Tonight's picture was taken on January 31, 2009. Hard to believe 11 years ago today, when it seems like yesterday. We took Mattie out to lunch with my parents. Ironically prior to getting cancer, Mattie never wanted to sit still at a table and eat. However, given the disease and how it limited his physical abilities, Mattie had to learn to do sedentary things. He may have been sedentary, but that did not mean his brain and personality were inactive. On the contrary, Mattie was always on and engaging!
Quote of the day: Moving doesn't change who you are. It only changes the view outside your window. ~ Rachel Hollis
Though tonight's quote maybe true, I do think we are influenced by where we live and what surrounds us. As we move from one place to another, we are exposed to different thoughts, people, and experiences (good and bad) and they influence who we are and who we can become. For example, I will never forget moving from New York to California when I was entering 10th grade of high school, I was 14 years old. Funny how a grown adult can remember the experience of a move, but I do, as I never fit into life in California and as such, there were challenges that I had to overcome. In fact, I learned first hand how difficult it was to enter a school in which most of the kids knew each other since kindergarten, gave me insights into how to treat people. I never like to see someone ostracized or sitting alone, if they want to be part of a group. I learned that act of inclusion the hard way, when such kindness was not shown to me.
After high school, I moved back to New York. Upstate NY, to be more precise, to attend college. The view outside my dorm window was quite different from California. As upstate NY was cold and we even experienced snow in October. I will never forget seeing this first snowfall in my freshman year of college. However, to me moving is much more complex than your visual surroundings. It was within college that I joined choir and through that activity I met Peter. My point being that when the view outside your window changes, chances are the view inside your room does too.
I could go on and on with my experiences on moving, but I guess the bottom line is our surroundings are much more than just our view. Our surroundings define us because within those surroundings are our friends, colleagues, and neighbors. It is people and our experiences with them that influence our feelings, attitudes, and thoughts.
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