NAMI Walk

Today we had the NAMI walk. NAMI is the National Alliance on Mental Illness. It is a great organization that offers information to the public and also helps friends and family of those with mental illness. I can't say enough good things about it, we always tell families struggling with a loved one to look into help from NAMI.

The Austin Lakers had the best team -- we actually raised more money than anyone, even our rival private psych hospital that has 3x our staff was far behind us. I was proud to walk with my do-workers. What's cool is that I saw a few former patients there too.

It was the perfect day for this - lovely Texas October day, crisp and mildly cool but sunny. Talk about a blue sky. We got to see the rowers on Lady Bird Lake and there was a high school band taking pictures at the capital, in full concert dress. I walked most of the way with three of my co-workers and the conversation was terrific - nothing at all about work. One woman lived in France for seven years, so we talked about the cultural differences between France and the U.S. Another coworker retired from the Austin State Hospital, so we talked about working in state hospitals and how different that is from what we do now.

A lot of walkers brought their dogs. Pets are a wonderful mental health booster.