Posts by KARL HOSTETLER

The word “Come” often makes me stop, right in the middle of a sentence, because it causes me to remember when that word was spoken into my heart. If you're wondering what I'm talking about you can read the story on the homepage of my blog, chairsontheporch.com. The word “come” has become so meaningful for me.   Well, today another word has started to surface. I see it…

Sometimes my ability to converse works, sometimes it doesn't. Last week I was trying to talk to my daughter-in-law about the swimming lessons my grandkids were doing and nothing came out except random words. I realized I was babbling. Granted, watching the grandkids have fun in the pool was a good place to babble, but still, that day talking was so hard. There is an interesting story…

Instead of composing a blog post, I have been working on my book. Here is a little bit of the chapter I've been working on about Aphasia called the Elephant in the room.   ...So here are some things that are happening in my life as I’m dealing with Aphasia. Along with my battle with my language issues there are also some broader issues, things that are not…

Instead of composing a blog post, I have been working on my book. So here is a small snippet of the chapter I've been working on called the Elephant in the room. The elephant in my room is this thing called Aphasia. It came to life during my stroke and it reared up and tried to steal my ability to talk, read, and write.  Jon Hopkins medical…

What does it even mean, to let go of the reins?  Well, I have an answer. It means did you have to let go of the reins. That is all I wanted to say.   As my recovery has progressed I have been thinking about this. And I realize, now, how hard it is for me to really lay down the reins. To just let go.  I had…

Numbers live somewhere on the left side of my brain. Well, that was where they used to live.  I think they likely still live there, but the door is closed. As it stands, the part of my brain where numbers reside is unaccessible. My grasp on words (aphasia) is hard but doable. My fatigue is manageable. In fact, it seems everyday everything gradually improves except for my…

Day seven I guess I will follow God's example and rest with my writing on day seven. Instead of posting something I wrote, I will end with something someone else wrote. It seems an appropriate way to end this week of celebrating life.  It comes from a novel I'm currently reading called “The Greatest Salesman In The World'' by Og Mandino "I will greet this day with…

Day six I have a hummingbird friend. He sits in the tree in my front yard, and often he visits the hummingbird feeder on my porch. Sometimes he will come and hover a couple feet away from my chair, maybe to see me? Honestly, I don't know if it's a boy or a girl. I can't even say if it is the same bird day by day.…

Day five Early on as I was sitting on my porch I realized something had changed. Well lots of things changed, duh. Figuring out what had changed, and how to deal with it, it was something I would often think about. But I realized something else had changed. Something good happened. It is weird how recovering from trauma happened to me. It's sort of like the fog…

Day four One was the things I do in my “recovery” is a zoom support group for people with brain injuries. The speech therapist that heads the meeting always starts with something called “bitters and sweets''.  And we are encouraged to share something from our week, either good or bad. It is helpful for me to talk, aloud, to people. Sometimes heavy duty things are shared. Things…