Monday, July 4, 2016

Monday, July 4, 2016

Tonight's picture was taken in July of 2003. Mattie was 15 months old and it was his first trip to the beach. Mattie did not know what to make out of all this sand and the roaring of the Atlantic Ocean. It was too much for him that first year. Mattie's hands were like little antennae. His fingers will twirl around almost as if they were helping him take in the world and information around him.

In this particular photo, Mattie's twirled his fingers around and it ended in a big fist. Information came in, and clearly Mattie did not like what he received. As the fist says it all! But we kept at it with Mattie and introduced him to the beach for several more summers, and then of course in time, Mattie loved the beach.... particularly the sand!


Quote of the day: Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty. ~Louis D. Brandeis


How we go from the photo up above to a where we are today...... in a way defies understanding! Parents who lose a child to cancer, are always asking the unanswerable question.... why my child? Why did this happen to our family?! In all reality there are NO answers and please don't tell me you are turning to science for them. If you are, you may be waiting a while!!! In my opinion science is more confused than ever, and they provide few explanations or viable solutions to deal with this crisis affecting so many children in the US and around the world. Certainly science has come a long way to help with some lymphomas and leukemias, but even with those cancers that have a higher five year survival rate, the psychosocial consequences are enormous. This is an area of care that science refuses to acknowledge, accept, talk about, and to share the research stage with psycho-oncologists. 

Knowing the cancer landscape for what it is and having lost a child to cancer, it does put one's life in perspective. Naturally holidays are always very difficult and if you think it is just the first holiday without a child that is complicated, that would be wrong. In fact, I think it is all subsequent holidays after the firsts that are truly challenging because as time moves on, so do the people in your life. If Peter and I dwell on any of this for too long, this could cause a great downward spiral. So instead we try to do more positive things like run the Foundation, go for nature walks, and now most recently adding another dimension to our lives..... rescuing pets. Fortunately for Peter, we don't live on a farm, because I would be rescuing as many animals as possible! 

It has been RAINING ALL day in DC! Since we knew we were going to be inside all day, we got out in the morning and went for over a three mile walk. Trying to use a car in DC on July 4th is a joke. As you can see many of the streets near us are blocked off. This was a new one for us, I have never seen Route 66 blocked off to traffic using buses. 

Down by the Potomac River, the Stars and Stripes were on display. May we remember all the brave soldiers who keep our country safe so America can continue the very freedom that started 240 years ago.

Along our walk, Peter spotted this wonderful Gold Finch. 

American flags were proudly displayed on boats. 

This to me was a total sight! What is this boat? Well apparently it is a convenience store floating in the water. It sells merchandise from sunscreen to sunglasses and food!

Washington Harbor decorated for the 4th! Because the weather wasn't nice today, there were very few people down by the water. Not great for businesses, but so lovely to walk by the water without tons of people. 

Another spotting along our walk.... a great blue heron.