Elsewhere I have mentioned what I like to call my day job (you can find little bits here and here and here) — as an occupational therapist in a busy outpatient neuro rehab clinic. But “busy” doesn’t quite capture the character of the place. 

We deal daily with people who have just gone through something generally sudden and traumatic — a stroke, an accident, cancer that has appeared in the brain — and life is often completely different than it was just an ordinary handful of weeks ago. This can make for a huge emotional component during the time we spend with a patient. I believe we try to reserve the best part of ourselves for this.

But on top of that, we muster the resources to cover a lot of other territory: writing documentation that is meaningful to doctors, insurance companies, other therapists; cleaning up equipment after treatment or organizing our ever-changing clinic space; consulting with our fantastically adept case managers on a particular insurance plan or an out-of-sorts family member; juggling last-minute schedule changes…

…and not least of all, trying to care for each other in the crumbs of time we might have left.

One of us recently got married. The relationship was a happy surprise to both She and He, coming as it did after each had raised their children and spent many years alone. And in the midst of a harried, frenetic clinic day, one of my creative colleagues brought up a great idea with which to honor our marrying friend. Since it involved felted wool, she brought me in on it.

The idea (which may have been influenced by something on Pinterest) was this: stitch up a table-runner/wall-hanging  with a pair of birds to play the parts of the bride and her groom, add a tender verse from Song of Solomon, and have the varied lot of us on staff fill out the rest with fanciful flowers of our creation.

And we ARE varied…and colorful and complementary and sometimes cacophonous. All of these came out when we gathered one rare relaxed evening to complete the project — sharing scissors, fabric scraps, wine, and pizza.

We think the outcome illustrates the assortment of us pretty well ;).

Happy Ever After to Donna and Darrel! We love you both.