Tonight's picture was taken in August of 2008. Mattie, Peter, and I were in the Hospital's oncology clinic and we were painting a ceiling tile. His wonderful art therapists sketched a whole Scooby Doo scene for Mattie on this tile for him to paint and decorate. Once that was done, the tile was mounted onto the ceiling for everyone to see. Ironically this tile is still in the clinic today! The tile has outlasted the patient. In fact, there are many tiles that Mattie painted that are still within the clinic. The only one missing is his HUGE cockroach tile that he painted. No one seems to know where that one landed up. My hunch is it probably freaked a child out and it was taken down permanently. Not everyone shares Mattie's love for bugs, MYSELF included! But this Scooby Doo art therapy project was beneficial for all three of us. It kept us focused, working together, it helped the hours go by when we were in the clinic, and when we were finally done, it was a finished product we were proud of creating as a family unit. When I see it today, I still remember our times together painting!
Quote of the day: By bringing a soulful consciousness to gardening sacred space can be created outdoors. ~ S. Kelley Harrell
To my faithful readers who have been following along with the blog, you all know I wrote a book chapter this summer. A chapter which took me three solid months to write. This was absolutely wonderful for the Foundation, but in so many ways, it was like living in a time warp. One minute it was spring and the next minute it was the Fall. The only problem with all of this is I committed to writing yet another book chapter. For a different book altogether, with different editors. This chapter is due on October 15. That is a very tight deadline. The main problem with taking a break in between, is that it is very hard to vamp up again, get refocused, and regain my discipline. I frankly just don't want to stare at a computer, delve into the literature, read anything, or focus my time on Mattie's cancer battle in too much detail.
The other chapter I wrote in the summer was unique because it was a psychosocial chapter going into a book geared toward medical doctors. Therefore in my perspective it was vital to make a compelling case for the importance of psychological care! This current chapter is going into a psychosocial book, geared toward mental health practitioners. However, our chapter is the parents' perspective. I have news for you, there are NOT MANY chapters out there from a parent's perspective! Especially with a parent's lens as to what is important to help a mental health practitioner moving forward when working with other childhood cancer patients and families. No pressure there! As I let that sink in, I find myself getting stymied. This has happen to me and I can't write anything. I spent a good portion of the day doing literature searches for this chapter and of course finding NOTHING! Not unlike my last chapter. So it is the art of creativity, of using what currently exists to make a case for what I am trying to say! LOVELY, why should anything be easy.
The highlight of my day was going to zumba class. I haven't been to class for months. My teacher goes on a summer break with her family and when she came back, I was in LA. After class, I had tea with my friend and fellow classmate, Heidi. We had sunshine and conversation together, and it was special to have time with each other that was unplanned.
Later in the day, I was downstairs in my complex doing laundry and bumped into one of my neighbors. I recognized her but do not know her per se. However she apparently knows me by my garden. Apparently she can see my garden from her upstairs window. She stopped me to let me know how much happiness my garden has brought to her all summer and what a labor of love she knows it is. Her comments made me smile because to some extent I felt like she understood that my space is special to me, we try to care for it, and perhaps this is why in the middle of the city we get visited by hummingbirds and all sorts of birds and butterflies. All symbols to me that Mattie is around me and present in my world.
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