Improvement is Continual

First I want to acknowledge another person who has had a TBI, who's email had a great way of looking at things, and got me thinking about some writing and speaking I have done in the past.  Our thinking about "opportunity" was eerily similar, and I wrote  about it in one of last weeks blogs.  Thank you Kimberly.

Well, I was out with five of my friends the other eveing.  We were in a small field next to a field where the Pop Warner kids had already begun their fall football practice.  The six of us were having a giant game of "pickle".  Now usually "pickle"is played with 3.  One person stands about thirty of so feet from another, on bases, and a "baserunner" goes from one base to the other and tgried not to get tagged out.  We had six people, so we formed a triangle and had three runners.

At one point i was holding the ball and all the runners were standing on bases so they couldn't be put out.  I thought of a time when there was a dog who lived near me who would run after a ball if you acted like you were throwing it.  I wondered if it worked with humans.  I made believe I was throwinbg the ball, the human next to me started to run, and I tagged him out.

This may not sweem like a big deal to most people, but this type of thinking was exactly the type of thinking I never used to do.  I call it "putting two and two together", or taking two seemingly unrelated things, and finding a link.  That's what my head injury did to me initially.  Robbed me of any common sense, of any ability to tie two things like that together.

Learning how to think expansively was one of the toughest things for me, and you know what?  It is still something that doesn't come easily.  "Tunnel vision" thinking takes over way to often, and I have to fight to be open minded, so to speak.  The point here is, that thirty years after my TBI, I still have to work at it, and I'm still growing.  The difference is between now and then is that now I KNOW what is possible.  The trick is to put that knowledge into action.  That remains my focus, and it is a battle, but it is a battle I am winning, and that I'm going to be successful at.

Comments

[idealstar]

it is amazing to read your blog. as a tbi survivor, & a mild one at that, i can relate to all that you say. i don't think anyone that hasn't experienced this can possibly understand what it is like. your whole world changes. people don't understand because you still look the same. all you can do is to keep plodding forward. keep learning & relearning. it is an ongoing "job" & an exhausting one. but one that i am grateful to still be here for. i wouldn't want to miss a minute of my life even with all it's pain & frustration. i will continue to read your blogs & others so i can always remember that i am not alone.