Monday, November 28, 2011Tonight's picture was taken in November of 2008. Mattie wanted to start decorating his hospital room early for Christmas. In Linda's (Mattie's childlife specialist) usual fashion, she knew exactly what would get Mattie's attention and cheer him up. She gave him strings of colorful lights to put up around his room. At night, we would turn off all the lights in the room, and just have the colored lights aglow. Needless to say, Mattie's room was very popular that season, because despite it being filled with hospital equipment, it looked joyful. Or as joyful as one can make a PICU room. You can also see behind Mattie that there are origami cranes hanging from the ceiling (all 1000 of them) and a set hanging from Mattie's IV pole. These praying origami cranes were painstakingly made by hand by my friend Junko and her mom. You should note that with each fold of the origami paper, a prayer was said. So there were many positive thoughts that went into the creation of these birds! Mattie loved the cranes and they came with us on each hospital admission. In fact the set on his IV pole was actually a conversation piece. As we would roam the hallways of the hospital, people always stopped Mattie to ask him about the cranes. These colorful birds seemed to symbolize Mattie's character and personality. Both sets of cranes remain in Mattie's room at home even today and they hang from his ceiling.
Quote of the day: We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment but it is transient. It is a little parenthesis in eternity. If we share caring, lightheartedness, and love, we will create abundance and joy for each other. And then this moment will be worthwhile. ~Deepak Chopra
We have concluded after much investigation and after completing the first round of the non-profit stamp application, that this form of postage is not cost effective for Mattie Miracle. What an education we have received over the last few weeks. I could say that we wasted our time on the application (which by the way was approved by USPS) process and on running back and forth to the bulk mail center of Arlington, but in the end we learned about non-profit postage and can now say very confidently that it doesn't work for us. In order for this to be cost effective, Mattie Miracle would have to do multiple mass mailings (200 envelopes of more) more than once a year. I had no idea that once we qualified for non-profit postage status, this wouldn't apply to every envelope I wanted to mail out. It only applies to 200 items or more at a time. So the envelopes I mail out weekly, which are time sensitive, wouldn't qualify for the non-profit postage rate, because of their small quantity. So in essence by the time we pay the start up fee and the annual fee for non-profit status, we are really saving no money. We would only be saving money if we had multiple bulk mailings in a given year. So at least we assessed this issue and resolved it.
Later in the day, Peter and I went for a walk on Roosevelt Island. Peter isn't physically feeling well today and in addition, we are both in a Post-Thanksgiving saddened state. Roosevelt Island however, did not disappoint today. Our first sighting was the wonderful Great Blue Heron who seems to love this particular perch. He is usually on it each time we visit the Island. 
The Island was quiet and peaceful today with very few people. It is actually the best way to see the Island. As we were walking, I tend to look around and even up, but typically not down. However, fortunately Peter was looking down on the boardwalk, because right in front of us was this lovely Praying Mantis. Now here is a BUG Mattie would have loved to see! This was a first for us on the Island. The praying mantis is named for its prominent front legs, which are bent and held together at an angle that suggests the position of prayer. By any name, these fascinating insects are formidable predators. They have triangular heads poised on a long "neck," or elongated thorax. Mantids can turn their heads 180 degrees to scan their surroundings with two large compound eyes and three other simple eyes located between them.
I came armed today with a sleeve of crackers. When the ducks saw me, they came swimming and flying over. To me there is nothing like feeding the ducks. I used to enjoy this when I was little, and though I am an adult, I still enjoy it just as much. I snapped this picture of these ducks, because I love how three of them were resting with their heads tucked into their bodies. 
Toward the end of our walk, we were surprised by this beautiful Pileated Woodpecker. I have been going to the Island for years, but it is only this Fall, that I have seen these wonderful creatures! They are huge birds and I just love the way he uses his beak to hit the wood, it literally sounds like a hammer hitting a tree, rather than the constant peeking one is used to hearing from smaller woodpeckers. If this sighting wasn't enough, we were greeted by four deer at the end of our journey. One was a large buck with antlers. They ran away when they saw us coming, otherwise, I would have been snapping pictures. There is something special about going to Roosevelt Island for us. It is in the middle of the city, and yet it is a retreat that is so needed on many days when grief has simply over taken us. 
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