Tonight's picture was taken in March of 2009. Mattie was in the physical therapy clinic of the hospital. That day his therapist created a wall of plastic blocks. She knew that this would inspire Mattie to try to knock it over, and she was correct. Mattie sat behind it and with his feet and legs he was encouraged to use his muscles to break down this wall. Mattie liked that challenge and of course gladly complied with success.
Quote of the day: Our animal friends teach us more than we could have expected …And love us more than we could have hoped …… That’s why we miss them more than we could have imagined. ~ unknown
This morning, while getting ready, I was listening to a podcast. Within the episode, they were talking about happiness and how society and different religions define it. Along the way, the story of the Chinese Farmer was conveyed to the audience. You can click the orange link to read the story in case, like me, you never heard it!
In essence in the story all sorts of things happen to this farmer. With each new event, his neighbor has commentary. Either like, wow you are lucky, or wow how sad this has happened to you. Each time the neighbor provides feedback, the Chinese farmer's answer is "Maybe so, Maybe not." Regardless of the outcome, whether it is positive or negative, the farmer answers with this indifference. So the question is, what is the moral to the Maybe so, Maybe not story?
Probably the simplest interpretation is things may not be what they appear to be! A good thing, can have negative consequences, and a bad thing, can eventually produce a positive change or outcome. Or in other words, every situation or interaction has both good and bad outcomes. So I guess if I had to give a quick example, one could say that buying our beautiful house was a good thing. Most of society would view this as a positive. But this one positive, lead to a cascade of negativity, from becoming a 24/7 caregiver to losing my husband. Could I have predicted all of this would happen? No!
On the other hand, Mattie getting diagnosed with cancer and then dying, is the ultimate in bad things that could happen to a family. However, now 15 years later, one could potentially say that I have taken Mattie's suffering and death and used that knowledge to help countless other children with cancer and their families. Perhaps that is a positive. Yet regardless of the outcome, a negative, will always be a negative in my book. I may have tried to do something positive with it, but at the end of the day, the loss of Mattie can never go away, it can't be fixed, improved, or made better.
Some people view this story as a message to live in the present, and to try not to attach judgment to any one thing or event. That is easy said than done. The one thing this story does for me is it reminds me that even in good times, something bad may be right around the corner. I have experienced and witnessed this all my adult life. Yet, when I heard the story this morning, my immediate reaction was wow..... yes I feel like my life has ended and my world has come to a complete catastrophic shut down. But I can not predict the future. Perhaps there will be a purpose and meaning for this level of emotional suffering. Maybe things can improve and heal in ways I can't possibly even imagine now.
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