Quote of the day: Listen to a heart that is crying.... Because you can't see the tears. ~ Mabelle Pillman
Hello everyone, this is Peter filling in for the blog writing tonight. Vicki is presently en route from LA to DC, and since she spent most of the day traveling and will not be landing in DC until 10:30pm tonight, she asked that I write something. So do not despair, Vicki will return on Sunday to continue her blogging, and I will try not to screw this up (and keep my words short). I don't know about anyone else, but I need the daily blog fix, so I'm looking forward to Vicki taking back the responsibility, because no one can write like she does.
Vicki spent the morning with her parents who took her out to breakfast and then to the airport. I know they enjoyed their time with her, but as Vicki has mentioned earlier, cancer has profoundly affected us and our relationships with our families. I don't know quite how to characterize it, but we are both very fragile and are no longer what we used to be. Interacting with family can be very hard since for the seven and a half years that Mattie was alive, our only interaction with our families involved Mattie. Now when we interact with our families the hole that has been left in our hearts with Mattie's passing, hurts even more. I know it's not what our families want, but it's the situation that we find ourselves in these days. I am not sure when it will change, but for now, it is hard.
So today, while Vicki was traveling, I ran chores this morning and then went over the Bob and Ann's house at 11am. Bob had asked me to help him take down some trees and plant some replacements in his backyard. So the good news is that no one got hurt and no trees hit the house. However, although I dug three holes for the new trees, at 6:45pm we ran out of both sunlight and energy. The picture here was taken by Ann from their back porch once we had all the trees down. It was a physically exhausting day, but I always do well when I can take on a physical project and get outside.Growing up, my parents involved me in a lot of projects and always let me participate. This taught me both skills and the valuable lesson that I can do things for myself and all I need is energy, some smarts and a willingness to work hard. Even though as a child, I bent a lot of nails trying to learn how to swing a hammer or dripped on the floor learning to paint, my parents allowed me to do that and were proud of me that I tried to do my best regardless of the outcome. These experiences have helped me through life a great deal, which I also used when trying to be a father to Mattie.
Vicki and I always tried to involve Mattie in projects even if it meant less efficiency, more time, or non-perfect results, because one of the goals of the project was to have Mattie experiment and learn. Our parents are our greatest teachers and are the ones who can have the most influence on as children. I believe that if we take the time to involve our children in what we do, no matter what the task or project or activity, they will learn a great many things, but particularly, they will have self-confidence, which is absolutely necessary in this world as well as a mentality that they too can do things for themselves (another important skill).
So, with that I will close for tonight. Thanks for you patience and tolerance. I know I am not Vicki (no one could ever be), but have no fear, she will return tomorrow and we'll all get our blog fix once again.
No comments:
Post a Comment