The hand of God leads, guides, and directs us. The hand of God orchestrates all things to work together for our good. The hand of God gives us so much more than we deserve. The hand of God occasionally strips us of intellect, proper reasoning, rationalizing, and coping skills.

Though my brain trauma occurred in my youth, its manifestations often plague the daylights out of me. Someone close may say, “Oh look at him. He has it all together.” Not so, thus the subtitle of my new book- ‘Brain Injury, Divorce and New Beginnings.’ So yes, I did lose it all, but what I gained via the hand of God was priceless. My memory is gone; yet I compensate. Along with other brain injury survivors, I have learned coping strategies to put on a good front. Though, I have no more idea what I was doing an hour ago than the man in the moon. (Yes I do. Upon reediting, I was writing the initial paragraph an hour previous.)

With my cognitive struggles having been greatly impaired, I am now more sensitive to the struggles of others. I try to be compassionate. It is sometimes hard but my goal. My emotions shift like the Hawaiian seashore. They exasperate some, especially me, highs and lows. All from the hand of God. Behaviorally, I think I am doing alright and acting perfunctorily (hello Forrest:) missed you today).

You may remember my dramatic and repulsive struggle with forgiveness. As my memory is shot, I intensively struggle with forgiving folks who wrong me; or if I am the one in the wrong, this also besets me. Forgiveness and brain trauma actually had been a tentative subplot in my most recent manuscript. To this day–even now–this topic can devastate my world like nothing else. At the expense of God? At the hand of God? Or, permitted by God, perhaps.

Lately I have been invited into the throne room of God and gotten to behold His Presence. Answered prayer after answered prayer we have witnessed. I don’t believe He wants me to mention the requests for which we prayed, however I will my enlightening, insightful, reverential, respectful, and respectable prayer partner, Deanna Drake. It is more than a pleasure hearing her heart cry to the Lord.

Her story may be one of many we’re fixing to weave into the ‘New Beginnings’ portion of my book. Her life is absolutely incredible. From how it was reshaped, what she has been through, to what she is doing with it. Absolutely astonishing how remarkable her life is becoming. Believe the hand of God has gifted this young lady with awesome signs and wonders. Next post will tell of more of the survivors whose story will also be included.

No, not McDonald’s. But lovin’ the excellent day. Got so much done. Maybe tomorrow I’ll remember the exact sequence of events. Wait a minute. Met a marvelous young lady, Deanna Drake, at Taco Bell. See there? That’s why I was loving it. Run for the border, baby. Anyway, just like many do not realize I have a brain injury (until maybe they see my physical symptoms and inquire), they can not rationalize Deanna’s plight, who has a brain injury as well. Not that you’d know it. It’s almost like she’s up a creek without a paddle. The majority of folks in the world do not understand us, the brain-injured. They cannot understand us. Unless you have had a TBI, you don’t know what we’re talking about. Only in theory could you try to comprehend. I have read a few books by physicians who have been brain-injured and they talk about it. Very insightful. You better believe their struggle is real. So, most people cannot understand us and accurately, nor we them, but often wonder to myself who it is that has more capacity to comprehend the situation, us or normal people? Spouses often grumble “Well I’m not normal. I have this or that wrong.” Wonder how many times I heard that one. How would they like having to function and compensate with half a mind or their beleaguered mind having had to repair neurons and brain signals just to function at the lesser capacity in which they do? If the shoe were on the other foot, might be a different story. Anyway, what a blessing to meet Miss Deanna; and what an encouragement we can be to each other.