METANOIA Betty Noble Turner
Our Texas Issue!
INSIDE
Edward James Olmos star of “Selena”, on location with Hank Leis in Corpus
As seen in recent Media...
Join Dr. Allison Patton as she discusses natural ways to break free from hormonal imbalances during peri-menopause and menopause. Dr. Patton will cover the most recent research in women’s health treatments for hot flashes, insomnia, weight issues and low energy.
Natural Approaches to Dealing with Stress With Dr. Caleb Ng
7-8:30pm March 26, 2009 Mountainview Wellness Centre Call 604-538-8837 or email: doctors@shaw.ca to register
Has a recession got you down? Starting to feel the pinch and need to get a handle on things? Dr. Ng will cover naturopathic tips (such as Adaptogenic herbs, dietary considerations and high dose vitamin C) on how to stay calm, alert and focused so that you can be at your best when making important decisions and just dealing with the stress of everyday life.
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Spring Cleanse Workshop
Common dangers in our everyday environment Personal and medically supervised detoxification Lifestyle changes for minimizing toxins Safer cleaning and cosmetic products Healthy recipes and cooking tips in ns and optimizing health Samples of liver friendly foods from around the store the demonstration kitchen
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The Betty Turner Story The story of Betty Noble Turner is another in the series on women’s leadership. Betty is introspective, intelligent and articulate. Her career exemplifies the drive, resilience, and personal sacrifices needed to succeed in the “big arena”. Her connection to Metanoia comes through Hank Leis as fellow board member of Leis Industries Limited, who became a dear friend. Her husband Jack Rice Turner, is no slouch either. Jack heads Turner Hickey and Associates, an architectural firm in Corpus Christi, Texas which since 1967 has been engaged in numerous development projects in the state of Texas. As well he served on the Destroyer USS Buck and retired as Lt. Commander (another story for another time)
Island Moorings, Port Aransas , Texas
A native of New York and daughter of a well known publishing (Barnes and Noble) and book seller family, Betty Noble Turner earned her BA degree from Vassar College and her Masters degree from Texas A & I. Since moving to Texas in 1954 Turner has held various professional positions including those of Psychologist and Director of Programs and Public Relations at the Corpus Christi State School; Assistant Director of Development and Public Relations for Corpus Christi State University (now Texas A & M at Corpus Christi), CEO/President of the Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce and Vice President of Governmental Affairs for the HCA hospital system in South and Central Texas. Turner has also held a real estate license for 40 years and is currently broker for Coastline Properties on Padre Island and broker/owner of her own company, Betty Turner Real Estate, in Port Aransas. As such, she has sold many millions of dollars of residential and commercial properties. Today she is considered one of the most experienced, knowledgeable and successful brokers in the entire Gulf Coast area. Turner has also been politically active and was elected the two term mayor pro tem
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from 1981-1985 and the mayor from 1987-2001. She was the first female mayor of that city and among other accomplishments was responsible for getting the Industrial District for the port industries extended another seven years. As mayor, Turner was elected to the board of the Texas Municipal League, served as a member of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, was honored as mayor by elected officials in a public ceremony in her hometown of Yonkers, New York and received the Road Hand Award from the Texas Department of Transportation as well as awards from the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, the Department of the Army, The National Navy League and the Corpus Christi Rotary Club. During the period when the Ingleside base lost its mission and Corpus Christi leaders were working hard to get a new mission established, the focus was on Charleston; the community that had a strong minesweeper component that seemed a likely fit for the Ingleside area. She spent several weeks attending the hearings in Charleston and was actively involved in discussions in Corpus Christi and in Washington that resulted in the decision to establish the Center of Mine Warfare in Ingleside. Turner was also a former president of the USO in Corpus Christi and as such, successfully initiated the fund raising efforts to build a USO facility on the Ingleside base. As Mayor she was also actively involved in creating the Laredo-Corpus Christi corridor and the Corpus Christi-Laredo offices in Monterrey, Mexico. She founded the city’s Intra-Agency Council and was actively involved in helping to establish the Tex-Mex Railroad run between the two cities and the train station in Corpus Christi, the city’s purchase of land that finalized the Texas State Aquarium project; the bringing of the USS Lexington to the city, for establishing the Area