My dear friend Ojibway Elder and Queen's University Professor Eileen (Sam) Conroy "Walked On" suddenly.I am heartbroken.Sam was a kindred spirit and a fellow member of the Monarch Teacher Network.These images were taken last winter on the banks of Waldens Pond .We were all there to teach nature workshops to preschool teachers.Sam presided over a morning "giving thanks"address and an Ojibway smudge ceremony.It was so cold outside but we never felt it! Sam's words warmed us..She had that effect on everyone,young and old alike.She lived in Canada so I did not get to see her as often as I would have liked.But her spirit was always in my heart.It always will be.
"I am beginning to have an understanding of how everything fits together; how the trees, the animals and plants and we are all part of something special and how we need each other and need to be respectful of each other. I want to make sure kids especially have an opportunity to learn about this when they are little so that they don't have to wait until they are my age to find out.” -Sam Conroy
So sorry. Have you read Mary Pipher's "Another Country"? I read it over a decade ago and it touched my heart. Today it brings tears to my eyes. She says, "Everyone after seventy-five lives in a de-peopled world" but even entering my sixties I am already noticing the loss of people in my life. I hope you can hold on to your happy memories of your times together.
