Our Dock is getting more accessible

Our new, easy to use, mainland dock space.

Today my son and my husband repaired our "new dock". We have been trying for years to get a decent spot to leave our boat on the mainland shore. I can't believe we finally have a spot! There is a new owner at the closest campground and he told us last week we could rent the space if we fixed up a broken dock ourselves. You see the "before repairs" picture above.

We finally have dock space for our boat!

We have been launching our boat every time we go out and hauling it home with us every time. It takes extra time both coming and going from the cottage, and it is really exhausting and sometimes pretty scary to me when I am getting in or out. The dock space we have been using is a very high dock and it has been very hard to do since I have had mobility problems.

I find our cottage dock easier to use, but I still could not possible get in or out of the boat without someone to help pull me and steady me. I must admit it is going a lot easier this year than it was last year, and it is getting a little easier with every trip this year. I guess practice makes perfect.

The long and curving dock at our cottage with our boat, "Big Blue".

Change Can be Hard

Water Lily in the Rain Drops
a symbol for new beginnings and enlightenment

Therapy homework was about reflecting on where I was before, where I am now, and what are my hopes and goals for the future. It is a pretty tall order to figure it all out. The fact is that I am not the same person, physically, mentally or emotionally that I was before.
Who knows, maybe in some ways I am even better.

One thing I know is that I still have a lot of work to do.

Photography by Bob Cooper copyright July 2009 . All rights reserved.

Wildflower

A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows. ~Doug Larson

We Went Canoeing

It has been a very long time since I was out in a canoe.

Bob and son Bobby, with supervision from me and little O., moved around a bunch of large rocks at the waters edge to the front of the cottage lot. They made a big flat rock area useful as a canoe launch and it was stable enough to let me climb in. There still needed to be someone holding on, (Thanks Bobby), and I found that bending over to grab the sides of the canoe when I was climbing in was very hard and made me dizzy. One big step in, kind of a hard plop down on the seat and we were on our way.

It felt just so natural to be paddling . Nothing to it. I suspect Bob, over there in the back , was doing more than his fair share of paddling, but I did my best. Things were so extraordinarily beautiful and lush looking at the back side of the island that I regretted leaving my camera where it was safe and dry. At one point we got hung up on some rocks and I needed to switch paddling sides, and help push us sideways. That was not at all easy. It is apparent that I am at the moment a bit of a one sided paddler. Just one more thing to work on.

I felt such a sense of freedom out on that boat, close to the water and coasting along with a bit of breeze. Even a little bit rougher water was just exciting and not scary at all.

We only did one little loop around our tiny island. That took us under 30 minutes, but it was all I could handle before I was exhausted.... this time.

Time for a new start

I have taken a very very long break from working on this blog.

I think it was too physically too hard for me a year ago and I was really doubting my own abilities to write and think clearly back then, probably with good reason. I also was unsure how much of my own personal story I wanted to share; my life seemed so uncertain and so many of my health questions were unanswered. Now I have real regrets that I didn't document my journey and my struggles toward a healthier life.

I have some sense that perhaps it too late now. Should I be playing catch up somehow and try to record what all happened in the past two years?

My former therapist/ social worker retired a month ago and I told her I didn't think that I had it in me to start over explaining everything to her replacement. Kathy wisely said there were indeed a few things from the past that would need to be explained to the new therapist, but that this was a new start. I only needed to begin with today and think about moving forward. All of the ups and downs, and the details of the past year are not needed for me to make progress in the future.

So here we are. I have come a tremendously long way and I feel very blessed to be here and managing as well as I am. I still have a long way to go on this journey. I still have a lot of recovery from the brain injury to deal with, but I also have a long way to go toward being the fit, healthy woman I want to become.

Today the next part of my journey begins ......