HostAsha

Pam : good to see your positive blog, happy new year to you. don't worry about tests you can not control about. worry is down payment on debt you might never even owe. so just go with flow & stay in present moment & count all the blessings of life. when you live in act of gratitude that's what you attract more. Asha

kelli: you have great fighting spirit, and I am glad you are finding good solutions for your eye & its covered by medicare. will pray for happy, healthy & prosperous new year for you. Asha

merry chistmas & happy new year, thanks for update congratulations on your mother in law getting getting green card, my mom became citizen of this country after greencard holder for 20+ plus years. enjoy your road trip with your family. hope to hear all fun road trip stories soon. Asha

Merry Chirstmas to you & MIke & Happy New year. Asha

recently hubby & I traveled to India to visit our family members back home, this year we had planned pilgrimage trip to temples in Nepal & India with hubby's family. My brother in law had done all arrangements & off we all went. there were in total 10 of us with different ability & disability, so it was entertainment in itself to get us off the bus or to location. three out of 10 people had hearing issues & two of us had walking issues. luckily every one liked every one, so there were no issues there. we had my two sister in laws taking care of hubby's older sister who had recently broken both of her wrists & used cane for walking, & hubby was my caretaker who will not let go of my hand or me. though in uneven terrain when I decided not to use his help, I did stumble & went down & hit my head on iron pole. luckily it was just superficial cut & was treated by doctor near by who got big chuckle when I asked him will I survive this fall? of-course that made hubby also relaxed that his Asha is back who is always laughing or singing badly in his ears during our trip. I just realized good quality about me, that I am one happy person & can find joy in all circumstances of life, which makes people around me also very happy.no wonder I get along well with every body I come in contact with. I also attended my niece's wedding & it was awesome. In this trip we took excursion to fly over mount Everest & it was breath taking trip. makes one wonder why any one would climb such a tall mountain or do this arduous journey. Overall I feel so grateful & joyful to be able to spend time with my lovely family. I feel grateful that my disability isn't so bad that hubby & I get deprived of this joyful vacations. So I am one happy person right now even though I have back ache, neck-ache from 16 hours flight. though happy to be home again & get my home bed & home bathroom. Asha

Lenny : I have same wishes for you, you deserve all the joy you spread around the world. Asha

Sue : I am so glad you have these great set of friends to be able to spend time with & dance around. I can imagine joy of your friend. Alice is going to remember you so well & through u she will know her grandpa. can't belive your first grandchild will be 18 now. time flies take good care of yourself Asha

Pam : we missed you around here, I know life is tough sometimes but I am firm believer of focusing on what is still great in my life & that has helped me deal with all of my earlier issues in life. try to stay in present without worrying about future. serenity prayers have done wonders for me. you will be in my prayers for painless tests & good results. Asha

hey Jay : how can I forget strokenetwork & amazing friends like you I made due to stroke Thanks for being here Asha

I know we should do this every day, but I have decided to do at least on thanksgiving day things I am grateful for 1. I am grateful to be still alive & with my loving family who are always by my side on my good, bad & worst days, that makes my life journey so much joyous & meaningful. 2. I am grateful that I can still walk, talk & enjoy life to fullest. 3. I am grateful that my sense of humor is still intact so that I am able to laugh through my difficulties & still able to have loads of fun. 4. I am grateful for family & friends who chose to stay or come in our life & some who decided to walk away, taught me some great lessons in life. 5. I am grateful for all experiences in my life, they have made my life so much richer & meaningful due to it. 6. grateful for my stroke too, it taught me some beautiful lessons in life which otherwise I would have missed it 7. grateful for all of our abundance in life, which I had never even imagined in my life. God has been very kind to us & I am thankful for all of it. 8. I am grateful for my loving husband & our loving & mature son without them this life would have been meaningless, joyless & boring. 9 grateful for my mom, brother, sisters,my in laws all of them make my life so much colorful & joyous. 10. I am grateful for this second chance. Asha

Susan : is there any friend who can give you ride to your son's home for thanksgiving party. Maybe you can go alone & bring home left over for your husband from party since he has to work on that day. at least you get to enjoy family get together. Asha

