Revisiting Wonderland and 9 Mile Road

I wrote this - Wonderland and 9 Mile Road - 9 years ago today, a couple of months after the life-altering accident that led to my stroke.

It seemed appropriate to revisit it with a post on Instagram. Here's what I wrote:

Nine years ago today, I wrote an entry on my blog, Written Inc.

It was 12 weeks after my stroke, and I had returned to the intersection in the countryside where a simple toss of my head while cycling touched off a life-changing sequence of events. The title, Wonderland and 9 Mile Road, echoed where my life took a tangent. Here’s the link:

http://writteninc.blogspot.com/2013/10/wonderland-and-9-mile-road.html

For reasons I still don’t fully comprehend, I needed to stand in that spot - still torn up from the construction that prompted me to make the u-turn in the first place. I hadn’t been back there since, and I hoped returning to this otherwise ordinary rural crossroads might help me continue to process something that, until then, had felt too overwhelming to truly internalize or accept.

While my immediate circle of family and friends knew what had happened, I hadn’t yet shared the news publicly. That would happen a year after that insane day. It wasn’t so much that I ever felt I needed to bury it, but I didn’t feel ready at that moment to shine the light on my experience.

Some things take time, I guess. Whatever.

I’m not one to dwell on things like this, but I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t somehow color my every waking moment. The time since then has been a bonus, a gift. And I’d like to think I’m leading a better life - and am hopefully a bit of a better human being - because of what happened.

Regret has never been part of this journey.

Gratitude, on the other hand, always has.

#ldnont #middlesexcounty #throwback #life

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Today's Instagram post

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