This one made me think....

[moparedtn]

All true.

We are also the result of fate, sometimes.

7/16/08 I was in an accident that killed me. Literally, coded six times - in the ditch, on the life-flight helicopter, and on the table. Surgeon came right out and told me a year after "man, we all (in the E.R.) thought you were going to leave in a bag."

I went to work that day...and didn't come home for nearly six months.

Part of my internal injuries included 2 closed-head brain traumae - swelling, bleeding and bruising to my stem, and to my frontal lobe. Coordination....and emotion/personality.

We all change. We all make choices. Those choices bring about gradual change in our lives and personalities. These injuries....were a global shift in who I am, how I thought, how I felt, how I behaved...and they were instantaneous. I came to in the hospital 2 weeks after the accident, and my first thoughts were "where am I" and "who the hell is inside my head". It was years of therapy coming to terms with the fact that a) I was never going to get "myself" back again, and b) that was O.K., and I just had to make the best of who I'd become in the blink of an eye.

I am nowhere I ever thought I would be in life.

I am no longer married. I was when I had the accident...but apparently it was too much for her. I had to keep forging ahead; she chose not to. I was pissed at the time. Extremely angry. I still probably wouldn't piss on her head if her hair was on fire...but the anger is gone. I see her all the time anyway - she's currently married to one of my drummers (I work with live bands, when the world is open for business). Whatever. Just another landmark, on the highway of life.

My life has gone down a completely unexpected path. I cherish every memory I have - good AND bad - because I know those memories can be wiped out in the blink of an eye. My life has been good to me - this new path is not a 'bad' one, it's just not anything I ever expected myself to be doing, or a place I ever expected to be in.

I am extremely lucky, on many fronts...not the least of which, simply still being alive.

Cherish everything, good AND bad. It can ALL be taken away from you in an instant.

Trust me.

I've been there.

I been there three times now. I can relate...although I just good old fashioned bleed
out and croak, results of cancers and ulcers and all that ****.

Traumatic head injury is a whole 'nother critter, though.
My best friend when we were 19 was thrown from a convertible MG one night and
went down a similar path as you. Kids, out on a Friday night doing stupid kid things
and went airborne on a country road, that's all....
I wasn't there that night, called away for something else. Otherwise, I would have
been.
He spent months in a coma. His parents, the best sort of people, had their lives
wrecked....and I spent all my free time each day in the hospital room with him,
giving them a break to go eat or some such.
I talked to him all the time, brought in things to try to get him to wake up like
his musical instruments (he was an amazingly gifted musician), just anything -
knowing he probably wasn't hearing me.
Didn't matter. Had to try.

When he did finally start to come out of it months later, it was a surprise to the
staff. It took several days for him to get back enough to start to function and it
was excruciating to witness, but it had to be done.
We had witnessed a miracle!

Unfortunately, he also was not who he was before the wreck - at all.
A formerly very happy, intelligent gifted young man was gone, replaced with one
who had a lot of anger issues and was disrespectful to about anyone.
I took it and stayed supportive long as I could, speaking up only when he'd
give his parents hell - I was uniquely in the position to interject there, as I'd
known the family a long time and they trusted me.

After a while, it was his parents that basically ordered me to stop coming - not
because of anything to do with what was going on with Rick, but because they'd
seen how it had destroyed my own well-being over time and, as surrogate parents
of a sort, they knew it was in my own best interests to go.
It absolutely broke my heart....but they were right.
But you know the only part of the whole thing that actually pissed me off?
His other "friends" - the ones in the car with him that night, including the driver -
never came to see him once in the hospital.
Not one damn time...
Yeah, that sort of thing early in life will open your damn eyes in a hurry.
I still pray for that family to this day and I've tried to find him for years since, to
no avail.

God love ya man, you've been down a hell of a rough road and survived it!
Glad you're still here with us, my friend.

 

[moparedtn]

I see it as enjoying the journey and not just the destination.

It's both.

 

[Jc cooper]

We are all the sum of our choices.

Good or bad. All of our choices have made us what we are.

Do I regret any of my choices ? No. No I don't.
I can't change my past but I help my children with their future. My parents were good solid people but didn't do much to prepare my brother and I for the future. They would guide us through the moment at hand.
Later in life my father did mold our future and my children's future. He left my brother and I a large piece of property instead of selling it. We plan to leave it to our children.

I have had a few brushes with death. I have looked at it straight in the eye. Your own demise will change a person's outlook on things.
My health isn't the greatest for a man my age. I am very thankful for every single day.

I have accepted the fact that I'll never do a lot of things that I want to do. My time is short.

