Attention Ontario! Don’t be SAD Winter’s here, Get Yourself a Tropical Rainforest Paradise

Image: A sidewalk snowplow clears snow in Ottawa, Ont., on November 17, 2014. (Errol McGihon/QMI Agency)

Source: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2014/11/17/22077086.html

Yesterday saw Ontario get hit with the first real blast of winter with anywhere from 5 to 10cm of snow falling in some areas. The wet blanket of slushy snow made for havoc on the streets and the morning commute.

Video: Slick road conditions this morning as snow sweeps through GTA 

Source: Global News: http://globalnews.ca/video/1676291/toronto-area-residents-wake-up-to-blanket-of-snow

Today, in Toronto we are facing temperatures of -7 degrees Celsius with a wind-chill of -18! Yes, winter is here and it’s already messin’ with us!

Worst still, the Farmer’s Almanac is forecasting a worse-than-average winter—even worse than last year. And just to jog your memory, last year included intense ice storms and deep freezes.

“Winter temperatures and precipitation will be below normal, with the coldest periods in mid-December, early and mid-January, and early to mid-February. Snowfall will be below normal in Southwest Ontario and above normal elsewhere, with the snowiest periods in December and mid- to late March.”

~ Old Farmer’s Almanac 2015

Source: http://www.almanac.com/weather/longrange/region/ca/3

Image: 2015 The Old Farmer’s Almanac

Source: Almanac.com General Store

Remember what that felt like? Maybe this will help jog your memory…

Image: People walk past fallen ice-covered tree limbs along a road following an ice storm in Toronto in 2013

Credit: MARK BLINCH / REUTERS

Source: TheStar.com: Amid Toronto’s ice storm, friends and strangers show warmth and kindness

Now, instead of all that, many minds turn to thoughts of summer, tropical getaways, all-inclusive holidays, cruises, etc. And we admit: it’s nice to get away from it all. Realistically, not many of use can get away for four months at a time, December to March.

PeapodLife can offer a practical, viable alternative to help combat what is for most “the winter blah’s” and what can be for some a very real and potentially debilitating condition known as Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD.

According to WebMD, people with SAD exhibit many of the warning signs of depression. These can include:

• Less energy.
• Trouble concentrating.
• Fatigue.
• Greater appetite.
• Increased desire to be alone.
• Greater need for sleep.
• Weight gain.

Source: http://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/seasonal-affective-disorder

A number of clinical treatments exist for SAD, including light therapy. This involves shining full spectrum light indirectly into your eyes. Other recommendations include exercise, getting outdoors, eating a balanced diet, etc.

Image: Symptoms and Treatments of SAD 

Source: Corexellence.com – 10 Happy Factors that Fight Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

What isn’t listed as a therapy for SAD is an indoor ecosystem (of course, because there has been no clinical research done in this area yet). All PeapodLife ecosystems make extensive use of full spectrum lighting. It follows that what’s allows rainforest ecosystems to survive and thrive in what is otherwise a dark and toxic environment for them will be good for us, too.

Then there’s the fresh air and vitality we experience when sharing the electromagnetic field of a high order ecosystem. It’s not only like being outside, it’s like being in a beautiful clearing of a tropical rainforest…your very own indoor paradise, right in your own home or office. No need for expensive flights and lengthy holidays. Every day can be lived in paradise when you live the PeapodLife.

Image: Winter be damned! Everyday can be like living in a tropical rainforest paradise with PeapodLife.

So why wait any longer? Don’t let winter to continue messing with you and your emotional health. Stick it to Old Man Winter and the Old Farmer’s Almanac and start living the PeapodLife.

Visit www.peapodlife.com to learn more.

Organic Landscaping: Better than “Man-made;” more than “Nature’s Way”

Image Collage by PeapodLife: Organic Landscaping in Bloor West Village, Toronto

“If a landscaper says they want to fill your garden with manufactured stones,

you may as well tell them to use plastic plants and Astroturf.”

~ PeapodLife  

Some may be under the impression that PeapodLife only does indoor ecosystems. Not so. We specialize in all manner of organic landscaping, from decks and patios to gardens to chemical-free pools and ecosystem ponds.

