Sep 25, 2016
Sunday Night again.... I saw this most perfect post on Facebook today...going to try to copy it here, but the words were "Fate said to the Warrior, 'You can't withstand the storm' and the warrior replied, 'I am the storm'."After stroke, we certainly have our days of frustration, grief, anger, fear....there are a thousand more descriptive emotions I could post, but that would be a waste of all of our time. We all know stroke is a life altering event...it changes EVERYTHING...I tell everyone, you can be a stroke "victim" for about ten days...we are still reeling long after ten days, but that is when we have a decision to make....We accept that word "stroke" and its invasion in our lives and then we have a choice to make. You can decide "I've had a stroke, my life as I knew it is over, I think I'll curl up in a ball in the corner"...OR 'I've had a stroke, my life as I knew it is over, so I need to find a way to LIVE my life fully, even if it means making changes...even if it is the hardest darn thing I've ever done. So, remember, you are NOT a stroke "victim" because stroke victims are not with us...you are a survivor!! I've heard/seen/been told, "Don't let this stroke define you". Every life experience we have in life "defines" us. It is what we do with those life experiences that determines who we are, who we always were.... With stroke, we conjure up courage we never knew was in us; we have to practice patience (something we might not be really good at anyway); we are more determined in our efforts to recover than we ever were on any new venture...We become aware that we are stronger, More fierce, more sensitive and empathetic than before this "perfect storm" (defined in Wikipedia as "perfect storm" is an expression that describes an event where a rare combination of circumstances will aggravate a situation drastically.[1] The term is also used to describe an actual phenomenon that happens to occur in such a confluence, resulting in an event of unusual magnitude.") landed on us. So, I say, you can develope courage (in the face of great fear) and perseverance (in the face of incredible fatigue) and YOU BECOME THE STORM!!