I love the above line "unexamined life worth not living", since my stroke I have done lot of that & my life has become richer due to it. I follow Jean riva mentor I met right here on this site & thanks to her wisdom & blogs it provided me courage  & strength to still give good fight & boy I am so glad I persisted. Recently in Jean's blog she quoted bernard shaw & it is spot on “This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, the being a force of nature, instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch, which I've got held up for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”  George Bernard Shaw. Its such a great quote & I would like to live life like that. 

Since my stroke I have started realizing I am responsible for my happiness, I can not blame my parents, my family or anybody else for my misfortune or unhappiness, I am responsible for my own happiness. I got this one shot at the life & I better start living fully, and take responsibility for my life. Lately I have started doing that, started watching movies alone cause it brings me joy, recently Jean had mentioned paint by numbers in her blog & I thought to myself why not order 1 kit & try it, It was $10 kit worth every penny, I have been painting for a month now though I only get time on weekend to paint since rest of the days I am busy with my other work. I will post picture here when its fully done, I think I should be done by this weekend, it has brought immense joy in painting,

Recently again through Jean's blogs I heard about of Anne of green gables book & started reading it & thoroughly enjoyed  it & decided for our 32 wedding anniversary we will drive to novascotia & it was our best 1 week driving vacation to novascotia. after talking with Mark canadian stroke survivor who told me about things to see in novascotia like peggy's cove, cabot trail &dottie mentioned graham bell museum & off two of us went on our 32nd honeymoon vacation & it was one of the best. we both travel well together I had access to radio so was playing all my music & good books on tape & ted talks so trip was so much fun & relaxing. while on cabot trail met young indian kids  & they told us about skyline trail so we went for that hike too, it was easy 4 mile hike though lately I get very dizzy & feel scared on the height, so on peggy;s cove & in skyline trail I did not go till end rather waited for hubby on safe place holding it tight to bench or railing lol

Another funny thing & the reason I wanted to visit Anne of green gables museum in canada, since I can so relate with Anne, the way she will dramatize everything. I feel I do the same way when I was little & even now sometimes, so I can relate with her

again I just feel so grateful I survived the stroke & I gained so much wisdom from this low phase of my life that, I am grateful for all the abudence in our life.

Asha