Sunday, October 21, 2012Tonight's picture was taken in October of 2003. Mattie was a year and a half old, and had no interest in putting on a Halloween costume that year. Or anything itchy or scratchy for that matter. Yet this pumpkin sweatsuit was the perfect choice. It was fuzzy and cozy and Mattie naturally gravitated to the colors orange and red.
Quote of the day: In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. ~ Albert Schweitzer
Today was a beautiful weather day in Washington, DC. Typically Peter and I do not do separate things on the weekends, but I was invited to lunch today by my friend and one of my former clinical supervisors. I met Carla at a restaurant tucked into a lovely neighborhood of Chevy Chase, MD. It was as if we were transported to France and were dining within a french bistro, filled with charming Provincial decor. The setting was lovely on a crisp fall day, surrounded by trees. We had a wonderful brunch together and talked about a whole host of things. Carla and I always had a lot in common, and our love for food and for trying new restaurants is definitely one of them.
We talked about friendships today, and one of the things Carla said which intrigued me was that we select friendships that match our developmental level or need. From a clinical standpoint, one's developmental level does not always match one's biological age! Yet during each of our life stages, we do find that we may gravitate to certain friends because they fill a need or void within our lives. Not all friendships can stand the test of time or the many seasons of our lives. The individuals who can are rare, few and far between, and naturally deemed special. As Carla and I know, so many people come to therapy because of these special voids within their lives. Living in the DC area, or most likely any major city, makes it challenging to develop meaningful and trustworthy relationships. Cities can breed competition, pettiness, and jealousy, which do not form the cornerstones of a solid and lasting relationship. Needless to say, we always have interesting clinical dialogues which get me thinking.
I would like to share three pictures with you this evening. The first one I entitle, "A room with a view." This is the picture window in our living room. At this time of year, the light changes with the Fall season, and yet you can see my geraniums are a glow, and Mattie's beautiful Oak tree (right outside our window) is turning colors. Mattie loved this oak tree because every spring we would pick leaves from this tree to feed to his tent moth caterpillars. It is the only oak tree around us! But what you can see from this picture is that we are surrounded by plants inside and outside. Soon many of our outdoor plants will be coming inside, and it is at that point our living room truly looks like a jungle. 
In the corner of our living room is this plant stand. I no longer use it for plants, but instead it has become our Mattie corner. The stand is filled with pieces of pottery Mattie created, his hand print in clay, some of his Lego creations, seashells he liked, a huge American Flag he picked out at Home Depot when he had cancer, and on top of the stand is an Indiana Jones hat given to Mattie by his buddy Zachary. 
From our balcony we can see this beautiful tree, which looks like it is on fire. Fall is all around us and on a glorious sunny day, I do appreciate the colors that only nature could create. 
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