Back to our ‘Regular’ scheduled…

Happy June!  And welcome (back) to Sprouts. 

You may be aware that while I was in Maine visiting my family in April, I had a frightening medical experience. A subarachnoid aneurysm burst, I seized, and was rushed to the small town hospital nearby. Then I was life-flighted to a Portland hospital where I had brain surgery and stayed in the ICU for about three weeks. 

Today I’m writing from my home in South Carolina. I have completed the assembly of my local medical team and had a follow up CT to make sure the brain still looks good. My neurology team tells me that 30% of the folks that go through what I have gone through are no longer here, 30% are disabled for the rest of their lives – often requiring full time assisted living, and then there is the 30% like me – who six weeks later wake up almost like it is a normal day and go to a doctor’s appointment. I am still trying to figure out what to do with this miracle. 

If you passed me on the street today, you would never know that six weeks ago was a matter of life and death. The first thing I might tell you about is that I started piano lessons on Tuesday (something I put into motion before I went to Maine). And I would be quick to tell you that the Coaching Certification exam that had to be cancelled for May 2 has been rescheduled for June 20, at noon.

If you want to follow along with our family’s journey of healing and ‘back to normal’, I invite you to check out our Caring Bridge journal… both Marc and I write there. My desire is that after this newsletter, I won’t write much about my healing process here. One of my neurology team told me that ‘if it feels like you’ve gone eight rounds with Mike Tyson that’s about what your brain has gone through’ – so I’m working hard to stay gentle and patient with my brain and my body. 

During May, I saw friends posting their #NoMowMay pictures. Pausing mowing and making space for pollinators led to discovering new flowers and plants. I love this idea! 

Sometimes we get so caught up in ‘simplifying’ and ‘focusing’ that we weed too viciously. Sometimes it’s okay – beneficial even – to just let things be. Letting some things just ‘bee’ (see what I did there) might be a path forward to growing something wonderful. 

Words have always been a priority to me, so my ‘word time’ will be a priority in the healing months – and that includes writing here and figuring out what is actually growing through this practice. While my instinct wants me to have have a specific and detailed plan for Sprouts Newsletter, for now I will ‘NoMowMay’ my words. Thanks for hanging out while we see what will grow. 

What in your life can you give some #nomowmay space? What do you hope will grow?