A Place to Share

Your Will
The world is what you imagine it to be.
It excites you, it calms you.
You are what you wish and how you see yourself as.
Noone can dictate who you are,
unless you allow them to.
Be strong of mind.
Be strong of heart.
For they are what lead you through life.
Your life is what you want it to be
You are who you want to be.
Unhappiness is letting other dictate this and
not being strong enough in mind or heart to change it.
You are peace.
You are love.
You are strength.
Your life is your will.

Wendy Bloom

Live
Live your life as though there is no tomorow.
Do not be sorry for past wrongs,
be sorry for present ones.
Love the life you live today,
you are not going to live it again.

Love come once, come twice, come thrice.
Your life is an open opportunity.
Live for the moment.
Are you going to live another?

Sing, dance, love
celebrate the life you have.
It is a gift,
but it does not last forever.

Squander it if you will,
but you will be sorry in the end.
You will scream in rage
at all the lost opportunities.
Just live.

Wendy Bloom

We Are People Too
Traumatic brain injuries are a problem not a handicap. They are acquired by an external force and can be either opened or closed. A brain injury impairs one or more of the following areas: the senses, emotions, memory, thinking, language, muscle movement, etc. A brain injury can be either temporary or permanent. Why am I telling you all of this? I am telling you because I want you to know and possibly understand what some of us are going through that have a traumatic brain injury. We are people and want to be treated as such. We are not just things that are damaged or not whole. We have lives too.

As people we want to be treated as equals. We do not expect to be treated differently because of our injury. How would you like it if one day you were hit on the head really hard by a car or a baseball bat, or even fell down some stairs, and all of a sudden you were treated differently? Yes your life has suddenly changed but do you really want to be constantly reminded of it by the way people treat you? I do not think so. When either you or someone you know experiences a brain injury they need support for what they are going through.

Family, friends, therapists, counselors, doctors and even you pets are forms of support. They help you through what you are going through whether it be in a professional manner or not. Your relationship with your spouse, fiancé or boyfriend\girlfriend in my mind is especially important. In my experience loving contact, whether it be physically or intellectually is a must have. Your family's love is unconditional but when it comes to your significant other that is entirely a different matter. You can either lose something with them or gain something. More often than not lose something because they are not used to the change you have gone through. Everyone, whether they have gone through a traumatic experience or not needs patience, love, caring, understanding and physical and/or intellectual contact. Understanding is especially important since anyone and everyone can be so, or at least try to be. When it comes to the work force this is especially important.

Not everyone has to know you have to have a brain injury, but when it comes to employers they should be respectfully told. If you go to work and you start forgetting things or fumbling around you are going to be blamed with not compassion what so ever if your manager has no clue as to what is going on. If your manager and/or supervisor are informed of the situation they can better train you or retrain you. Believe me, you are going to need it. As for you managers training a brain injured person here are some helpful hints.

One of a traumatic brain injured problems is memory retention. If you go back to kindergarten or grade one you will remember how this can be solved. When you were growing up you watched, listened, mimicked and then mimicked again. Basically this has to be done all over again. If it is done successfully information will be retained. It is not all that hard to do, you just need to get into a routine of doing things. We are all in kindergarten again, " All we ever needed to know we learned in kindergarten."

So just remember that. We are all people and do not want to be treated any differently. Just respect our situation. Yes we get frustrated and yes at times we need more help than you, but keep in mind one day you may be in our shoes. We just want understanding and a feeling of equality. Who does not? Just remember that and thank you to those of you who already do.

Wendy Bloom

Rain
Rain washes away your hurts, your sorrows.
It's a natural cleanser.
Dance in the rain.
It's the bringer of life,
new and old.
It's nature's gift to us.
Don't waste it.
Renew yourself.

Wendy Bloom

Fragments
Thoughts are fragments
Words are fragments
People are fragments
Fragments are the bits and pieces
that make up this thing called life.
We are the little things in life
that make up life.
So if you feel small in the world just remember,
yes you are a fragment
but all fragments make up life
and without you the world and even universe
would be missing something.

Wendy Bloom