Pam, I agree, you said it, happiness is living in peace, especially with yourself.

sister Pam

see my response in Asha's blog. why CAN'T i have my new life without stroking?

sandy

Pam:

i agree with you, I also m happy and content with new me, not too many issues with 2005 model, can't dance the way I used to but oh well can do slow dance in arm of my hubby. life is good, I wasn't unhappy prestroke but I was kinda immature, so I got maturiy out of my stroke

Asha

So true. The first thing we have done to achieve this is acceptence. Without that, your life wouldn't have gotten this far.

While my old life was a lot different, my new life a restart, I just miss the warmer weather. That will never change.

I walk this empty street

this boulevard of broken dreams

While the city sleeps

I'm the only one and I walk alone.

My shadows the only one who walks beside me

Read between the lines,

check my vital signs

and know I'm still alive

And I walk alone, I walk alone

My shadows the only one that walks beside me

My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating

Sometimes I wish someone out there will find

Till then I'll walk alone

Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ahhh

Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ahhh

I'm walking down the line

That divides me somewhere in my mind

On the border line of the edge

And were I walk alone

Green Day

Sandy,

Would you really have had this new life without stroking? None of us would, we were all to busy.

Hi Ladies and Fred,

I guess I don't quite understand why you think it takes a stroke to have metaphoric change in one's life. It can happen for MANY reasons including something as simple as growing up and growing older. One hopes that we all live a life that is filled of transformation through out the decades of our lives, always getting better and better. If not for the stroke, it would have been something else that made you wake up and decide to fix was was broken in your pre-stroke lives. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Jean

Mom,

No, I disagree with your view because I wasn't waking up, I was skating along and had no idea! It was only once I stroked and actually had the time to soul search, to look for inner peace, the stroke gave me a reason to question and search for answers. It was my quest for those answers that gave me the most personal growth I've ever experienced.

Also without the stroke as my catalyst, I would have maybe changed things in piecemeal, not do a complete overrhaul like I did. The complete overhaul was to my thinking a good positive thing. And how do I know if the bits I might have changed done any good? You think if I never had stroked, I would have volunteered here or become involved? Hell no, I was to busy. And I was never a joiner either. Plus, I never would have traveled. Or explored Zen. Never read some of the books that I have, never made the friendships I have. I would have stayed insulated in my own little world, oblivious to the rest of the world.

And the biggest important reason is that I never would have met you or acquired the siblings that I now have.

Pam

Pam,

Who's to say that without the stroke you wouldn't have skating along, oblivious to the outside world, believing that you were happy for the rest of your life? And would that have been a bad thing, believing that you are happy? I'm glad the stroke transformed you in a way that you're proud of, but I don't believe it's necessary at all to have a major life-crisis to have that kind of a transformation. I believe if you were unhappy before the stroke, eventually that remake of yourself would have come along regardless....it just would have taken longer without the stroke forcing it along. A tree has many branches but they all reach towards the light.

Jean

Mom,

I struggle with the concept that I thought I was happy... Yeah, I know ignorance is bliss, but now I know what I would have missed and in comparision I am better off now.

Pam

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

even tho my stroke was a bit different. In life, I had grown a bit jaded. Thinking a monkey could do the things that I did for everyone else were not true. . Even said that a few times.

But seven weeks in the hosp and rehab and away from my kids taught me otherwise. The stroke mainly served to show me the resilence built in and also that there "ain't"no replacement for 'da mom.

My one not so little one will probably forever carry a bronchial cough for everytime now that it gets cold. That he developed while I was gone, probably talked some grandma or inexperienced auntie into doing or dressing some inadequate way. I just don't buy that someone else could quite be on top of things around here as I am. I know them and their inclinations..born over their short lifetime so far- even tho they think they're so grown up

So as far as an attitude adjustment on my "job' in the world, a major health crisis, while not being painful except for the needles and tape, brought that around even tho its taken a few years to come full circle.

So when I think back to b/s and p/s, I firmly believe we were all given a look at how fragile your life is. How everyone should reflect on their daily lives and how just by doing the everyday stuff, its "how' you conduct yourself that makes the strongest impression. Think how you feel about the funny,nice people versus the grouches who life is never good enough for them and they're still waiting for it to get better. Who's more helpful to your psyche?? Which kind a person would you like to be remembered as?

Well said Jan!

Yeah Pam,it only took a lightening bolt for some of us huh??