Council of Mayors that, among other things, played a major role in establishing Texas A & M at Corpus Christi and for securing signed multi-city resolutions supporting the city’s positions. Turner was also elected to the 21 member national AARP board with its 35 million members in 2003 and to the boards of the Gulfway National Bank and the Bank of the Southwest, as well as to dozens of boards of non-profit organizations in Corpus Christi including The Food Bank (president), The Tourist Bureau, The Boys and Girls Club, the Chamber of Commerce, the Junior League (treasurer), the USO (president), the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and countless others as well as Treasurer of the board for the Island Moorings Homeowners Association and Chairman of the Trustees of the Port Aransas Preservation and Historical Association. Betty Turner was also a director of Vancouver based Leis Industries Limited which did land development in Corpus
Gulf of Mexico , Texas
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Christi, Texas. She was instrumental in the sale of properties owned by The Leis Edifice Corporation—a wholly owned subsidiary. Turner was elected to Class I of Leadership Texas by the Governor of Texas and to Class II of Leadership Corpus Christi, the Texas-Mexican Chamber of Commerce board and the boards of Methodist Hospital (San Antonio), St. David’s (Austin) the Bay Area Medical Center and the Northwest Regional Hospital in Corpus Christi. In 2006 she was appointed county chairperson for U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison’s re-election campaign and currently serves on her statewide Leadership Council in her run for the position of Governor of Texas. In 2008, she was named the recipient of the Food Bank of Corpus Christi’s President’s Award, recognized by the Daughters of the American Revolution with their coveted community service award and elected to the board of the Port Aransas Chamber of Commerce in 2009. She is a published author – The Noble Legacy, a memoir about her paternal grandfather who founded Barnes & Noble, an Elder in the Port Aransas Community Presbyterian Church, a Notary Public, the former Chairman of Fundraising for the Port Aransas Community Theatre who raised well over a million dollars for the community’s new performing arts theatre, the treasurer of the Turner-Hickey & Associates architectural firm and a 2006 finalist on the Corpus Christi ISD board’s short list of names for the newest public school in Corpus Christi.
New Port Dunes Golf and Country Club, Port Aransas , Texas
Turner is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the South and Southwest, Who’s Who of American Women and Who’s Who in Finance and Industry. Articles about her have appeared in the Texas Almanac, Texas Monthly in a cover article in Ultra Magazine and she was named Newsmaker of the Year by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times while mayor. She has impressive contacts throughout Texas and elsewhere, strong and positive name identification and is in great demand by business persons, politicians and others to speak and/or to Continued on page 8
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Glutathione and Inflammatory Bowel Disease Glutathione has been named the “master antioxidant�. It is a molecule that present in nearly all living cells, and without it they can’t survive. The major functions of glutathione in the body include protecting cells against the destructive effects of free radicals and inflammation; detoxifying external substances such as drugs, environmental pollutants and carcinogens; maintaining cell membrane stability; regulating protein and DNA biosynthesis and cell growth; enhancing immunologic function through its influence on lymphocytes; prostaglandin synthesis; and amino acid transport. What causes IBD is still largely unknown. It can be traced to a problem in the bodies immune response system. You bodies immune system usually helps protect itself from harmful substances but in patients with any form of inflammatory bowel disease this is not the case. A person with IBD can not distinguish between the good substance or the foreign invaders so result is an overactive immune system response that leads to chronic inflammation. This is what an autoimmune disorder is. What is Ulcerative colitis? It is chronic inflammation of the large intestine (colon) and part of the digestive system where your waste material is stored. The rectum is connected to the colon adjacent to the anus. Patients with ulcerative colitis have inflammation in the inner lining of the colon. Symptoms of ulcerative colitis are abdominal pain, diarrhea, and rectal bleeding. With having a reduced glutathione antioxidant level , your defense system may be severely compromised and rendering it more at risk to oxidative tissue damage, hindering recovery from Inflammatory bowel disease as well as any inflammatory diseases. So by replenishing essential glutathione you then increase your own bodies natural defence against inflammation. Research has shown that because of its large molecular size glutathione absorption through oral administration is significantly less compared to intravenous administration.