Nancy : This is so ridiculous. I worry for residents who don't have any visitors or family members looking out for them. I know when my mom was in nursing home for her therapy after her knee surgery, there is no one to come out & clean her room or bathroom. Mom used to tell us & we end up doing the job , since nursing home staff is always busy doing something else. Anyway keep being pain in behind for them so that they do their job. Asha

recently someone sent message on what's app about race & how some people get ahead in life aka race thanks to other conditions in their life which does not mean they were smarter than others or anything. Sometime you do feel cocky & feel oh its all you & not realize how you were blessed to have set of parents who made right choices in life for you & raised you well which allowed you to get so many opportunities along the way, so can't puff your chest & think oh its all me & not realizing how you were placed ahead in life's race by your loving parents who did right thing. I remember growing up & even in my adulthood I blamed my mom for being too strict & always comparing me with other siblings or neighborhood friends to inspire me to work hard & do more yes those techniques did create other side effects for which I blamed my mom. but now that I m mother & mature enough to understand all those tricks & able to forgive my mom in my head & heart. I am actually so thankful for having set of parents we had, mom did most of the heavy lifting in raising us & dad stayed in background providing for us with best of his ability. I have been talking with all my cousins recently, & that thought has been running my head, I can see with our set of parents we did get head start in our life & all us siblings did pretty well in our life. yes all of us have gone through our set of troubles in life but by helping each other out & being there for each other we have done good in life.

Hey Lenny : so good to see you back, happy halloween to you too, life is all about keep on trying new things & never giving it up. always step out of your comfort zone that's where you grow. I am still around lot of positive changes in our life too, recently moved to new home, our son is in third year of college still making us happy & proud. life has its own way of giving some good days, some not, but unless you see night one will never appreciate day light. So enjoy life. hugs, Asha

welcome back Cindy : have found blogging to be most helpful when you are feeling down or for that matter feeling positive or thinking life's deep questions. Asha

After going through my stroke trauma, I have gotten great post traumetic growth. I have realized nothing in life is guaranteed or certain & we don't have control over everything even though we like to believe otherwise. Though but we do have control over two things & that's where whole crust of how life lived. first control we have in life is how well we prepared for circumstances of life & second how you respond to any event in your life good or bad. Rest is all illusion.

I so love your writing style strokewife, you have knack of taking readers to phase you are writing about. Fortunately for me my stroke has become part of our story & we both have grown & learn lot about each other through going through this stroke valley together. I feel our happy time did not teach as much as ourlean period taught us. I realized together with his support I can climb all mountains together. Asha

my 75 year old mom finally became US citizen after living in this country for more than 15 years. We all have become US citizens long time back, mom did not since she can understand English but can't speak. So was kept on procrastinating, finally we were able to convince her that she can give exam with interpreter and give it a try. so finally she agreed & gave exam, my mom is very smart & hardworking woman all her life, gave exam & passed with flying colors. all three of us siblings went with mom for her interview & oath ceremony. I vaguely remember mine. I felt this ceremony was more poignant & beautiful, agent talked about how US as melting pot & each immigrant who decided to come in this foreign country after leaving all that they knew in their home country behind & made US as their home. As an immigrant they brought their culture, food & some of that rubbed on people living here before them & some of the American's culture rubbed on these immigrants, so its one big melting pot, there was president Trump's welcoming speech & then pledge of allegiance & our national anthem. This was most beautiful ceremony & I felt so happy & proud to be in this new motherland which has given us all love & allowed us to make home away from home. I had to thank INS officer for wonderful service they did of-course it choked me up, though it made her very happy too.

