A LETTER FROM YOUR BRAIN
(Author: Thomas F. Quirk)
(6-2011)
 
Hello,

I'm glad to see that you are awake! This is your brain talking. I had to find some way to communicate with you. I feel like I barely survived WWIII and am still not quite all in one piece. That's why I need you. I need you to take care of me.
 
As time passes and you and I feel better and better, people, even doctors, will tell you that we are fine, "it's time to get on with life." That sounds good to me and probably even better to you. But before you go rushing back out into that big wide world, I need you to listen to me, really listen. Don't shut me out. Don't tune me out. When I'm getting into trouble I'll need your help more than I ever have before.
 
I know that you want to believe that we are going to be the same. I'll do my best to make that happen. The problem is that too many people in our situation get impatient and try to rush the healing process; or when their brains can't fully recover they deny it and, instead of adapting, they force their brains to function in ways they are no longer able too. Some people even push their brains until they seize, and worse... I'm scared. I'm afraid that you will do that to me. If you don't accept me I am lost. We both will be lost.
 
How can I tell you how much I need you now? I need you to accept me as I am today... not for what I used to be, or what I might be in the future. So many people are so busy looking at what their brains used to do, as if past accomplishments were a magical yardstick to measure present success or failures, that they fail to see how far their brains have come. It's as if here is shame, or guilt, in being injured. Silly, huh?
 
Please don't be embarrassed or feel guilt, or shame, because of me. We are okay. We have made it this far. If you work with me we can make it even further. I can't say how far. I won't make any false promises. I can only promise you this, that I will do my best.
 
What I need you to do is this: because neither of us knows how badly I've been hurt (things are still a little foggy for me), or how much I will recover, or how quickly, please go s-l-o-w-l-y be patient and accepting of what I am now. If I give you a headache, or make you sick to your stomach, or make you unusually irritable, or confused, or angry, or disoriented, or afraid, or make you feel that you are overdoing it, I'm trying to get your attention in the only way I can. Stop and listen to me.

I get exhausted easily since being hurt, and cannot succeed when overworked. I want to succeed as much as you do. I want to be as well as I can be, but I need to do it at a different pace than I could before I got hurt. Help me to help us by paying attention and heeding the messages I send to you.

I will do my part to do my very best and I am a little worried though that if I am not exactly the same... you will reject me and may even want to kill us. Other people have wanted to kill their brains, and some people have succeeded. I don't want to die, and I don't want you to die.
 
I want us to live, and breathe and be, even if being is not the same as it was. Different may be better. It may be harder too, but I don't want you to give up. Don't give up on me. Don't give up on yourself. Our time here isn't through yet. There are things that I want to do and I want to try, even if trying has to be done in a different way. It isn't easy. I have to work very hard, much harder, and I know that you do too. I see people scoff, and misunderstand. I don't care. What I do care about is that you understand how hard I am working and how much I want to be as good as I can be, but I need you to take good care of us, as well as you can do that and be accepting of me if I am different.
 
Don't be ashamed of me. We are alive. We are still here. I want the chance to try to show you what we are made of. I want to show you the things that are really important in life. We have been given another chance to be better, to learn what is really important. When it is finally time for our final exit I would like to look back and feel good about what we made of us and out of everything that made up our life, including this injury. I cannot do it without you. I cannot do it if you hate me for the way being injured has affected me and our life together. Please try not to be bitter in grief. That would crush me.
 
Please don't reject me. There is little I can do without you, without your determination to not give up. Take good care of us and of yourself. I need you very much, especially now.
 
Love,
 Your Wounded Brain

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Moderator
Comment by Connie T on Thursday

Oh, Louisa...this is a wonderful letter! I need to copy it and look at it every time I feel that familiar frustration creeping up on me! Thank you so much for posting it!

Love, Connie


Moderator
Comment by Louisa on May 22, 2012 at 3:34pm

Isn't it a wonderful letter from my brain.....If people who do stupid thinks only knew what we go through...I totally agree with what you said!

Comment by just julie from the block on May 22, 2012 at 12:26pm

Love it - Louisa.

Now if everyone who rides helmetless on a motorcycle, people who don't wear their seatbelts or talk on the cell while driving - being easily disstracted - would read and get what their potential consequences and unconsidered hassles are, we'd be all set =)

Comment by PHIL WALKER on May 22, 2012 at 9:22am

Summed it up in a nutshell for me. What a fantastic piece of literature!

Comment by Tina Dee on May 21, 2012 at 9:53pm

This is my brain talking to me. It make me cry. I need to remember to read it everyday. Only, I know I won't. My brain doesn't have that kind of memory anymore. I wish it did. Hmm... I'll print it out. But I'll probably lose it? I'm just so happy that I found it. I wish I read it years ago. I'll be just as happy the next time I read it! I need to keep remembering how precious our brains are and how lucky we are as survivors. I think I take it for granted all the time.

Comment by Leslye Wilson on April 26, 2012 at 1:29pm

Thanks for sharing this Louisa. Love this!

Comment by Bronagh on April 12, 2012 at 7:50pm

Thanks for that Louisa, thats very touching, I can so relate to it! Blessings x

Comment by Lori Kay Cahen on March 22, 2012 at 5:47am

My brain said, "see what I have been trying to tell you?" Thank you for your words of affirmation.


Moderator
Comment by Barbara H. on February 28, 2012 at 2:50pm
Hi Michele and Louisa. Thank you for posting this letter!

Moderator
Comment by Louisa on February 25, 2012 at 8:17am

Bernie...The Letter From My Brain is so true!

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