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support their various efforts. She was also frequent guest and speaker at the Port industry leaders’ Town Club luncheon. Turner is married to award winning architect Jack Rice Turner. They live in Island Moorings in Port Aransas and in Corpus Christi and their two sons live in Dallas with their families.
Island Moorings Port Aransas, Texas (pre-development)
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Edward James Olmos If Edward James Olmos had followed the first love of his life, he'd have been a professional baseball player. But by age 13, another love entered his life: rock music. By age 15 he was already an experienced rock singer, forming and reforming several "garage bands" along the way. During the late '60s and early '70s he played the most famous clubs on Sunset Strip, including Gazzarri's and The Factory. But a friend suggested that, with his flair for the dramatic, he consider a career in acting. Throughout the seventies he divided his time between rock music gigs, acting classes, bit parts in TV, Off-offoff Broadway plays and his business of moving fine furniture (which kept body, soul and family together). His first big break was a starring role in Luis Valdez's play, "Zoot Suit", in 1978. The play moved to Broadway and led to a Tony nomination and great critical acclaim. Perhaps best known for his role as "Lt. Martin Castillo" in the NBC TV series, "Miami Vice" (1984) (1984-1989), he has been seen in numerous film and TV productions. He received an Academy Award nomination for "best actor" for his starring role in Stand and Deliver (1988). Most notable of his recent offerings is American Me (1992), which was also his directing debut. But acting, directing and screenwriting are only parts of what he does. Olmos contends he would much rather be known as an activist than an actor. He devotes much of his time to causes, particularly those focusing on the needs and rights of children. He makes, on average, some 150 personal appearances a year to places where he can reach kids at risk; juvenile halls, detention centers, boys/girls clubs, schools. Anywhere he can get across his message that "we all have a choice" about where life takes us. He stresses the importance of education, the risks of gang life and tries to promote the notion of taking responsibility for one's own actions and one's own happiness in life. Using his own "disadvantaged background" as an example (he grew up in East Los Angeles, infamous for its gang problems), he tells the kids, "If I can do it, so can you". And he tries to point them in a positive direction. He has served as an ambassador for UNICEF and has received numerous accolades for his activism. He will long be remembered for getting out in the thick of the L.A. Riots of 1992 with his broom: one calm, reasonable presence in the midst of chaos and gunfire. Olmos was married to actress Lorraine Bracco. Between them they have 6 children, ages 10 - 25.
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Expand Your Horizons, Experience the World Sharleen Dickson, CTC, MCC
“We sell dreams, dreams of distant lands, adventure and fun” says Sharleen Dickson of Travel Masters White Rock (formerly Village Travel & Cruises) and Ladies on the Go. Sharleen has been in the travel industry for over twenty years – twenty years of experiencing the world. Working in a travel is kind of like working in a bakery. You want to try every destination or cruise, just like you want to taste every new product in the Penguins in the Cape of South Africa bakery. Travel Masters White Rock is a full service agency and a member of the Ensemble Travel Group. From a simple week on the beach to a cruise around the world we can help you find the best vacation value and perhaps suggest some new destinations. Have you ever thought of a river cruise in Europe, Russia or China? Have you been on a safari or gone to Machu Picchu? The fun and adventure of travel comes from experiencing the people as well as the destination. Our latest idea is our ladies travel club – “Ladies on the Go” says Sharleen. The club was formed in October of 2006. The goal is for ladies to meet other ladies who share the same love of travel and to travel together. Traveling with other women is always fun – Ice Cream tasting in Turkey “cause girls just wanna have fun”. The members include single ladies, widows, married, but spouse does not like to travel, and the ladies are of all ages. You can check out the tours at www.ladiesonthego.ca or come to our next meeting Wednesday, April 1/09 – 7:00PM at Elgin Hall, 14250 Crescent Road. “We invite you to come by the office at 101 1647 140 Street to meet us” says Sharleen. Along with Alice Dickson, her daughter, they turn dreams into realities. You can also reach us by calling 604-659-4176
Do you have a travel question? Send your travel questions to sdickson@travelmasters.ca Page 10
Ladies on the Go travel Club Visits: (top) Pyramid of Sakkarah on Pyramid tour in Egypt; (middle) ; a statue of Jesus outside Lima, Peru; and (bottom) Sunset in Botswana
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Carolyn Bailey Carolyn Bailey recently joined WPC Inc. (WPC) as Executive Director. The company, with over 22 years of experience, has grown to be the largest and longest operating government relations consulting firm west of Ottawa with offices in Victoria and Vancouver.
