Clearly, I should introduce myself and tell you what a re-birthday is, and why I'd like you to read and share my blog.
First, a "re-birthday" is my way of celebrating not being dead.
It has been 2 years since I suffered a massive brainstem stroke, January 15, 2012 to be exact. It feels as if a lifetime has passed since then. And really, a lifetime has passed.
Today is my second re-birthday. This second re-birthday has really caused me to look back over the last 24 months of my life. There are so many layers of the human experience that are part of my story now, that to sum it all up in a concise introduction seems glib and thoughtless. But here goes.... PS. I am not a blogger. I'm not an author. What I am is a stroke survivor who is attempting to blog.
In anticipation of my website's launch, I have been asking everyone from mentors to casual acquaintances how I should begin unraveling my thoughts in a blog. I feel that there is so much to cover: my stroke, my hospitalization, and my recovery.
I've been told numerous times over the last two years to write down
my thoughts and experiences as they happened. I never did. For so long I was mechanically, and then emotionally unable.
Now, to be honest, the idea of maintaining a blog is more than a little daunting.
I feel like I have experienced an abbreviated version of the first 30+ years of my life...all in the last 24 months. And like a sauce that's being reduced over heat, every nuance and note of life has been intensified. And if I may continue with this cooking metaphor, I've decided to "deconstruct" the last two years of my life in this blog.
With the help of my family, photos, videos, emails, social media posts, and memories, I'm going to do my best to realize my goal through this blog.
I feel like my life was spared. I don't believe in luck. You can call it fate, you can call it God, you can call it a medical miracle.
It doesn't matter to me what others call it. What DOES matter to me is that every day that I wake up, alive, out of the hospital, and experiencing life, I feel a soft tug at my soul, reminding me that I'm on borrowed time.
I am determined to earn this unbelievable blessing and pay it forward. I hope and believe that recounting and deconstructing my experience may help someone. This blog is an attempt to do so.
There! For those of you whom I've never met, I have now introduced myself.
