished - expressing contempt for the passage of Obama's health care reform bill. This bill would provide some inalienable rights to 32 million of their country men women and children. ... << MORE >>

I have often talked of people power and grass roots involvement to bring about change. Earth Hour is one such initiative. It started out in Sydney Australia in 2007 and has developed into a world affair. This article from the World Wildlife Federation/Canada website shows a world shift in consciousness. If I show my cynical side I may suggest the involvement of some countries is, may I say, political. But in the end it is the people who take responsibility for their actions on the day. It is we who turn off the light and take time to ... << MORE >>

I've just got back from a trip to Puerto Vallarta Mexico, a favorite winter destination for me. What was a new experience was changing planes in Houston. I haven't been to the States for a while. It doesn't feel the same. When an action on one part of the world has an impact on events in another part of the world, they call it the butterfly effect.  

Since we were changing planes in Houston on the outward journey, we went through American customs etc in Toronto. Traditionally I have always ... << MORE >>

I am a great fan of Lynn McTaggart and her website   Her books "The Field" and "The Intention Experiment" drew me into the quantum world and the energy of thought. I am adding her latest blog essay because it hits to the heart of the shift in consciousness of which I often talk. The old world view is of competition, separation, winners and losers etc. The new world order will be one of cooperation, win-win, oneness etc.

The blog below ... << MORE >>

In Canada, Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament is a group on Facebook with - as of writing - 221,792 members. This grassroots group of concerned citizens, fearful of the erosion of democratic process in Canada, rallied and/or marched in communities across Canada, the US and elsewhere on 23rd January. Although Bob Rae (Liberal MP) was in the Toronto crowd and there were many orange NDP placards evident, this was a people motivated gathering. Here is my video showing what it felt like to be part of it in Toronto. This was people power at its best and ... << MORE >>

If you read my blogs regularly you will understand that I am trying to tap into the universal consciousness that is rising to higher ground. I do not want to be pulled down into a consciousness of separation, retribution and blame. I want to be part of a world community that takes responsibility for its actions because we are all one. There are many paths that one can take on this journey just as there are many religions which map out a path for finding connection with the divine. Surely there can be many paths, no one better ...

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Blogsters and newspaper columnists have waxed poetically about the credit crisis being caused by an ethos of greed, selfishness and egotism. A shift in consciousness is occurring as many no longer want to be attached to the beliefs, attitudes and mores of a society that condones such behaviour. There is a revolt against people in power who use power for their own gain. Social media sites allow for the instant mobilization of grass roots rage. The world has changed. There maybe an uprising of rage, but there is also an uprising of hope.
... << MORE >>

Christmas Day is over. For me always a time of reflection, you know - Christmases past, new year coming etc. I go to a Christmas Eve service and then on Christmas day I take in a movie before sitting down to the traditional turkey dinner. It was my intention to see a feel good movie "Blind Side." But on getting to the crowded theatre I found the schedule had changed from what had appeared in the newspaper. My show wasn't on till the evening. So instead the George Clooney movie "Up in the Air" caught my attention. It ... << MORE >>

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Martin Luther King Jr., 1929-1968

What have you personally done about the U.N Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen? Will we be seen in the future as the selfish generation that cared only about having stuff without accepting responsibility for our actions? In Judeo-Christian societies this is a time of year for buying stuff. A lot of stuff. The world is consuming stuff at an unsustainable rate. 30% ... << MORE >>

I'm starting to really feel ashamed to call myself a Canadian. In so many ways Canada has earned the respect of countries around the world by being the unsung hero in the fight for human rights and ecological sustainability. So many Canadians just go about their business while supporting causes which impact the whole world. Many Canadians take their global citizenship seriously. It is part of being a Canadian.

It would appear that our current Government, elected by a minority of Canadians, is attempting to change all that. Here is ... << MORE >>

My website Keylifejourneys.com has always been one for those who see the journeys of their lives as spiritual ones. It started out as a website for care giving journeys and is forever expanding. As time marches on and new technologies make those of the past either obsolete, or less inviting, people find the era of the VHS video tape has past. However many of you still use the video cassette player. It is to those people that I now make this offer. For just the price of the shipping and handling, I am offering my video VHS tapes free of charge. Go to caregiver resources on my website to familiarize yourself with my care giving videos. Most are in the NTSC format, suitable for North America. But I do have a few PAL format suitable for playing in the U.K. I am also aware that many of you do not like sending money over the internet and so for this offer only I am accepting money orders by mail. << MORE >>

