Today marks the 3-year anniversary of me nearly keeling over dead from a stroke.  Or to be wholly specific … a right cerebral infarction.  It’s also the 3-year anniversary of me living my life radically different than I did pre-stroke.

It’s amazing what a near-death experience will do to change your outlook on life.  My first order of business was to learn to impulsively say yes. I vowed I would not say no to one thing … no matter how big or how small for an entire year.  Go skydiving? YES! Visit a dude ranch? SURE! Jet off to Berlin for the weekend? ABSOLUTELY.

It remains the best year of my life.

Last year I was determined to win friends and influence people. I went on a Zen-tastic trip to India, waving and smiling at every single person who caught my eye.  (All 832,494 of them.) I landed a TV show that put me in the public eye and allowed me to send out good vibes to 50,000 people. I blogged daily to my adoring public.  And I made a point to be a Chatty Cathy to anyone who struck up a conversation with me. I’ve always been smiley and affable, but in 2012 I wanted to be the smiliest, affabliest person on the planet.

This year my new mantra is to accentuate the positive in others and myself.  Whether that means paying someone a small compliment, patting someone on the back for a job well done or going above and beyond to be good to myself, here’s to a kinder, gentler 2013.

Another goal is to start finding ways to stimulate my brain so I don’t “go beige”. In creative circles, “going beige” is the equivalent of having a wicked case of writer’s block.  I’ve noticed the synapses in my brain don’t fire nearly as fast as they used to before the stroke. I struggle endlessly trying to remember names of people I’ve met countless times. And I’m forever tripping up on user-friendly vocabulary words like “cumbersome” (which I called cummerbund, recently) and “pedestrian” (which came out sounding like Pedi cab).  There’s only so much ginseng and fish oil one person can take.

Am I lucky to be alive? Hell yes. Am I blessed to have the support of all of my goofball friends? Of course. Do my folks hug me a little tighter? Indeed. It’s gonna be another great year for me because I can’t imagine life any other way. And am I excited about all the great adventures in store for me this year? Well, duh.

Have a little faith. I did.