Carolyn Bailey with David Calder, Canadian Silver Medalist for Men’s Rowing
Carolyn brings a wealth of experience in communications and event planning. Most recently, Carolyn was one of only four chosen business event hostesses representing the Government of British Columbia at the recent 2008 Beijing Olympics, and worked to support BC companies from a variety of industry sectors make business connections through the BC Canada Pavilion.
On a personal note, Carolyn is an award winning singer, having won numerous prestigious music awards both here in British Columbia and in China. Carolyn speaks a variety of languages including Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese.
It was the summer of 1991 when I arrived in Vancouver for the second time, but this time it felt different. A mixture of contentment and angst rose up like a tidal wave within my, then, seven year old mind. For the first time in my life, I was reunited with my parents in Canada, a country where English was both familiar and foreign to me. Thinking back, I would have to agree that my childhood took a slightly different turn at the beginning. This had to do with my parents’ unanimous decision to leave me in Hong Kong under the care of my grandparents. Most people, without seeing the whole picture, would believe their judgment to be rash and inconceivably selfish. In reality, it was the exact opposite. To understand how our family separation came about, I must quickly rewind to the fateful evening of my parents’ romantic encounter. My parents met and instantaneously fell in love when my father— then Chief of Staff to Premier William R Bennett—had traveled along with the Premier’s political entourage to Asia in pursuit of discussing China’s open-door policy. After they were married and I was born, my mother ultimately decided to immigrate to Canada with my father but then came the tricky part. Aside from the inescapable challenge of embracing an entirely new culture, she was troubled by one question: How on earth would her daughter retain and learn to appreciate her Chinese cultural heritage if she Page 12
was to grow up under the influence of an inter-racial marriage in Canada? After weeks of discussion, deliberation and presumably some tears, my parents agreed to leave me with my grandparents and four uncles in Hong Kong for seven years. Despite my parents’ absence for the first seven years of my childhood, I knew they did everything they could in their ability to make their presence known, and for that, I am thankful. In between their hectic schedules, they would travel to Hong Kong every three months just to visit me. In a pre-internet/ high-speed communications era, the long distant telephone bills must have amounted to some astronomical figure, but nevertheless, our hearts reunited every evening over drawn-out conversations. For now, let us make a slight detour around the past eighteen years and focus on 2009. Here I am launching my career as a lobbyist with WPC Inc., the largest and longest operating government relations consulting firm in Western Canada, at the age of 25. Every now and then I am perplexed by the intricacies of life’s twists and turns, how the closing of doors then opening of windows of opportunities has led me to a profession that I love and am unquestionably proud of. Although my fluency in Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese may seem out of context, perhaps even irrelevant to my career, it was precisely the knowledge of my ancestral language and culture that directed me towards WPC. Last summer as I was completing my education in Marketing Management and Communications, I applied and was hired by the British Columbia Ministry of Finance to work as a business event hostess at the BC Canada Pavilion before and during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I was fortunate enough to have not only the opportunity to organize and emcee an event hosted by Premier Gordon Campbell but also met with world-class athletes and international dignitaries including Queen Sofia of Spain, Mayor Guo Jinlong of Beijing and Henry Kissinger. The pièce de résistance was an article in the Province which featured my singing performance at the Beijing branch of the internationally acclaimed Ciro’s Pomodoro. Had it not been my parents’ steadfast insistence that I never lose sight of my cultural roots, Beijing would have never materialized because the contract required its subject to be fluent in Mandarin and English. And if it was not for that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of working for the Government of BC, my passion towards government relations would have remained undiscovered.
