Tonight's picture was taken in September of 2008. When you look at this photo you may be asking yourself.... just what was going on here? Well Mattie was concentrating on a block of clay in front of him. Within this white block were plastic dinosaur pieces buried in it. Mattie had to dig these parts out of the clay. Kind of an excavation type project and then he would assemble the pieces together to build a mini-dino! Mattie loved this type of challenge and this type of project was perfect for the hospital setting because it was sedentary and could keep him busy with his hands and focused on a task. As Mattie became more physically impaired with time and more socially isolated from his cancer treatment, these types of projects were God sends. Notice the pink bucket behind Mattie. This wasn't for just display. This bucket was for vomit, of which it caught lots of it in the initial stages of Mattie's cancer battle until we found the right anti-nausea drugs that worked to manage the side effects of his high dose chemotherapy.
The above photo came from Claude Monet's garden. Peter and I had the wonderful opportunity to visit this garden with my parents in August of 2012. Monet's garden is located in Giverny, France (which is about an hour from Paris). Monet's garden is indeed a masterpiece. The garden is maintained as if Monet was still there today. As soon as visitors enter the property, they can quickly see Monet's deep appreciation and understanding for color, light, and his diverse cultivation and combination of flowers and foliage. He did not plant in an organized manner, but his plantings matched his impressionistic style of painting. His garden looked like an oil on canvas. If you want to read more about Monet's home in Giverny, I encourage you to check out this link: http://giverny.org/monet/home/.
What got me to focus on Monet and his garden today, I suppose was my own garden! I spent the beginning portion of the day on our deck. Though I resumed my work today, I think the highlight of my day was time on the deck with my flowers, plants, time listening to Mattie's fountains, and being outside. Though my garden doesn't look like Monet's by any stretch of the imagination, I can understand what inspired him to want to create it and to spend time outside painting it.
No comments:
Post a Comment