Luckiest Woman On The Planet

Originally posted March 5, 2013

Until recently I wouldn't have bet any amount of money that I could live as rich and wonderful a life as I have today. It looked like a sure losing bet. All I could see ahead of me was a grim struggle just to put one foot in front of the other, on all the most basic levels.

Five years ago today I seriously broke my brain, and it was a solid two years before I could say I was back to anything close to my pre-injury "normal". When I began to emerge from the fog and no longer had to spend most of my energy focused on basic functioning and recovery (and sleeping!) I had to figure out what my new normal would look like. Once I declared that I was myself again, I was faced with the task of putting a life back together, and it was impossible to predict what course it would follow.

Before I move on, let me say that I was incredibly lucky. I came out of my injury with choices about how I would live the rest of my life. Many others with my type and degree of injury have more severe residual effects, leaving them with fewer options than I've had. Brain reassembly is notoriously hard to predict, even between people with similar injuries, and I know that my recovery could have gone in many different directions. For some reason I got the miracle.

The first step back into the light was my P-Patch garden. I'd been on a waiting list for a plot for a couple of years, and in the summer of 2010, a spot opened up at my first choice Patch. Score! An excuse to get outdoors and fling dirt around, maybe meet a few people, oh, and grow some Edible Things while I’m at it! Perfect opportunity, perfect timing. I've just signed on for my fourth season, and as I look back at three seasons of work I see a lot of fun, laughter, and yes, edibles, and some sweet connections with my fellow gardeners. Oh yes, please, I'll definitely have seconds - and thirds, and fourths, and more!

My second step was simply putting one foot in front of the other. I started walking in January 2011 with Get Fit West Seattle, which appealed to me because it was billed as a "couch-to-half-marathon" training program. If anyone was in "couch" condition at that point, it was me! The first Sunday morning we all met up, I could barely huff and puff through a half mile walk. I also knew that I had a trip to England coming up in the fall of that year, and that if I didn’t do something serious, I’d be in no shape to enjoy it – I’d never be able to keep up! Less than six months later, I completed two half marathons within two weeks and became an official Half Fanatic (it's real, look it up!) And I was just fine in England! I've continued to walk, at some times with more focus than at other times, and later this month I'll complete my third half marathon. I've made many new friends and renewed some wonderful longtime friendships through walking, and I plan to keep putting one foot in front of the other at a pretty fast clip until I'm done.

The third step was an exponential leap in reconnection. In the summer of 2011, I was invited to a reunion of the drama group from my high school. My first thought was, “Where do I sign?” – this would be the first chance I’d had to see most of these people since I graduated from high school! My excitement and anticipation weren’t misplaced – it was an amazing gathering of wonderful long-ago friends and acquaintances, and I helped close down the party that evening. After I got home, I told another friend “If I died right now, I’d be the happiest woman on earth.” Those connections have been strengthened and even expanded over the last two years in ways I couldn’t have predicted.

There is more I could write about, but nothing I might add would change the fact that the most cherished part of all of the events of the last five years, the part that takes my breath away Every. Single. Day, is you, my amazing friends and family. My life is so much richer and fuller, thanks to all of you. I've made wonderful new connections and some astonishing - even breathtaking! - reconnections with many of you in the past couple of years, people whose paths I never dreamed I'd cross again, who weave together many disparate threads of my life.

I write this not to prove anything about myself, but to express my gratitude, and to honor and acknowledge all of us who have experienced challenges and adversity and triumphed over them, thanks to the support of those who care about us. Which is pretty much all of us, right? We're a tough bunch, my friends. Many of you have faced challenges that would bring anyone to their knees. You have all inspired and supported me so much more than you may know, whether through a kind word, an invitation to lunch, a perfectly-timed phone call, or by sharing my enthusiasm for my latest adventure here on FB and in real time, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I hope I can offer you even a fraction of the love and support you've all shown me.

Did all of this come about just because I broke my brain? Well, we'll never have a control group to help us do a valid study to answer that question, but I'll stand by my story that it did. If I hadn't experienced that calendar-clearing, perspective-altering event, I don't know that I would taste the sweetness of life, and of connection to all of you, as keenly as I do now.

And THAT is why I refer to myself as the Luckiest Woman On The Planet (LWOTP). I’m so grateful for this amazing life, and incredibly grateful to have all of you in it.