Thunder

Three passions have governed my life:
The longings for love, the search for knowledge,
And unbearable pity for the suffering of [humankind].

Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness.
In the union of love I have seen
In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision
Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge.
I have wished to understand the hearts of [people].
I have wished to know why the stars shine.

Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens,
But always pity brought me back to earth;
Cries of pain reverberated in my heart
Of children in famine, of victims tortured
And of old people left helpless.
I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot,
And I too suffer.
This has been my life; I found it worth living.

adapted

Robin and Kaz's Wedding

The Grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

Allan K. Chalmers

Magic

Dreams are made only if people try

I believe in miracles..

I have to...

Because somewhere the hurting must stop.

Terrance Stanley Fox
July 28 1958 - June 28 1981

Fort William Historic Park

It is the largest reconstructed fur trade post in the world.








"As a child I understood how to give; I have forgotten this grace since I became civilized."
~Ohiyesa, Santee Sioux~

Eagle Canyon ~ Canada's longest suspension bridge

All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.

Albert Einstein

Kakabeka Falls

Legend of Princess Greenmantle ~

Greenmantle was the enchanting daughter of the Chief of the Ojibwa Indians who lived in what is today the Thunder Bay region. Greenmantle was captured when this territory was invaded by the Sioux. She was forced to guide them down the Kaministiquia River to the Ojibwa encampment. Pretending to betray her people, Greenmantle led the enemy canoes toward the falls. In those final moments, she bravely leapt from the canoe and swam ashore to warn her people. The Sioux warriors in the first canoes plummeted over the falls while the remaining were captured by the alerted Ojibwa. Their last battle was fought on the Welcome Islands where the Sioux were eventually defeated.

A diverging legend states that Greenmantle, too, perished over the falls when she tricked the Sioux. Her spirit, it is said, lingers in the mist as a rainbow, while the voices of the angry warriors cry continuously from the roaring waters below.

The Mighty Northern Forests

Let us go now into the forest.

Trees will pass by your face,
and I will stop and offer you to them,
but they cannot bend down.
The night watches over its creatures,
except for the pine trees that never change:
the old wounded springs that spring
blessed gum, eternal afternoons.
If they could, the trees would lift you
and carry you from valley to valley,
and you would pass from arm to arm,
a child running
from father to father.

-Gabriela Mistral