My advise is to do whatever it is that you want to do NOW.

Eat the cake. Dance. Travel much. Tell everyone that you love them. Help someone in need.

Hey Wade , glad to have you on my Team and I know the Coach is glad to have you as well, fear not , while we were yet Sinners Christ died for us!

 

[moparedtn]

Hey Wade , glad to have you on my Team and I know the Coach is glad to have you as well, fear not , while we were yet Sinners Christ died for us!

 

[Runner 68]

At 35, I was still building houses and loving it. I just bought the Charger, I was in the early days with Mary, my future wife...

View attachment 1094599

Mary is Hot.

 

[Sahara]

Mary is Hot.

I would have thought her seeing eye dog would have told her about Kern, though.

 

[moparedtn]

I would have thought her seeing eye dog would have told her about Kern, though.

 

[YY1]

My best childhood friend had a distinctly different outcome from a clinically dead experience.

I've known him since we were both 2 years old, the next door neighbor to my grandmother, in an increasingly rough neighborhood.

He was the kind of person who always had a friend's back and didn't take **** from anyone.

When we were 19, and I was getting ready to move to FL, someone that he had rubbed the wrong way, ran him down with a pickup truck in an alley.

I got to see him twice in the hospital before I left. The first time he was in a coma.

The second time he was pronounced "healed", but his personality was completely changed.

There was no hint of hostility, negativity, or even his famous machismo.

None.

Completely gone.

I've only been back to that neighborhood (and state) twice since my uncle died.

My friend was still there but has no drive to do anything and no desire to do anything at all confrontational.

He still can talk about the past and remembers everything we did, but often glosses over anything "aggressive".

 

[Jc cooper]

View attachment 1094949

Thank you !

 

[moparedtn]

Thank you !

 

[dart4forte]

At 35, I was still building houses and loving it. I just bought the Charger, I was in the early days with Mary, my future wife...

View attachment 1094599

looks like Mary is thinking, “Aw, got me a sugar daddy”.

 

[dart4forte]

They say that people in their last days and hours in life go back in time

 

[beanhead]

I see it as enjoying the journey and not just the destination.

True.
Kinda like building a car....you might spend years chasing parts, learning new skills, meeting new people....then one day it's done. Yeah you finally get to drive and enjoy, but for me getting there is almost more rewarding.

 

[Hey-O]

There are many things I think about from back in the day, as far as changing anything, a few, but, life has no reverse. Even with all my ups and downs, life has been good to me. I've been told hundreds of times that things happen for a reason, all part of the plan, OK. I love my family and I'm very protective of them. Many people have come and gone through out my life and going back to see them I now see why they went left and I went right. We just had different goals and there are many roads to get there, one isn't necessarily better than the other. I do think of my first car, first girl friend, first beer, sunny warm days and all the things that help shape us into the final person we end up being. Mistakes, I've made a few, but like a horse with blinders, it's to keep you from looking back and focus on pulling forward. Most of us have more days behind us than we do ahead of us, , there are no do overs and time waits for no one. Remember, there was only one perfect person in this world and they nailed him to a cross, so Live life to the fullest, right or wrong..........

 

[Sahara]

Remember, there was only one perfect person in this world and they nailed him to a cross, so Live life to the fullest, right or wrong..........

It’s funny that you say that, as I use that quote all the time when people criticize me, only I add a bit to it.

“There was only one perfect person, and they nailed him to a cross and named a religion after him so where’s the incentive to be perfect?”

 

[Scott Engelhardt]

Wife and I finally started watching Yellowstone. The episode when the girl rides the buffalo. I thought dam that looked fun. Then I remembered I am 58 not 28. I never rode a rodeo bull but one time I dropped from the hey shoot on to a bulls back, I have no idea how long I rode it before I was in the cow ****. I got back up to the hey loft and my brothers buddy said looks fun. If you’re going to ride a bull make sure you go first!!! I was not happy. Broke his leg and his nose.
Got to love the dumb **** we did as kids

 

[gkent]

but for me getting there is almost more rewarding

It seems that no matter what I've done in life, the journey was ALWAYS more rewarding than the destination. I have built many things, the labour always more rewarding than the end product. I've sold many things - the process more rewarding than the financial outcome. I've collected many things, the hunt always more rewarding than the possession. In a sense I can see why social workers, volunteers, aid workers and the like do what they do. They say money can't buy you happiness and its very true. We now have a granddaughter and she 's about an hour away. Being the first and possibly the only grandchild for both families, we get photos and videos almost daily. No matter what I do or accomplish during may day, nothing makes me happier than seeing photos or a video of her before I go to bed.