Tonight's picture was taken in February of 2009. Mattie was surrounded by all of us in the middle of the hospital hallway! What was he doing?! Mattie was in the middle of a physical therapy appointment. The woman on the right is Anna, Mattie's physical therapist and the two women behind Mattie are Jessie (one of Mattie's art therapists) and Linda (Mattie's child life specialist). A therapy session with Mattie was anything but boring! It couldn't be, otherwise Mattie wouldn't have wanted to participate. To encourage Mattie to take a few steps with his walker, a conga line formed behind him. This intrigued him and motivated him to move. But movement for Mattie was laborious and with each step he became weaker and more exhausted. He may look chipper in this photo, but do not let that deceive you. Mattie couldn't walk more than a step or two and his wheelchair was always in tow. Yet despite the reality, look at the spirit! Mattie was VERY GOOD at getting people to join in the fun and antics. In fact, as we would go down the hallway, people would come out of their offices to see what the commotion was about. Some days we played ABBA music in the hallways while Mattie moved around, and Dancing Queen had a way of getting the whole floor moving.
Quote of the day: If people knew how hard I worked to achieve my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful after all. ~ Michelangelo
Michelangelo is on a grand scale. My example of hard work is minutiae and yet his quote resonates with me. Planning this week's Roundtable was a mini feat in a way and when an event runs smoothly it doesn't happen by chance. This is something people do not seem to understand. Our audio recording professional wrote me an email after the Roundtable was over and wanted me to know that he tapes many meetings on the Hill, and ours was by far one of his favorites. He commented to me that the event was organized, well timed, and thoughtful. Not to mention that people were truly collaborating and working toward a common mission during the sessions. He felt the eight hour day flew by! It was all high compliments and I appreciated him taking the time to share his experiences. A friend of mine who is an event planner said to me that planning a 30 person event versus a 100 person event is about the same. I absolutely agree, because once you have two people in a room the coordination and work begins. So it wouldn't have mattered if the Roundtable had triple the attendance, the effort was indeed an effort!
Meanwhile, Sunny and I went out for a walk earlier today. He loves watching the geese along the water. Each day Sunny is getting more bold about approaching the birds. I entitle this photo.... Sunny versus the geese. We literally walked up to the geese in the background and as we approached each goose flew into the Potomac River.
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