Thursday, October 11, 2012

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Tonight's picture captures the creativity of Mattie! As my faithful readers know, Mattie LOVED card board boxes! He could transform them into whatever his imagination desired. Mattie's support team at the Hospital understood his need for boxes and nurtured this creativity. One day in clinic, Mattie was given the plain brown box you can see on the left hand side of this photo. Over time, not just in ONE day, Mattie transformed this box into a haunted house. He drew on it, cut out pieces, and with the help of Jenny and Jessie (his amazing art therapists), he designed witches and ghosts and attached them to the house. This haunted house turned out to be a beautiful and colorful structure, but it also was scary. One of the surprises to the box were the bats that Mattie had hanging on the inside. If you opened up the doors of the house, you were greeted by rubberized bats jumping up and down at you. Mattie created MANY boxed structures while at the Hospital, and we photographed each and every one of them.


Quote of the day: Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible!' ~  Audrey Hepburn


I am an Audrey Hepburn fan, and have always considered her a classy lady on and off the screen. A true humanitarian who died too young at the age of 63, from my nemesis, cancer. I came across Hepburn's quote today, and though it is cutesy and plays on the word impossible, there is great meaning within this simple notion.

In any given day, chances are we are faced with daunting or challenging tasks, we may have interactions with others who we deem are insensitive and out of touch, we maybe the recipient of constant demands on our time from others, and the sheer volume of information we are asked to process each day can be beyond overwhelming (computer, TV, i-phones, blackberries, i-pads, telephone, and the list goes on!). When taking all of this into account, we may feel that our day is simply IMPOSSIBLE. Of course depending upon our mood and how things are going in our own lives, sometimes these stressful and impossible days are indeed possible and we somehow manage. Yet on down days, days when we question what we are doing, how we are doing it, or whether things are going right with our family and friends, the IMPOSSIBLE can get the better of us. Which is where Audrey Hepburn's quote comes in, because she was pointing out the importance of focusing on our inner strength, courage, and commitment to make things possible.

Certainly when I look at Mattie's cancer battle and death, Peter and I gave 110%, and yet I learned that even giving something your best may not matter, because in the end there are things that are just too IMPOSSIBLE to fix. So in essence the statement that NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE is just not true! What cancer has taught me is that there are many things out of my control, which is not a comforting revelation. Yet despite this even within the impossible we found a way to make certain things possible. I have three examples for you: 1) Once Mattie was diagnosed with cancer he was unable to go to school, something a typical 6 year old would have been doing. Yet we were fortunate enough to have some of his teachers who devoted their free time to visit him, thereby making the impossible possible. 2) When Mattie wanted a pet fish, despite this being against hospital policy, we found a way to make this impossible request possible. and 3) Mattie's cancer left him socially isolated and he internalized a great deal of his depression and anxiety, and though managing and helping him cope with both his physical and mental health issues were harrowing we had friends who reached out to us and made sure we weren't alone. They made an impossible situation seem more possible. The point is even within the impossible there are aspects of possible, and sometimes it is the small possibles that must be celebrated and appreciated!