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Rising Mercury a Political Hotbed Mercury contamination continues to filter through the news. In January 2008 Minnesota was the first U.S. state to ban mercury in all cosmetics, fragrances and beauty products. This comes after a 2005 California law which forced manufacturers to disclose ingredients which may cause cancer and/or birth defects. Both states took action citing weak federal laws and lack of federal initiative to deal with the issue. In 2005 Salon.com published an explosive article on the negative health impact of mercury in our environment. “Millions of foetuses whose mothers eat fish are being exposed to brain-damaging mercury” it began. Unfortunately, the issue hasn’t abated at all. The Salon report focussed on children who suffer from learning disabilities or attention problems, correlated with the methylmercury in the fish their mothers ate before they were born. Mercury travels through a mother’s bloodstream, goes through the placenta, and is concentrated in the brain of the fetus. Worse, it’s likely to present no symptoms in a pregnant woman as it attacks fetal brain cells. Many studies have unequivocally verified the harm of mercury in our diet. One study, sponsored by the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and Europe’s Environment and Climate Research Program, showed that children exposed to mercury in utero did poorly on tests measuring their attention span, memory and speaking abilities. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, both the brains and nervous systems of children who have been exposed to mercury can be damaged. Their language and visual spatial skills can also suffer. Mercury can in fact lower a child’s IQ by as much as 24 points. Fish, however, are only the pathway of mercury to our bloodstreams. Coalfired power plants, in the US and abroad, are the largest source of man-made Page 14
mercury pollution. One prominent scientist in this field has labelled mercury “the new lead,” but with one crucial difference—there’s a lack of political will to do anything about it. The lead is out of paint and gasoline, and as we’ve witnessed from lead recalls over the last year, is still an Lead in make-up has been in the news recentimportant health ly but mercury in make-up less so. In Canada, issue splashed all cosmetics must contain a full ingredient list. Many items, such as cake mascaras, have across mercury—which is commonly listed as thimeroheadlines. sal. It may also be found as a preservative in Mercury, eye-area cosmetics. In January 2008, Minnesota imposed a ban on however, not so many products containing the substance, inmuch. cluding thermostats, medical devices and, yes, China, for mascara. example, To see whether any products you use contain already believed mercury or other potentially hazardous ingredito be the ents, you can access the online site world’s largest ww.cosmeticdatabase.com, which lists information producer of man on more than 27,000 cosmetics and personal-made mercury care products (which is, unfortunately, only a emissions, fraction of what’s available on the market). where three- The database gives each product a 1-to-10 quarters of the “hazard score” and offers detailed information electricity comes from coal -fired power plants, will double its electricity-generating capacity by 2020, according to that country’s State Power Economic Research Center. Most of those new plants will be coal-fired. The mercury in fish is actually worse for people than in the form it takes being expelled at a power plant. When coal is burned, mercury is released into the atmosphere as a gas, which turns into aerosol droplets as it cools. Airborne, these droplets can travel hundreds, even thousands of miles, before settling to the ground, where they’re eventually washed to the bottom of lakes, rivers and streams. The bacteria in the sediment at the bottom of the water have a chemical reaction to the mercury, which makes the substance less toxic to the bacteria. But that chemical process also turns it into a form that is most toxic for people: methylmercury. As worms and other organisms in the sediment consume the bacteria, they absorb this Page 15
methylmercury and pass it on to the animals that eat them. The methylmercury becomes concentrated as it travels up the food chain. It comes as no surprise that mercury pollution knows no boundaries. Rainwater in California has been found to contain mercury pollution from as far away as Asia. Moreover, our seafood supply is global: The shrimp you eat in Vancouver could come from the Caribbean, the sea bass from the southern hemisphere, and so forth. Lack of political will to deal with mercury has many illeffects. A recent study published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives, states that the economic fallout of mercury pollution is nearly $9 billion USD annually. The study calculated the economic cost of the hundreds of thousands of kids likely to be brain damaged by mercury. The EHP study stated that the U.S. coal-fired powerplant industry is responsible for foisting $1.3 billion USD of the $8.7 billion annual cost of mercury on all of us. Not surprisingly, industry sources dispute Recommended: CBC radio’s The hosted by Anna Maria the figure. As a recent Current, Tremonte, has run several Chicago Tribune article, excellent profiles of the “Toxic Risk on Your international complexities and Plate” stated, mercury global health impact of mercury. levels in fish are poorly You can access archives and listen it online or as a podcast at: monitored and often to ww.cbc.ca/thecurrent Two shows exceed levels considered of note are January 30, 2008 and safe. Succinctly put by December 6, 2004. one expert, “You only have one chance to develop a brain.” Sources: Various articles by Katharine Mieszkowski, a senior writer for Salon.com; CBC radio’s The Current; Basel Action Network (www.ban.org).
