Adjustment and culture

Q: Could you describe how you and your family members, friends, etc. adjusted to your return to the home environment and how the family culture may have changed?

A: After such a nightmarish (for lack of a worse word, I feel somewhat restrained to remain polite) hospital stay, for me at least my return home and the any adjustment that had to be made was a smooth one. To be fair, I suspect not rushing my return helped quite a bit. 2 or 3 months before I was eventually discharged I was able to go home every weekend. So my return wasn’t hard on my family with respect to me not being there one day and being there the next. My family and support staff had run through the drill a bunch of times well before I actually came home. And I’d imagine that greatly helped with the transition for them, as well as myself. Continue reading Adjustment and culture

My Outlook

As I said, Well It’s 2008. I truly didn’t mean to be so indignant towards 2007. But shit happens…

I did, however manage a few opportunities for personal enlightenment last year. Most notably was the reading of Caroline Moorehead’s fantastic book, Human Cargo: A Journey Among Refugees. “One of the greatest books of all time. It may change the way you look at life.” No kidding…

“Why should something as arbitrary as where one is born determine where one is allowed to live? Entrance restrictions, borders and boundaries, often themselves accidents of history stand as barriers to a more equal world, protecting the privileges of those who live in the least crowded, richest and safest states.” Continue reading My Outlook

Appreciating Effort

I remember being told about a “journal” my family kept for my benefit, chronicling events occurring in the initial month following my accident. And as time “crept” by I, of course forgot all about it. But upon grilling collective members of my kin for details concerning specific events, my sister politely reminded me of it’s existence. Curious as I am, I figured it was time to see it.

Neatly written within the opening paragraph, my mother wrote, “I wanted to let you know what was happening while you were sleeping.” There I sat, by myself at the kitchen table looking through an important piece of personal history. Hardly in a position, then or now (quite fitting actually) to return the warmth I was able to peruse all these many years later. Continue reading Appreciating Effort