A Tribute to Nina Leopold Bradley

To be cross country skiing in your 90s and invigorated by the winter chill. To mark the beginning of your day by the birds you spy at your feeder. To cheer with childhood glee the wonder of a new bloom -- or a new person to your door for soup and bread and a chat.

This woman, who earned numerous doctoral degrees for her efforts to pass on a land ethic to new generations and for her scientific work in phenology, spent her time with people listening instead of talking about herself. And she taught us all to listen -- to the birds, the land, to the needs of the community, and to each other. {http://www.examiner.com/green-living-in-milwaukee/nina-bradley-leopold-passes-away-at-her-home-baraboo-wisconsin].

She was a giant of a person, in the manner of namesake, Tia Nina, her aunt, who was a suffragette, matriarch of the family, homesteader and writer, a nearly successful runner for political office when women hardly had the vote [http://www.newmexicohistory.org/filedetails.php?fileID=22390].

At her memorial, her colleagues, daughters, grandsons and others spoke of her impact on them. But the real ripples of the effects of her life cannot be measured because even if you could track her small and large accomplishments in every community she's ever lived, you could not track all the dreams that she encouraged or the many ways people decided to act better and truer because of her model and words.

As for me, she's one of those guiding stars that I shall always aim for. I would like to be a woman like her, still skiing, still awestruck, still laughing, still caring about science and the world and politics, still nurturing and enjoying each member of her family, still listening with rapt attention to every person to come my way.