Hard to imagine, but I had my stroke six months ago today. If we’re getting technical, it was a right cerebral infarction. And it rendered most of my right side useless for a few scary hours. Clearly, I’ve recovered nicely, by the grace of God. The weird part? They never did find out what caused it. While the stroke was relatively minor, it had a major, significant impact on how I live my life.

Cheating death will do that to a person.

First, as I look back, a few shout-outs are needed though. In a medical emergency, you quickly learn who your friends are. Truth be told, you find out who’s calm in a crisis and who’s not. My dear friend Jill Farmer gets props for holding my hand (literally) while I was in the emergency room in St. Louis. When I wasn’t thinking clearly, Jill was the voice of reason. And she singlehandedly talked my parents off the ledge when they found out I was in the E.R.

Jill doesn’t just get a gold star—she earned her angel wings.

My roommate Mark and best friend Eric came and got me in St. Louis and drove me back to Kansas City. Neither one coddled me in any way. I needed that dose of reality. If anything, they mocked the fact that I had a stroke simply for attention. And a few blog entries. (‘Natch.) The day after my stroke Eric said, “You get exactly 48 more hours to milk this for all it’s worth, and then I don’t want to hear another word. Got it?” “Yeah, I got it.” (Uh, save for this blog entry.)

Over the next week, my phone literally blew up. I couldn’t return phone calls fast enough. My friends Mithra and Judith brought over food. “That’s what Mom’s do,” said Judith. My buddy Hanu suggested going skydiving when I felt better. My other buddy Mike scheduled a leisurely weekend for me to chill at his farm. My galpal Mindy offered to take some killer new head shots of me. My friend Dan invited me to go to church with him.

The list of kind gestures goes on and on and on. And I’m grateful to all of you.

The one thing that drastically changed when I had my stroke is my ability to say “no”. If people ask me to do something, I now say, “Absolutely!” without even thinking about it. The past 180 days have been amazing mix of surreal bliss. Besides skydiving, I’ve jetted to Berlin, hired a trainer, won two Emmys, visited my relatives in England and hunted rattlesnakes on a dude ranch in Texas. And those are just the highlights. Yep, life is to be lived. And it’s ON!

It’s crazy to think that a medical emergency got me jumpstarted. Obviously, my brain nearly exploding put me in to a much better headspace. (Pun intended). I now have a new reason to get up everyday. That reason? To start living life to the fullest and strive to be a better person from here on out.

Join me, won’t you?