Saturday 21 July 2007

Ontario/Temagami

Friday, June 29, 2007

Grey Owl, the renowned conservationist of a century ago, was a tall Englishman who fell in love with native life. He first came off the train in Temagami and mixed with the Ojibway and married Angele of the Algonquins and basically became accepted as one of them. That's how he got the native name.

For two hours or so, our Canwalk party spent some time mingling with the local folks, mostly native, at an event which included traditional drumming. The venue was outside the Temagami train station and it appeared that although small, the whole town had converged there. When I came upon the gathering there, the word had gone out about the walking monk. A lot of love was demonstrated by the people upon greeting me. People were curious and open with Doug and Yovany as well. Overall there was good interaction

On the highway, gifts of water and happy honks came my way. Even an officer gave a Granny Smith Apple. The mood today was as sweet as could be.

In the evening, our hosts in North Bay, the Sharmas, called friends to a Sat-sang. Chanting and a verse from the Gita, Chapter 16, which addressed what to do with envy, occupied our time. The Toronto crew bid farewell and I went to sleep counting blessings.

29 kms

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