Monday, July 2, 2012

Monday, July 2, 2012


Tonight's picture was taken in June of 2006 in front of Lake Accotink Dam in Springfield, VA. We took Mattie to see the Cardboard Boat Regatta at Lake Accotink Park. It was a very memorable event in which people created their own life sized boats made out of cardboard. The funny part was the actual competition, in which people got into their boats and tried to row them! Mattie truly enjoyed that day at the Park, and was looking forward to being old enough one day to build his own boat with Peter and enter the race.


Quote of the day: A loving heart is the truest wisdom. ~ Charles Dickens

I went back to the assisted living facility this afternoon to visit Mary, Ann's mom. Mary's muteness is becoming more commonplace now, in fact, I can't really recall the last time we had a real conversation with each other. My visits are always armed with either a newspaper or magazine. Something to stimulate dialogue and a sharing of information. Today I read Mary several stories in The Washington Post about Friday's storm. Together Mary and I learned about a derecho. Which is the classification of Friday's storm. A derecho (pronounced similar to "deh-REY-cho" in English ... ) is a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms. Although a derecho can produce destruction similar to that of tornadoes, the damage typically is directed in one direction along a relatively straight swath. As a result, the term 'straight-line wind damage' sometimes is used to describe derecho damage. By definition, if the wind damage swath extends more than 240 miles ... and includes wind gusts of at least 58 mph ... or greater along most of its length, then the event may be classified as a derecho.

Dickens' quote seemed very appropriate tonight, given the stories Mary and I were reading together. We learned about the goodness of local community spirit, how people have united over the storm and have shown their generousity and thoughtfulness to others. I certainly experienced this while Mattie was battling cancer, but this beauty of the human spirit is also alive and well in our neighborhoods. We are seeing neighbors helping neighbors through the power outage. The outage hit neighbhorhoods in odd ways. For example one street can have power, while neighboring streets are completely without power. The newspaper reported that homes with electricity have allowed neighbors to run extension cords from their homes to the ones without electricity. In addition, working freezers are being stuffed with neighbors' food until power is restored. All incredibly thoughtful and loving acts of kindness. Such acts can make a person feel important, cared about, appreciated, and what all of us long for.... a part of something bigger than one's self.