Thursday, January 12, 2012Tonight's picture was taken in January of 2009. Mattie was home between hospital treatments, and what you maybe able to see in the background of this picture was Mattie's hospital bed in our living room. Cancer transformed every aspect of our lives. Our home included. Every corner of it looked like a hospital with medical supplies, IV poles, commodes, a wheelchair, and as time evolved oxygen tanks and pain pumps. Memories that will always linger within me. I captured a tender moment between Peter and Mattie here and from Mattie's bright smile it was evident who was taking the picture. Mattie reserved a special smile and look for me. Though cancer ravaged his body, his smile and beautiful eyes remained unchanged.
Quote of the day: The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart. ~ Robert G. Ingersoll
Ingersoll's quote couldn't be more on target. How does one handle defeat without losing heart? It is some times hard not to lose heart especially when I reflect on the large defeat of losing Mattie to osteosarcoma. Yet we try to take it one day at a time and attempt to find courage in order to continue the journey without Mattie.
I spent a great deal of the morning balancing several different Foundation items and projects. Though I do not like multitasking, I can do this quite well. I had years of practice while pursuing an education, working, and then balancing Mattie. Yet post-cancer, I sometimes have a shorter fuse, and juggling different things only brings upon further stress and physical symptoms.
In the midst of this busy day, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet my friend Margaret for lunch. As my faithful readers know, Margaret was Mattie's first preschool teacher. We met Margaret in 2005, and now seven years later, we are still friends. In fact, I loved Margaret as a teacher and a person from the first day I met her. I sensed she would be the right teacher for Mattie and my mom instincts were correct. Mattie grew and developed exponentially in her classroom and at the same time she provided me with great support, insights, and feedback. Over time our friendship grew and we only became closer. When we are together time simply slips by. We have the art of conversation, connecting, and sharing with one another and today was no different. Though Mattie is not physically with me, the friendships he made and left me with are profound. Margaret and I often reflect on Mattie's first year at Resurrection Children's Center. Because it was within that year, or should I say during the first day of school, that Mattie found what we call his soul mate. Mattie and his friend Zachary were soul friends. They understood each other, appreciated each other, and were fiercely loyal! They had an unusual friendship, one that made even adults pause, because it was intense and yet so natural.
After my lunch with Margaret, I went to Mattie's school to meet up with Donna. Donna has become my friend and is one of the kindergarten teachers at Mattie's school. Some of you may recall that I did a Matisse and Picasso lecture series in her class last year. Donna has invited me back to her class this year, and I will give my three part lecture series in April to her students. However, what is very evident from seeing Margaret and Donna today is I fit in very well with teachers. We talk the same talk and we just get the challenges of teaching. As Donna and I walked our way to her classroom, along the way, we chatted with Bob (the head of Mattie's lower school, and also known to my faithful readers as the Magic Man), Leslie (Mattie's kindergarten teacher), several other teachers, and even a parent and her middle school child. Donna and I connected for several hours and we were not talking about the lecture series. We were simply talking about life, the Foundation, and Mattie. One of the topics we discussed was the art of storytelling. This is a form of education that I absolutely LOVE and I believe it can be incorporated into the classroom at all the developmental stages. I always used it at the college and graduate school levels, but I also know young children and children of all ages gravitate to it. I was expressing my concern to the teachers today about this new generation. We are so immersed into technology and SO focused upon grades that we are not teaching our children the core and fundamental values of life. Which are the life skills of listening, the art of conversation, and being able to emote and verbally express emotion! Sounds simple, but you would be surprised how challenging it is to have eye contact and conversation with children in today's day and age. We have become technology driven, which can be a beautiful tool, but also a curse. Storytelling captures one's attention and imagination. After all as you are process what you are hearing (which is also an important life skill), you are developing a picture that coincides with what you are hearing. In addition storytelling passes on cultural views and traditions and it also teaches children about non-verbal mannerisms and expressions. But at the heart of the matter, storytelling evokes feelings. Feelings that can be discussed and it is through these deeper conversations much more can be learned on ANY subject matter. Needless to say, we had another stimulating afternoon of conversation!
I would like to share another commentary for one of the undergraduate reflection papers. "The work we performed for Mattie Miracle and more importantly the way we impacted the children's lives was so special to me. We got thank you emails from parents telling us that their kids cannot stop talking about how much fun they had at one of our practices or at the Georgetown Basketball game. This made all of the work worth it because not only did we get to see the smiles we were putting on the kids' faces but the parents were so appreciative of our actions as well. Interacting with the kids and going up to the pediatric ward in the Lombardi Cancer Center made me realize how lucky I am and how much I have. I realized that I need to do more to help out people who are less fortunate than me more often. I am blessed with so much and I need to start giving more. Overall I enjoyed working with Mattie Miracle. It taught me a lot about who I am and how much a difference just a few college kids can actually make."
I would like to end tonight's posting with a snippet of a song I heard on the radio today. It is brand new, so the full song isn't on the Internet yet. Nonetheless, when I heard this song, it made me stop and want to hear ALL of it. I hope you listen to it, because it should give all of us PAUSE and re-evaluate our priorities. For me, cancer did that for me, I am happy I did not miss Mattie's seven years of his life, because I would never have had the chance to make up for that lost time. I introduce you to Phil Vassar's song entitled, Don't Miss Your Life!
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