Thursday, December 30, 2010

Faith on a Wing and a Prayer

Hot off the pressed, well hot off my laptop is a new chapter in the Walking With Angels series. Having a little faith is what we all need but how? The answer is in the chapter.

Just click on todays title and you'll be wisked to the answers.

Isn't the internet wonderful! Enjoy!

Monday, December 20, 2010

Angels still with Me

This is part two of the series "Walking with Angels". It's called "Angels are still with Me". All you have to do in click on the title and the link will take you there. Enjoy!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Walking with Angels

I wrote my book "I had a stroke" because everyone told me I should write a book about my experience. So I did!

I posted it on line right here a few years back. People kept showing up to read the latest chapter. Great comments kept coming back.

So here I am again with a new subject but this time it's on my website Thrivingsurvivor.com.

The first chapter is called "Walking with Angels".

I hope you read it and comment on it. I could alway use the input!

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Mountains

I met a woman once, she was on a mountain top and I on the one next to it.

We called back and forth to one another.

She said, “Hello.”

I said, “Hello,” back.

I called out, “How are you?” and she replied, “I want off this mountain.”

I called back, “Are you hungry?”

She called back, “Yes but I need off this mountain.”

I replied, “First eat to build your strength and then you'll be off this mountain.”

She replied, “I have nothing to eat.”

I replied, “Consume the mountain and you will be off it.”

She thought for a moment, how can I eat an entire mountain?

Well her mountain was built of her life and each step built it. The more she climbed, the higher it got. The height to which it had risen was dizzying.

I called out, “The mountain is the food you have stored to sustain the rest of your life.”

She called back, “But this is not the life I have asked for.”

I called back. ”But this is the life you have cultivated. It is a fruit at your feet, consume it and you will be sustained.”

She accepted it as her meal. The taste was not to her liking but she ate of it never the less.

Each experience filled her.

She consumed it all and filled with it, she saw she was not on a mountain at all just on a journey, one to which she could decide the direction.

The map she follows was hers in the end.

Many mountains and many valleys, as many as she chooses.

She was not lost at all, high on a mountain top with no hope of rescue but on a trip one she could control.

So her map was not a barrier but a series of choices. Each mountain would sustain her, each valley would comfort her.

It was not someone else' map but her own to step where she liked and to travel where she wished.

The difference now was she was consuming her life, not turning away from it, like a dish she didn't want to eat.

Fear not the geography of your life.

It is a world of your needs.

The landscape of your needs.

In the end the picture will reveal itself!

Thriving Survivor

Friday, April 16, 2010

My Affirmation

Built your ditches in the desert and then stand back and see the Salvation of the Lord.

I dug my ditches with my book and then rested.

Thanking the Lord for the blessing of writing the book as I knew he wanted me to do.

A raindrop fell from a sunny sky and I knew I was truly blessed.

My ditch was attracting a shower and as I watched the rain became heavier starting to pool in my ditches.

Faster the rain fell and the my ditches became flooded.

The water reached out of the ditch to touch the other ditches.

Earlier I was in the middle of a desert surrounded by mountains on all sides and was thirsty but believing that my ditches would be filled to over flowing if I just did the work.

My ditch became a pool that became a lake which grew into a sea that lifted me up and quenched my thirst.

I thank God.

My Book

Friday, March 12, 2010

Stroke Weather Forecast


A really close friend of mine just reminded me of a saying I always use and believe in, "It's always sunny above the clouds." Now that's a real forecast for someone trying to recover for a stroke or a brain injury.

Let's face it, the saying works on anyone who's working on getting better from any thing they're suffering from.

Basically you have to have faith that if you're working as hard as you can to get better you will see the sun eventually, I know because I did.

Paralyzed down the left side I still wanted to got for a walk as I looked out the hospital window. My room was on the top floor of Joseph Brant Hospital you can see in the picture.

The catch to recovering is simple, I didn't lay around waiting for a miracle to drop by. I worked at getting better til I was so tired I had to lay down a sleep for an hour. After the nap I would work again, with or without a therapist.

All the hard work with the tricks I made up got me walking, talking, reading and doing everything I did before my stroke.

Really all I wanted was to go for a walk outside of the hospital, everything else was a bonus!

Friday, February 26, 2010

Getting Better or Waiting to Die?

A major hurdle for Stroke Survivors is reading, so I've started to do audio blog entries for them. It makes it easier for them to hear the information over and over again.

They can listen to the blog or download the mp3.

I know in my case while recovering, reading was so hard I would have to nap after reading just a page or two.

So I'm going to try this out and see what response I get.