People spend whole lifetimes seeking that which they already have. They have it, because they are it.
All you have to do to have love is to be love

Communion With God
Neale Donald Walsch
Page 124

I was at a weekend retreat at the Ecology Retreat Centre in the beautiful Hockley Valley in Ontario a couple of weeks ago. An intimate place of undulating glacial formed moraine, covered in trees, mosses, ferns and tinkling streams. The running water mimicked the ... << MORE >>

In two previous posts I wrote about my involvement with www.kiva.org
Kiva is a not for profit agency which funnels charitable donations in $25 blocks to entrepreneurs in third world countries. The small business owners pledge to pay back in a given length of time. These people need so little to turn their life of poverty around. Most have the desire to educate their children with their income to provide a better life for the next generation.

Here are some Kiva Fast Facts
46 months old in operation
$85,384,785 raised
98% repayment rate
208,767 entrepreneurs funded
537,573 Kiva users ...<< MORE >>

On Friday I entered the story of my involvement with Kiva.org and how I can join with a few others from around the world to contribute to a micro loan to assist in raising someone out of poverty. I documented that there is a 97% repayment rate.  

Because of these repayments, I have a credit balance with Kiva. So today I used it to send off $25 to an entrepreneur in Senegal. She still needs another $275.00 to complete the loan request of $525. ... << MORE >>

Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs around the globe. Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.

A loan in $25 units is made every 21 seconds by ordinary people. 97% are repaid in full. Currently I have contributed to the lives of 6 people and their families and now as the loans are repaid, I turn that money over to help others. The website says "You ... << MORE >>

Last year both I, as an individual, and my company SME Productions registered to participate in Earth Hour.

This year according to the official website -

"Earth Hour 2009 is set to switch off the globe. Already 377 cities, and double the number of countries that participated in 2008, are committed. With hundreds more cities expected to sign up to switch off in the coming months, Earth Hour 2009 is setting the platform for an unprecedented global mandate for action on climate change.
... << MORE >>

I decided to wait a while before putting my thoughts to paper regarding the Barack Obama inauguration. I wanted to savor the memory. Since that event, Eckart Tolle, author of "The Power of Now" and "A New Earth," has been in Toronto speaking at Roy Thomson Hall. From this Master's books I've learned how much this life is lived under the control of the ego. That part of self which only survives in an environment which has opposites, creating separation and division. Only by living with ... << MORE >>

By Susan Ellis of Key Life Journeys

I love the internet, I enjoy getting emails and I'm thrilled that I can send my photos to my friends and share humour and information. But I have been increasingly aware of a knot in my stomach as I read the "rant" letters and I rebel against the emotion behind them. I usually delete without reading but recently I have decided to be more proactive. I am going to try to express my feelings in this entry and then every time I get a rant I am going to forward the link to this ...<< MORE >>

In Toronto recycling garbage is becoming standard behavior for most residents. There are some who will resist on principle and others will be unable to comply because of the physical handling of the bins. Only 13% living in multi-unit residences recycle. Few are encouraged to participate, and unsorted waste goes down a chute. But the majority of Torontonians try to participate.

But it is a big learning curve. Which plastic can be recycled; which paper goes in the blue bin or the green bin?

Did you know that after December 9th 2008, according to  

http://www.toronto.ca/garbage/bags_and_foam_faq.htm

plastic bags can be recycled?  But here ...<< MORE >>

My life is an adventure. I purposely make it that way. Oh I know I'm lucky enough to do many of the things I desire; it has not always been that way. As a kid I was a bit of an outsider; having spent several years in hospital and physically looking a bit different to most people I was delayed in socializing. I spent much time alone until my teenage years when I developed some close school friendships. Now I have the best of both worlds. I love being by myself creating, building, fantasizing and learning to understand myself and ...<< MORE >>

When some future generation of geologists excavate in what is now my garden, they will scratch their heads and wonder what cataclysmic occurrence brought so many different types of rock to one place. The answer is simple. They were brought one rock at a time. They hold in their vibrating solidity the memory of many a wonderful holiday experience by me.

Awaiting use, they were piled in a corner of the patio. Some years they were balanced on top of each other for decoration. One year an inukshuk was made and an area of quartz was strewn with stones "pouring" ...<< MORE >>

By now you will understand that I am a traveler. It is not about notches on my belt to amass great numbers. It is a yearning inside of me to experience what this world holds. I am fortunate in that I can do it. There will come a time when I won't physically be able to do so. I want no regrets when that time comes. While I still long to learn from my experiences I will keep providing myself with the opportunity.

