Life Lessons

A few things I learned about how to

handle life from my severe brain injury:

**this applies to vegan schtuff too**

1) Attitude: If you don't think you can, you can't. Simple as that.
**Please see Not With That Attitude, for more details.

2)Patience: With others that have brain injuries and with those that don't 'get' veganism. Nope, scratch that. Have patience with everybody.
Remember Alyx, it was not that long ago, that you thought going vegan was extreme.
When I hear the word 'patience' in conversation, I almost immediately begin singing(in my head-sometimes) this Patience song from my childhood. It was on an old LP my parents had called Music Machine-The Fruit of the Spirit. I could only remember bits of it, it's been decades since I've heard it. I've always remembered,
"Have patience, have patience, don't be in such a hurry. When you get impatient, you always start to worry. Remember, remember that God is patient too, so . . .blah-dy blah blah blah, blah-dy blah blah blooh." That's all I could ever remember. <frustrated face>
But alas! The good old Interweb found the lyrics! (Google actually)
"And think of all the times when others have to wait for you."

3)Forgiveness: Forgive yourself for your mistakes, both past and present ones.
The beautiful thing about life is you can keep adjusting. I love that once we learn, we can always make a change. You're allowed to change your mind as information becomes available.
I can think of oodles of examples of past mistakes(the bee incident, to name one example), but I've been educated, so if I make the mistake again, I can reflect on that mistake. What was the problem? How can it be avoided in the future? Reflect, adjust and forgive.

4)Be Brave: It is unfamiliar, and therefore scary, but try. We often find that it wasn't terrifying, and that it was actually great. 
Trying new ingredients, or navigating social circles is different. But I've found that the ingredients are amazing, and new social situations can be very rewarding and genuine and beautiful!
I often tell myself to, "Be brave! Suck it up! Rise above!" when I'm nervous. It usually helps.
Sometimes you just need straight talk.

**My sinus cold is almost better! Been eating a lot of Garlic & Greens Soup**