Poetry Thursday came and went and not a poem was heard in my head. Oh well. Work was still very busy yesterday, but not the zoo it had been the day before. I had J drive me to and from work yesterday. After biking in the rain on Wednesday (not a fun way to start the day), I felt like starting my day in a more civilized fashion yesterday. So I had him first drive me through Starbucks for a green tea latte (my new fave) before dropping me at the office half an hour early. We had errands to run after work and found ourselves in Woodland (our neighbor to the north) before heading to the airport in Sacramento to pick up his rental car. (He took our car on the road last weekend and it's fine--he just doesn't like adding tons of miles to it. And at $17/day, he might as well jump in a sporty-looking, candy apple red Chrysler Sebring.) He leaves this morning for L.A. They play in Santa Monica tonight...(I love L.A....wish I was going.)...and Fresno tomorrow night before heading home on Sunday.
For the last two weeks, I've been zipping back and forth at work between our conference room (which has been re-keyed as a secure storage room for testing materials for a few weeks) and the office. I returned to my desk for a few minutes yesterday afternoon and as I walked by, Carolyn excitedly waved me into her office. There was a lovely young woman sitting on the arm of her loveseat and a large stroller blocking her doorway. I didn't know the woman, but Carolyn seemed to want me to meet her, so I squeezed by in the narrow space between the open door and the stroller, turned around and saw that it was TAYLOR! Yes, Taylor Parker was in our office! Tammy (Taylor's mom) and Taylor decided to surprise Carolyn at work. (I'd never met Tammy in person either.) I can't even describe how stunned I was. After all these months, to finally meet Taylor in person...I just would have never expected that it would be in our office! Carolyn gives me an update after each of her hospital visits, so I've been able to keep abreast of how Taylor's doing--her ups and downs. But I didn't know she was getting out and about! It's a recent development; the family has a new specially-equipped van. (I don't know if what she was in is really a stroller, so to speak, but stroller-like. Imagine a large stroller rather than a wheelchair.) How freeing it must feel for Taylor and Tammy to be able to get out and do things after being stuck in hospital rooms for the past several months. Carolyn has told me that feeling has returned to Taylor's arms and legs...but still no movement. There's a fundraiser for Taylor tomorrow night in Woodland.
I told Taylor that I was going to go home and post on my blog about her fabulous surprise visit to our office, because I wanted to let all of the people all over the world who've been sending her good wishes and prayers know how she's doing. If you read the April 30th post on her blog, you'll read about how she got to see her horses and feed them with her mouth. Reading that made me realize yet again how intuitive and empathic our animals can be towards us.
A few weeks back, Carolyn was having a rough week. So I went to the Dollar Store and filled up a gift bag with some silly stuff. One was a small lavender plush bunny. Carolyn's very much into natural healing, and outside of our school's garden, her office is probably the most healing place on campus. She has a small fountain and candles and aromatic oils. She decided the bunny needed to live next to the fountain, on a corner of a long shelf near her desk. I was only able to visit with Taylor for a few minutes before I had to head back to the conference room, but Carolyn told me later that Taylor had spotted the bunny. Carolyn held it to Taylor's face (it's very soft) and then told her she could have it. She said she started to put the bunny under Taylor's arm, but she wanted it by her face. Carolyn set it next to her face, and she said Taylor leaned her face against it and seemed very happy to have it there.
Sometimes one small thing can be a very big deal. A $1.00 plush toy nestled against the one part of Taylor's body that she can move. I'm going to take that as a lesson today...and try to pay attention to the places in my life where I can do one small thing to give someone one bright spot in their day.
If you've been following Taylor's story--and many of you have shown her such an outpouring of love and support--please stop by her blog and say "Hi." It would be nice for her to know that we're all still thinking about her.

















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