What we don’t do is “industrial landscaping,” with cookie-cutter approaches such as pre-fabricated stones which are completely lifeless. There’s a reason why the expression, “on the face of the very living rock” exists. Anyone who works with stone in any meaningful way knows that stone is alive.  Not in the way that plants and animals are alive, but they are alive nonetheless. They have energy. They have character: a face, a body, a right-side up and an upside-down. If a landscaper says they want to fill your garden with manufactured stones, you may as well tell them to use plastic plants and Astroturf.

Industrial, commercial landscaping has an overly polished, mechanical feel…like the so-called living walls of PeapodLife’s competitors…which feels like plants being forced into some manmade design schema. It becomes a kind of artificial expression. Real plants, fake rocks, a completely contrived, disconnected, disingenuous landscape.

Real stones, consciously arranged and interconnected make all the difference. Since they are interconnected, they reflect the interconnectedness of all things. Since interconnectedness is foundational to nature, they act as cornerstones. Since they are alive, they bring a garden to life:

Image: Front Yard Garden by PeapodLife featuring Rhododendrons and Real Stone

Just as ancient peoples built their incredible stone structures and monuments without mortar (even bridges that still stand today!), creating “the perfect staircase” is not about pre-fab anything, or super-expensive single pieces of rock “perfectly cut.” No. Working with stone means just that: working with the stone! Let the living pieces of stone guide you into beautiful, organic expressions of “nature’s perfect staircase.” 

Image by PeapodLife: Front Stone Staircase

If done properly, the hewn stone staircase or pathway integrates flawlessly into the surrounding garden, appearing as though it belongs there, as if Mother Nature herself intended it to be there, as if they appeared there on the landscape organically…the effect is subtle, deep and profound. It’s a feeling that is not altogether aesthetic…it reaches beyond the 5 physical senses.

Image by PeapodLife: Real stone staircase winds through backyard rock garden and leads to deck patio.

So is that “organic landscaping?” We’re sure you’ll find many approaches and definitions on the Internet, and frankly, we could care less what others’ think. What matters to PeapodLife is this: working with nature to help it achieve its highest expression, so that it can freely give back all it has to give. 

Just as indoors, it’s about creating a space of love; for in the final analysis, love is the underlying quality of all of nature: true beauty, selflessness, sacrifice, harmony, oneness, etc.

Many interpret these words to mean “letting nature do its thing” in one specific way…

Image Collage by peapodLife: Wild Gardens 

Sources: http://www.framptonfarm.co.uk/options/ 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/hydrogenink/7688632850/in/photostream/ 

http://www.ourhappyacres.com/2009/10/wild-gardening/

And if you like wild gardens and wild gardening, more power to you. But this is not the only way in which nature expresses itself. It is the most common way, to be sure; and largely free from human intervention—except perhaps for some forethought, selection of plants, etc.

But nature is capable of expressing itself in ways which are uncommon, require human participation / cooperation, and which result in gardens and landscapes which are not just beautiful, they make you feel special just by being there.

If we likened it to the most common of all activities in nature, sex: there is the physical act of sex with a purely physical goal (either the creation of a baby or the enjoyment of physical pleasure or both). It requires no particular connection whatsoever apart from the physical.  Basic fornication. It’s as common as can be. An industry, in fact.

Then there is making love. And at the risk of sounding cliché, anyone who has ever experience this latter expression of that most natural function, sex, will attest to the difference between the mere physical act with mere physical goal(s), and intimacy which transcends the physical…an act of union which is transformed and transforming. It is much less common these days…and certainly something the sex-related industry knows nothing about and cares even less for. It is interested only in pleasure.

Image Collage by PeapodLife: Sex versus Making Love

Sources: http://news.discovery.com/tech/sex-ed-hooks-up-internet-121102.htm 

http://en.paperblog.com/sacred-sexuality-the-magic-of-honesty-and-the-seductiveness-of-mystery-340088/

And that’s where landscaping and gardening—like all things—are today. At one end is the manufactured, industrial approach which organizes nature into man-made eye-candy; and on the other end of the spectrum is the wild approach which creates “all-natural” landscapes which certainly look and feel as if they are completely devoid of human participation. The former is an expression of human mechanicity, the latter mechanical nature.