hi Alan : welcome to wonderful & therapeutic world of blogging. It will be interesting to get to know you better through your blogs. could you please start from the beginning & tell little bit about yourself. I am official blog junkie. I stroked at age 34 which left me paralyzed on my left side & retired me from the job I loved. I never thought I would find joy in living again.but thanks to great support of friends & family & this site. I found my joy back. & today after 13+ years on this post stroke journey I can view my stroke just s speed bump in our life which made me slow down & enjoy scenery along the way. oh in the beginning lot of us bloggers did 100 things about me blog.I found blogging & hatting with other survivor very therapeutic for my soul. we do have chats everyday in the afternoon 3-4 EST & M,W,F in the evening 8-9 EST. oh I just saw you updated us with your whole story. welcome to best online stroke support group. I am sorry you had need to find & join us, but out of traumatic event there is growth which comes too, & that makes life very meaningful. Asha

I guess I should never say life is usual, nothing exciting or bad. I guess when you got active child in college things do happen, but of-course being older he thinks he has to handle everything himself & making us obsolete. yes as a parent you want your kids to be self reliant & making their own decisions. but I feel scared of letting him go. recently at college while playing basketball he dislocated his dominant hand's thumb it turns out to be ligament tear, right now he is in cast & doctor will decide in a week whether he needs surgery to fix it or not. problem is he is handling all by himself going to ER & then to orthopedic surgeon, & letting us know what did doctor suggests & so on. of-course as a parent I feel very scare of him handling all this alone, but got no choice then just to watch from sidelines how his life is going to turn out. Though going to ER does make him empathetic person & let him see what he needs to do to become better doctor. I was worried how he is going to handle all his tests & so on in college, but he is handling it pretty nicely, at-least in his latest exam they allowed him to take it on computer & allowed him extra 30 minutes which helped him take his tests nicely, so that part I m relieved. oh recently he gave medical entrance exam & scored very high in it. though he was upset saying he could have done better, so would like to give one more time. again lot of things I don't understand since he is handling by himself so I just pray for him & us lol. On my super soul sunday I do marvel at my life with eyes of gratitude about how my life turned out to be even with so much loss in our life. First & foremost I m so grateful to be married to such a responsible guy, who makes sure to take his responsibility very seriously & never utters word of frustration even when sometimes things don't go as planned. slowly & steadily he keeps doing right things & things chiseled out to be better than before. he never gave up on me or our relationship which I feel has made me better person & our relationship much stronger & lovelier than before. anyway other than that life is still great lot to be thankful for, fall is here already love the crisp cold air in the morning when I am about to go out for my walk

Sue : I am so happy you will be able to resume driving back now & able to go back to resume some of activities you were doing before with more sense of purpose & will be able to connect with people on deeper level. I m glad you got your daughter & family there to spend actual time with you. being online friend I sometime feel inadequate to connect with people I care about online. Asha

looks good matches with your shirt & color of your skin Asha

Ron : this is such a great information thanks for sharing. maybe you should also post it in disability aids forums, this should help lot of people who are struggling with same issues with their survivors. Asha

I haven't blogged for a while so just have need to blog, nothing exciting or miserable to report, life goes on, though I do feel like time is flying by, & week & weekend just flies by. must be good thing. oh I finally got my first evaluation PT after getting my brace. It was interesting turn out to be young Indian therapist though from name & looks I could not decipher that information. I hope to improve my gait & balance with this therapy which I am getting after 13 years on this post stroke journey, so it will be lesson learning to get rid of bad habits I have picked up over the years. Other than that life goes on, do get AHA moments every Sunday while watching super soul Sunday, which makes me wonder was this books & teachers weren't available in my pre-stroke life, then how come I never got attracted to them earlier, why did I have to go through such a bad experience of life to learn these beautiful things about life which does make my life today richer & better. I had read somewhere, in life when drastic change happens be sure to look out for something beautiful to emerge out of it. while having major discussion about it with hubby, he does not believe in that sentiments, he says dead man can't defend that theory. in forest fire lot of young, vibrant & green also burns out, so believing something good will come out of this tragedy is hard pill to swallow. But I believe it, since I have seen in my own life, my life today is more fulfilling in all areas of my life than before, and I feel lucky & grateful to be still here with my lovely family.

Sue : I am so glad you are home & recovering well & surrounded by so much friends & family's loving support. all we your virtual friends can do is pray for you, & thats what I am doing right now for your speedy recovery. Asha