Thursday, November 10, 2016

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Tonight's picture was taken in November of 2007. Mattie was five years old and we were visiting Roosevelt Island. Which was a regular occurrence on the weekends. Mattie loved everything about the Island. It is close to home, almost in the heart of the city, and yet peaceful. We would walk, check out the water and all the birds, and basically explore nature on Mattie's terms. I remember after Mattie died Peter and I did not visit Roosevelt Island for quite some time. It just symbolized what our life used to look like.... a family of three. 




Quote of the day: To conquer frustration, one must remain intensely focused on the outcome, not the obstacles. ~  T.F. Hodge

I spent four hours today at the DC Court of Appeals. Why? For my role as the chair of the Board of Professional Counseling in DC. One of the tasks as the chair of the board is presiding over ethical violation hearings for applicants and licensees. In any case, an applicant did not like the board's decision at his hearing and therefore escalated his complaint to the court. However, the court did not want to hear his case and instead recommended that he go to mediation with me. Mediation was a new experience for me, but guess what, it was a new service offered with the DC Court of Appeals. The mediator had her first case today, and it was with us. 

For reasons I can't discuss, it was a very challenging, frustrating, and stressful four hours. Fortunately with mediation you start with all parties in the room, and then the mediator can separate each side and she can caucus with each party. In this particular case, this was the ONLY way we could get things done and come up with an equally agreed upon resolution. 

In any case, it is almost 10pm, and I finally stopped moving for the day. It has been an absolutely exhausting day and on top of that I have candy coming from ALL over the place! I will have to capture some photos on this overall chaos!

Meanwhile, I received this beautiful composition on Facebook today. Tim Beck, my Facebook friend, found these wonderful paintings Mattie created and he combined them all to form what you see here. I should let you know that ALL these paintings were created while Mattie had cancer and was in the hospital. 

I am SO happy Mattie loved art, because while Mattie was creating, I thought..... how wonderful and beautiful, and so happy he has this outlet. Now that Mattie is gone, I look at his art work, and feel that it contributes to Mattie's legacy. Something I would NEVER have thought of or even guessed was a possibility while undergoing treatment. Mattie's art also reminds me that he was at one time very real and a part of our lives. The mind can get very confused with time, and I stand by my feelings that time doesn't heal but instead hurts. Hurts in a more emotional manner, rather than the raw and gut wrenching pain that you experience with a fresh loss.