Then there’s the middle way…the way of lovemaking. When landscaping and gardening are no longer about creating something of aesthetic pleasure; rather, they are an experience…a labour of love for the expressed purpose of co-creating of a space of love. It’s neither cramming nature into human “design,” nor is it letting nature run amok to sow its wild oats however it sees fit.

Organic landscaping and gardening, in PeapodLife’s view, is about making a conscious connection with the very heart of nature itself—which is love—and allowing that deep connection to inform and unfold itself through a conscious co-creative process.

Image: Backyard Garden by PeapodLife with integrated sprinkler system

To make a physical space requires a physical act. To make a space of love requires a process of love-making. Most anyone who loves gardening, loves cooking, loves painting, loves just about anything creative should get this on some level, especially those who do it for the pure joy of it—not for a living.

At PeapodLife we are blessed with the good fortune of being able to offer you our joy for—and mastery of—creating beautiful natural spaces of love, even as in this case—featured in photos throughout this article—on a relatively small front / backyard in the heart of Bloor West Village.

We want you to be able to experience nature beyond the five senses…feel special just by being in your garden. All that (and more) is how PeapodLife practices organic, conscious landscaping.

Note: This garden was freshly planted and is still in-progress. Still more to come, including moss and more features. Stay tuned for updated photos.

Touch the Web of Life, for the Web of Life Touches us All

Image: Child touching the Web of Life

Image Source: The Pachamama Alliance: The Circle of All Beings: The Truth of Our Mutual Belonging

“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”
~ Chief Seattle
Source: Goodreads: Book reviews, recommendations, and discussion: Chief Seattle  

It is irrefutable. We are all connected. And as much as we would like to think of ourselves “lords of nature,” the reality is we are not separate from it, from the planet that supports in; and indeed, the solar system—the sun—which in turn supports it.

We have no energy system to replace the sun. We have no technology whatsoever that comes close to replacing all that it does for the planet…and for us.

Likewise we rely on the systems of the planet: the water cycle; the carbon cycle; the countless ecosystems which interconnect to provide us the flora and fauna and moderate the planet’s climate.

Somehow, humanity has lost sight of all this.  Beginning largely in the industrial revolution, intensified in the technological revolution, we have become enthralled with all of our systems; everything we do for ourselves.

Sadly, so much of what we do for ourselves comes at the expense of the planet: masses of conventional, toxic and radiocactive waste; air, water and soil pollution; exploitation of finite natural resources; failure to responsibly manage renewable resources; and the list goes on.

We have lost our connection with the web of life; and, sadly, are at risk of becoming entangled in the web we have woven instead. A web of toxicity, scarcity, exploitation, detachment from the ecological realities which affect us all—industrialization or no; technologically advanced or not.

How can we reconnect with the web of life? Surely we cannot take on all the world’s problems! No one can shoulder the burden of environmental challenges which took generations to create. But can we turn the tide of exploitation and detachment from nature in our individual lives?

PeapodLife believes we can. We believe in indoor ecosystems. We believe in working, living, learning and healing in buildings which support nature in her highest expression: high-order rainforest ecosystems.

More than this, PeapodLife knows that when you live in the company of a rainforest ecosystem, you do much more than benefit materially from all it has to give. You reconnect with the essence of nature herself. You develop a meaningful relationship: one of mutual harmony and symbiosis.    

With PeapodLife, you become part of the web of life, once again. And being a part of the web of life is much better than being apart from it. Touching the web of life is better than weaving a web of destruction.

Take to heart the wise words of First Nations Elder Chief Seattle, who said:

“All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the earth
Befalls the sons of the earth.
Man did not weave the web of life,
He is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web,
He does to himself.”
~ Chief Seattle
Source: Goodreads: Book reviews, recommendations, and discussion: Chief Seattle  

Image: Chief Seattle, Chief of the Duwamish and Suquamish.

Photograph of drawing by artist Ray Coombs after the well-known photograph by E. M. Sammis

Image Source: University of Washington Libraries: Image/JPEG Title: Duwamish and Suquamish Chief Seattle, Seattle, Washington, 1891  

Touch the web of life; and let the web of life touch you.