Here I want to describe one day. A perfect day. ... << MORE >>

By Susan Ellis of Key Life Journeys

How many pairs of gloves (mitts) do you need to pack on a trip to Antarctica? When you have never rolled about on a rough sea for 18 days before, will you feel seasick? You have been on many exciting travel adventures in your life before now but you have aged and will you have enough stamina to complete this one?

Two years in the planning, I am finally packing. But a problem emerges. I can have two suitcases from Toronto to Buenos Aries, but my flight from there to Ushuaia is an internal one. ...<< MORE >>

By Susan Ellis of Key Life Journeys

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By Susan Ellis of Key Life Journeys

As I sit in front of my monitor I'm revisiting the Quantum Leaps Lodge series and I am ready to write the final entry. I look out the window into my Toronto garden. The first winter storm of the season is gradually turning the autumnal scene white. Some green leaves still valiantly hold onto the apricot tree branches. A few red ones remain on the Japanese Maple. However my cedar, spruce and Yew will remain a constant green throughout the appearing winter.

With the advent of snow my thoughts turn south. No, not thoughts of ...<< MORE >>

We have just had Canadian Thanksgiving, a time of gratitude. It is a time to be filled with wonder at the abundance of the harvest and the beauty of the fall foliage. Beyond that it is an opportunity to understand that with such bounty there is responsibility. Those who have, must share in order to maintain balance in this universe. 
In times of stress, especially when I was a caregiver I look to the autumn to refill me. I would push Sue in her wheelchair and we would survey the falling leaves and I would scrunch them up to ...<< MORE >>

I have a traditional walk each fall. My house is at the edge of the Don Valley with the Don River running south to Lake Ontario through the eastern part of Toronto. Taylor Creek Park is the nearest part of the valley to me. The path through the valley is shared by walkers, cyclists, joggers, roller bladders, photographers and lovers.
The autumnal foliage is not quite so brilliant this year, perhaps because of the dry hot summer. But always there are the fallen leaves to be piled high by parents photographing their children amongst flying colours. There are those ...<< MORE >>

The
kids went back to school this week. I know. All summer my short street
has had little traffic. We even had a street party. But at 8.50am on
Tuesday this week the peace was shattered by slamming SUV doors as
children were deposited in the school at the bottom of the road. Now
these are primary school children so I expect the parents to be young
and healthy. Yet it seems the challenge is who can get his/her car
closest to the school. This is at a time when we hear that children are
not getting enough physical activity to be healthy. If necessary the
cars are parked ...<< MORE >>

The day after the retreat
ended it was the summer solstice. I was awakened at dawn by the sound
of a drum beating a rhythmical, monotonous invitation. The drummer was
Carla, a Shaman from Nova Scotia who had arrived to conduct a weekend
workshop to restore the medicine wheel at Quantum Leaps Lodge. I longed
to stay and take part, but I had weekend commitments in Toronto. I
spent my morning filming wildflowers. This was when I felt comfortable
to ponder the events of the board breaking (or not) ritual. ...<< MORE >>

I began this series of entries discussing the phase in life that I am passing through. A process where I question the beliefs with which I have been indoctrinated and adopted as my own. Miguel Ruiz in “The Four Agreements” talks about us agreeing to uphold the beliefs handed to us by our elders. We surrender to them. A process called Domestication. End of story for many people. But for others, over time, we learn that the agendas of those who influence us may differ from our own. By living in their beliefs we find we become in conflict with ...<< MORE >>

Years ago I took a woman’s
self defence course which ended with the empowering ‘board breaking
ritual.’ Two edges of a square wooden board are placed on two firm
objects. In our case, two chairs. The hand slices through the wood to
break it. It is about overcoming fear and doubt. Will I hurt myself?
What if I can’t do it? The usual noise heard in the back of our head.
But you do it and the feeling is indescribable. Having taken a self
defence course you now really do know that you can, if needed, break a
clavicle, nose or damage some other part of somebody to ...<< MORE >>

The retreat at Quantum Leaps Lodge near Golden B.C continued with Neale Donald Walsch and Master Young Hee challenging
us to reach a higher level of being. One aspect of our discussion was
why we bring the pain of the past into today’s reality. Since this
moment is all there is – all that warrants a reaction. We create the
feelings anew. That is what is so fresh and exciting in that we start
with a clean page every day and by the choices we make, the day will
be. The skill to be learned is how we leave the negatives of yesterday
behind. When ...<< MORE >>