Intro to Rebuilding my Life – My Name is Wordy

Well, I have a new nickname, Wordy. I guess it fits. It happened while I was working with a coach with an organization called Beyond Stillness. Their mission is to help people who have a brain injury tell their story. To guide someone to tell their story is pretty impactful. Even with me. I’ve been writing about my brain injury for four years with thousands and thousands of words, yeah I’m Wordy. But it came out in a helter skelter way. I guess reporting live about what happened during and after a stroke will be chaotic. Helter skelter makes sense. 

They were helping me tell my story in a chronological way with a theme and some applications. Well, I finished the story, and my son and I recorded it for the podcast that they do. 18 minutes was all that was allowed. When it was done, the timer said 18 minutes, 29 seconds.  I rounded down.

The other half of the podcast will be an interview with me. That scares me some. My grasp of talking sometimes doesn’t work, and my working memory doesn’t work very well either. I worry I will forget what I wanted to say. That is why I like writing. I can finish one idea and then think about the next one. But for me, it takes too long to think about and talk about something substantial. But I’m doing it. We will see how it turns out.

Maybe my new nickname will be crash and burn. Back in the day it fit too. Unless you’re an old man who raced dirt bikes, you’ve probably never seen the magazine crash and burn, but I could’ve been published there too. But in those days, no one was carrying a camera on a phone; they carried a dime in their pocket. Thankfully, no photos of me crashing and burning.

I’m not sure when the podcast will be published, maybe in a month or two. I will let you know when the podcast is available. 

I started compiling my story by copying and pasting relevant scenes from some of my blog posts, then I worked on some transitions to tie it all together.  When I met with my coach she said wow, what a story you have. As we were talking about it she suggested maybe adding something about this or that, and to find a theme. I gladly set to work, with words. When I was done, I had written 6000 words. Some of them were written right after my stroke, some of them recently. So I ran it through the program that read it aloud. It took almost 40 minutes. Double the allotment time.  Well Wordy, it turns out, a script of a talk and a post on a site are a bit different. Being succinct is important. 

The next couple weeks consisted of getting rid of some words. Actually half the words. Man, I worked hard on those words, It was almost impossible to let them go. But I did. What we came up with worked well. But it felt like a bullet point list with only the highlights.  Well, my new nickname is Wordy.  So, I decided to post the full version. 

I was talking to a friend, I asked him, “would anyone read a 6000 word post on facebook or a blog?” “Probably not” was the answer. Maybe a better question, would you? My friend suggested posting it in sections. So that is what I’m doing.  Starting tomorrow I will post the first segment of, Chairs on the porch – Rebuilding my life on a secure foundation.

The story starts with these words, “My name is Karl Hostetler and…….”  You ask, “and what?” Great question. You will have to wait until tomorrow to find out. After 4 days and 5750 words, it ends with these words, “isn’t life grand.” And in between is the story of my stroke, my “rebuilding my life” journey, what was happening in my spirit, and some things I’ve learned along the way.

In 1500 word slices it will take about 5 minutes to read. So, are you in? If you’re still on the fence. Right in the middle of day 3 are these words, “triple whammy.” Not double whammy, but triple whammy!!

I’m hoping to see you tomorrow.