Naturopathic doctors use a variety of standard diagnostic tests to determine heavy metal exposure and toxicity. These tests may include a comprehensive urine element profile, which can identify toxic element exposure or an elemental analysis from blood or hair samples to ascertain the body’s toxicity levels. Page 16
Many detoxification protocols designed by NDs include an intravenous or IV therapy protocol. IV therapy consists of specific vitamins and minerals which are injected directly into the bloodstream. IV therapy can be particularly beneficial for individuals with digestive disorders as it bypasses the digestive system allowing for a higher level of nutrients to be delivered into the body’s cells. IV therapy also allows for the body to absorb a higher level of vitamins and minerals than an oral dose. Improving the level of nutrients in the bloodstream enhances the flow of nutrients to the cells and improves cell functionality overall. There may be other beneficial corollary effects too: High-dosage vitamin C can kill viruses and improve the body’s inherent ability to chelate heavy metals. The type of IV therapies naturopathic doctors offer support and improve the body’s immune system while facilitating detoxification.
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Acne is a common condition that has plagued teenagers for decades, but more recently has been showing up in adults and particularly women even
entering
their
forties.
Dermatologists
and
other
health
professionals are starting to see a correlation between nutritional intake and acne sufferers. The dietary patterns in North America that are contributing to acne
can
significant
be
summed
nutritional
up
as
changes,
including increased consumption of processed foods, sugar, soft drinks, milk, and decreased levels of fiber, omega-3 fatty acids and colorful fruits and vegetables.
It is now known that inflammation is one of the very first events in the development of acne blemishes. Inflammation is at the root and not merely a consequence of acne. EPA, an omega-3 fatty acid found in oily fish is perhaps nature’s most powerful anti-inflammatory. In a study involving over 1000 teenagers, researchers found that those who consume the greatest amounts of fish and seafood have the lowest rates of every type of acne blemish – blackheads, whiteheads, papules, pustules and cysts. In 2003, researchers discovered that a specific inflammatory chemical (LTB4) turns on production of the oily, pore-
blocking, sebum. This was exciting because this inflammatory chemical is under dietary control – omega-3 EPA can limit the production of this inflammatory chemical, and thereby reduce excess sebum production. During breakouts therapeutic doses
of EPA omega-3 fatty acids (as
much as 1,800 mg per day) can help reduce the inflammatory process that is occurring within the body’s environment and within the skin. Maintenance doses will also help to reduce the frequency and severity of breakouts. For more nutritional advice and natural treatment options for acne, call (604)538-8837 to book an appointment with one of our naturopathic physicians.
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Poetry Reading by Virginia Gillespie at Manitou Beach, Saskatchewan
Sometimes I Awaken in the Middle of the Night and the Full Moon Shines so Brightly Through the Window that I Take a Moon Bath
Opalescent light of predawn, not of sun, disturbs my slumber floods through window gently lifts my eyelids. Some female thought maneuvers the clouds of smoke feathers that unweave like a movie played in reverse and show a robins nest being un-built to reveal a silver orb, Mother’s Eye.
By Virginia Gillespie
Aside: (M anitou Beach is the location for a proposed development project which includes a medical spa and resort that will include trips involving doctors and patients of the Mountainview Wellness Centre.
Since launching her poetry book and CD Taoist Inner Tube Rider one year ago, Virginia has given many presentations in Metro Vancouver and Colorado. Her company, Word Studio – building relationship with words, offers writing, marketing and educational services in both written and spoken word. Her inaugural poetry reading was at the Mountainview Wellness Centre. For more info visit: http://thewordstudio.wordpress.com
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Cacti in Austin, Texas
We are currently interested in taking groups to Hawaii for sun, fun, and therapy. If interested please contact us at doctors@shaw.ca or by phone (604)538-8837.