IDEA GENERATING MACHINE

I ONCE WROTE TO LIVE.

Now I walk to write to live.

Those extra words entered my life after my head exploded from a ruptured brain aneurysm. Fourteen hospitalizations, 10 ambulance rides, and four brain surgeries followed.

Such an experience – compressed into four nightmare years – forces a complete life reboot. How does New You practice Old Craft?

I started on the road.

Initially, that pathway involved circles – small round ones – traveled with a walker. White knuckles clasped icy aluminum handlebars. My legs wobbled and trembled as my toes and heels, stuffed inside rubber-soled hospital socks, gripped the wood floor. Behind me trailed a physical therapist, her strong hands clutching the gait belt that encircled my waist.

Every morning and afternoon, we exercised like this at the rehabilitation hospital where I relearned how to walk, talk, eat, bathe, and dress myself. Afterward, the therapist would guide me back to my room, settle me into bed, and ask, “Do you want it?” I would nod yes, and she