When I learned about my brain damage I called to tell my friend, a biomedical engineer, studying in Switzerland at the time.

I remember telling me the good news– the human brain is plastic.

“Plastic? What do you mean?”

“The brain is malleable. It changes. So if damage occurs, the brain can adapt and change. It’s called neuroplascitity.”

For a long time doctors and researchers believed that the brain was fixed. But modern research has discovered that brain never stops finding new ways to adapt.  And to someone with brain damage– that’s comforting.

Today, things will happen that were not part of the plan. And if today runs smoothly, tomorrow may not.

Life hurts. Tragedies occur. And we will spiral around the drain of anger, bitterness, and sadness.

But like your brain, your spirit, that incorporeal part of yourself that no one doctor can see, no CAT-Scan can detect is real and, like your brain, your human spirit is malleable. Human history proves that we were meant to endure hardships. That we are tougher, more resilient then we know.

I’ve learned that, if you give it permission, the human spirit can adapt and change. And the only rehabilitation for improving the human spirit are the actions we take when responding to hardship.

We weren’t meant to wallow

Writing to you, for almost 4 years, has boomed my spirit. Writing to you has gifted me both perspective and resilience.

Writing to you has comforted me and shown me that I’m not the only one struggling.

Writing to you has made me a devout believer in the plasticity of the human spirit.

Today, I hope you avoid the empty calories of human existence and do the things that feed and nourish your spirit.

The things that allow you to rise above the pain of being human.

Be well,

Jay

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