A List for Life

My typical days starts with writing a list of what I need to do for the rest of the day. Like most things everything takes longer than planned. Have you ever jotted down a few chores which you thought would maybe require an hour of your day? The rest of the day you could relax.

There's always a need to relax more and finding a few moments can really benefit. The news is filled with stories of people collapsing. Even the comedian Tracy Morgan collapsed recently. Everyone around the world was shocked. Such sudden health problems aren't planned. They just happen.

One day you're fine. You get a Starbucks coffee and then at the door of your car you drop to the ground. Hours later you wake in a hospital. Your body feels odd. Different. The medical staff tell you had an ischemic stroke. What? A stroke? Me?

You didn't plan that. Everything shuts down for the moment. Now you will definitely rest and for the moment that long "Things to Do" list will wait. Replying to text messages, checking in on Facebook, or uploading to youtube will be far down at the bottom of that list. Thank goodness for cloud computing to keep track of all your vital, precious cyber life.

Now, with your family and friends nearby, you must deal with real life. It's time to rebuild and perhaps even relearn a few basic things like writing and speaking. How will you survive on what you have saved? Will you even get enough social security to help?
Your perspective of life has changed completely.

I know several people who have had a stroke and saw how each incident changed the lives of once active, thriving adults into fragile beings. Do they care about the progress of social pages, texts, and emails? Nope. As one friend says, who has had two strokes, when I ask how he's doing, "I'm alive." So now at the top of my list I write, "Take care of yourself." Then I pace myself the rest of the day.