For most of us with TBI, distractions are so derailing in terms of our efficiency and ability to execute daily to-dos that keep us “in the game” with our people and our lives. For me, spontenaity and last-minute changes and plans that go haywire often throw me into a tailspin and it’s hard to recover.
While distractions can derail and topple and zig-zag us off our carefully-planned game, they can also be a blessed gift of relief from all the effort it takes to function in our TBI worlds.
Right now, most of us are distracted by Christmas doings and, for most of us in the United States, we are distracted by the horrific weather that is a challenge at so many turns.
But I am harkened by the distractions.
What???!!!!
Most of us, after we are hurt, long for a normal we no longer have access to. We lament those days before, often with grief and anger that stubbornly keeps.
Soooo…when I find that I am side-tracked by last-minute Christmas things and when I realize that we are all trying to bundle up against minus-20 wind chills with 50mph gusts, I smile a little beneath my 17 scarves.
I remind myself that these are the delicious distractions of the normal and I am grateful. It is a reminder that we will always be way more than this injury. Way better in so many ways!
I wish you all a Merry Everything. Whatever holidays, traditions, and moments you seek and treasure, may they be bountiful and fill your hearts.
May there be delicious distractions that remind you of how wonderfully normal we are, whatever that means. Laughing here.
Please keep safe and warm and healthy. Please enjoy more moments of smiles and love and joy than you can count.
Merry Christmas! Love you.
Kara Swanson's Brain Injury Blog 