Sunday Stroke Survival: You're Just Old Fashioned

I received an email last week that called my thinking  "old fashioned." Well, I do say..."agree, disagree, indifferent...no matter" above the comments so I asked for it. My first thought when I read this wasn't anger, but I thought, Oh, thank you! Yes, as a Christian, I'm wired differently.  I also do tend to hold my opinions until I get the whole story. It could have been worse. They simply could have called me  an old fart. Wait a minute. I call myself that all the time here. I tend to keep Louisa May Alcott's words close~ as if it was engraved on my soul.  

 "Good, old-fashioned ways keep hearts sweet, heads sane, hands busy."

Living post stroke,  I tend to simplify my life and don't sweat the small stuff with a this-to-shall-pass attitude for the most part. Stressing only makes the frustration and situation worse. I am what I am. I'm old enough not to have to prove anything to anyone. The fact that I've always thought this way is besides the point.

Credit

I tend to be hard working and soft hearted. That's just me. Even post stroke, not a day goes by when I'm not in the garden or orchard pushing my limited body to the collapsing point. Why? I feel the need to do so. I'm not the type of person who looks at a challenge and says I can't do that any more. After all, who knows what they are really capable of if they don't try?

Millions of people out there want to write a book and never do. Be it nonfiction or  a novel. I've done both.  I haven't written anything new in over six years besides these blog posts. I still get monthly royalty checks for my self published works even after all this time has passed. The point is, I did it. It was hard learning a new skill set, but I wasn't afraid to try.

Living post stroke every day is challenging under normal circumstances. Even getting out of bed in the morning isn't without its problems. Taking on the daily tasks of homesteading is borderline insanity, but they haven't come to take me away to the funny farm yet. Wait, is that an ambulance I hear? Nah, it's just Lil Red, the rooster, crooning to his ladies.  Darn, it sure sounded like an ambulance though. Whew, I was worried for a minute. 

This was my dream and strokes fall into the fiery pit, I'm going to get my dream. I'll admit my choice is not everyone's, but it's mine. Be it an old fashioned ideal or just insanity, I'll own it.

Maybe I am old fashioned in my thinking. I find new uses for items rather than fill the landfills with it. I expect quality workmanship for my bucks. I used to say in writers circles that I had 'made in Japan' stamped on my butt with pride. My mother sewed on a Toyota sewing machine for 40 years before I got it.  I relearned how to spin, after my strokes, on my great grandmother's spinning wheel.  I believe in giving 110% to anything I've committed to. I give more than I'll ever get back. Not that I do it for that reason. I believe all life has a purpose. I dislike this disposable mentality of people these days. If it's broke buy a new one instead of trying to fix it. I believe, as the Bible says, to treat everyone as you would want to be treated and love one another. I believe in quality of life not quantity. If you really want to do something or be something in your life, you don't need a bucket list, you fulfill that desire. Even after my strokes, when my all rights I should have given up my dream of a more self sufficient lifestyle, I didn't and found a way to have it.

Old fashioned? Why, thank you and you betcha! I'll take that compliment even though you didn't mean it as such.

Nothing is impossible.