Experience our Latest Ecosystem Installation at the Inner Garden: Room 384, 401 Richmond Street West (at Spadina) Toronto

Photo: PeapodLife's Ecosystem at UrbanSpace, 401 Richmond
Genesis Eco Fund sharing office space in the Inner Garden
Room 384, 401 Richmond Street West (at Spadina), Toronto, ON M5V 3A8
2013 @ peapodlife.com

Come and experience an Ecosystem with us!

Today we are happy to announce that we have moved a modified Angolo Ecosystem Unit into the Inner Garden located at 401 Richmond Street West, Room 384. Genesis Eco Fund has taken part-time shared office space in the Inner Garden (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays).

Genesis Staff & Volunteers will be on-hand Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during office hours for ecosystem viewings and one-on-one Q&A sessions (by appointment). In addition, Genesis will be hosting information sessions, lunch & learns, and evening events as part of its community outreach and educational mandate.

Why the Inner Garden?

The Inner Garden is a shared space hosting an array of grassroots, arts, cultural & conscious events. Its stated goal is to cultivate collective opportunity for teachers, healers musicians, performers and facilitators to connect, share and gather with a heart-centric community, in love, service, and re-discovery, in the spirit of the following quote:

“Wisdom is knowing I am nothing,
Love is knowing I am everything,
and between the two... my life moves."
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

Source: theinnergarden.ca: The Inner Garden: Torontos Sacred Gathering Space

The Inner Garden’s philosophy, mission and approach are aligned with the vision and mission of PeapodLife and Genesis Eco Fund, expressed in the following passage from their website:

“The western garden: lush, visible, surrounding the house. Gardens in the West, are often designed for walking (i.e. doing),
The Eastern garden: hidden, thus invisible, in the center of the house, protected. Gardens of the East are intended for rest & relaxation (i.e. Being).”

Read more about the distinction between Western and Eastern Gardens and what they say about our lives.

Photo: PeapodLife's Ecosystem at UrbanSpace, 401 Richmond
Genesis Eco Fund sharing office space in the Inner Garden
Room 384, 401 Richmond Street West (at Spadina), Toronto, ON M5V 3A8
2013 @ peapodlife.com

Why an Ecosystem?

It makes perfect sense for the Inner Garden to have an ecosystem. Their mandate and activities in the shared space define it as a sanctuary: a space to not just be, but be at one’s very best: to realize oneself…one’s true Self. Sanctuary is what PeapodLife’s ecosystem technology is all about.

If we are products of our environments, we deserve the best possible environments.

It makes perfect sense, then, for everyone to have their own ecosystem; their own inner garden sanctuary…a place which balances the workaday world “out there”—with all its stresses and challenges –with a space of tranquility and harmony “in here.”

Everything happens for a reason.

PeapodLife is confident our ecosystem and not-for-profit division, Genesis Eco Fund, will make a valuable contribution to the Inner Garden, help others experience the priceless value of being in an indoor ecosystem sanctuary, and demonstrate how being in an indoor ecosystem sanctuary is the key to revitalized, creative, productive and stress-free doing.

After all, we still have to live. To truly live we must be in the world. Ecosystems not only remind us to be in the world but not of it, ecosystems help us be: more relaxed yet more awake; passive yet infinitely more creative; calm in mind yet infinitely more imaginative; balanced in mind, heart, body and infinitely more effective at whatever it is we do.

In short, ecosystems show us the way of doing being & being done. Come any one of the many events held at the Inner Garden at 401 Richmond (at Spadina), Room 384, (or, Contact Genesis Eco Fund to pay them a visit) and experience the power of the ecosystem for yourself.  

About Genesis Eco Fund:

Genesis Eco Fund is a registered not-for-profit corporation and the non-profit arm of PeapodLife Building EcoSystems & Technology (a Division of Wo-Built, Inc.) Supported in part by proceeds from PeapodLife sales, Genesis also runs fundraising and crowd funding campaigns. For more information about Genesis and their latest campaigns, please visit www.genesisecofund.org.

Photo: PeapodLife's Ecosystem at UrbanSpace, 401 Richmond
Genesis Eco Fund sharing office space in the Inner Garden
Room 384, 401 Richmond Street West (at Spadina), Toronto, ON M5V 3A8
2013 @ peapodlife.com