Paddle Project

"Symbolic of cleansing, frogs can remind us to honour our tears, to continue to sing our song, and to bask in the sun—open to the supports surrounding us, trusting that we are imbued with the light of those we love and have lost."

For some time, I had been wishing for a meaningful way to honour Nora Parker, a childhood friend of my daughter's who passed away at only nine years old from an incurable brain cancer. I was devastated to learn of her passing years later through a friend and to imagine what her family was going through.

One day, after a chance encounter with Joelle—Nora's mother—on the streetcar, we decided to reunite and to go for a walk by the lake. Just as we were meant to meet up, however, the sky went dark signaling a rainstorm. She called and said, "What do you want to do? I was just going to hop on my bike!" I thought of an oracle card I had pulled that morning—a frog in the rain—and took it as a directive . "It’s hot out, shall we just walk in the rain together?" And so we did.

In our heart wrenching and epic catch up, as Joelle spoke of Nora's favourite things—hot salsa, the colour green, her beloved camp, Campfire Circle—a large, luminous green frog appeared on the path before us.

In that moment, I quietly made myself a promise, for Nora, to find a way to support Campfire Circle. The very next day—out of the blue or should I say green—I received an unexpected invitation from a friend (who I didn't know sat on the board) asking if I might be open to contribute to Campfire Circle's annual Paddle Project. The submission deadline fell, astonishingly, on what would have been Nora's fifteenth—her "champagne"—birthday.

(Campfire Circle is a privately funded charity offering year-round programs—camp, in-hospital, and community—for families affected by childhood cancer.)