Looking Ahead

There is no doubt in my mind, my world changed for me when I had the stroke.  I guess I take solace in the fact it was brought on by the cutting of an artery to get to a mass that had been found in my brain.
It seems weird to be thankful for something in those circumstances, but I often say if a person is to have a mass in the brain, that is the place to have it.  I say that because people often die from masses in the brain.  Mine was at the back and could be gotten to.
Poor Merril had been told I would never walk again, and I would be dead in six months.  I have a walker and wheelchair that fortunately sit idle.  Having said that, I do fight fears I never knew existed.  Things are a battle that were easy peasy and I never thought about.
One thing I know it has shown me though is how I take so much for granted that really is a gift.  In an instant, life changed and my world was turned upside down.
One thing I am glad of, is growing up knowing someone has my back, believing in the best in myself and promoting the best in others.  I am thankful that it is not a “woe is me” thing but a “get on with it” thing.  It would be so easy to bemoan what I have lost, and to miss what I still have.
For a start it could have been way worse than it is.  I often liken it to a guitar that now has four strings rather than six.  The thing to me is a beautiful melody can be produced on four strings.
I appreciate those with disabilities (or should I say other abilities) are being catered for right now.  I do think the days where it is are coming to an end.
Still my outlook is not built on what is promoted as acceptable in some quarters, but what is acceptable in what many regard as unacceptable.
To me hope is not solely the domain of the apparently altogether, but also the domain of the  down and out – the overlooked.  No matter how long suffering in a lifetime is, a lifetime is but a blip in time and eternity.  My anchor lies there, and not in what will not last.