Tonight's picture was taken in March of 2009. We were taking Mattie for a walk around the DC National Mall. Of course on any walk, Mattie always seemed to find a stick along the way to carry with him. In fact for the longest time, we had quite the stick collection in our commons area. Sticks that were brought back from every walk over the years and that were added to our garden collection. We had so many, it looked like we had a sculpture garden made out of wood in the making.
Quote of the day: Being passionate about something is the most beautiful characteristic you can develop. ~ Charlotte Eriksson
I would say that Peter and I are quite passionate about the importance of psychosocial care for children with cancer and their families, yet it can be discouraging at times because despite how much sense this makes to us and how much evidence is being accumulated about the importance of this care, it is not always the MOST popular position to take within the cancer community. Advocacy groups are comprised of individuals with their own focus, lens, and mind set of what constitutes a priority. Yet it some times catches me off guard when I find that those who have experienced childhood cancer first hand, just like us, do not consider psychosocial care a priority and do not view it as a crucial part of the treatment process. It can be very challenging at times to work each day and to be advocating for a position that is not understood and valued by the majority. Some days I put it into context and it motivates me further and some days it just makes me upset and causes me to wonder if I am doing all of this for naught. After all it is hard to change a system and mind set that just doesn't want to be changed. But then I think of the reason we are doing this.... Mattie! What he suffered can never be forgotten and this forces me to press on. Mattie's issues were FAR more than medical and even if we can't change a system over night, the system is still going to hear from us.
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