Today is the 2^nd anniversary of my stroke.  (A right cerebral infarction if you’re keeping score …)

I always wax a little nostalgic on this date and am reminded that life is to be lived … and celebrated … every day.  (I’m traipsing around a theme park in Orlando this year with 20,000 of my closest friends.)  Last year, I went across the pond to visit friends in Berlin.  It was a fitting, if not extravagant, way to celebrate one of the best 365 days of my life.

When you nearly keel over dead from a life-threatening emergency, it always puts a few things in perspective.  Here’s what I’ve learned over the last couple years …

1) Cherish your parents and close friends.  They will keep you sane, healthy and remind you that you knocked on death’s door.  And they will always drop whatever they’re doing to ensure that you’re taken care of … and fussed over.

2) Never say no.  Right after my stroke, I made a pact to myself that I would not decline a single invitation to do anything for a solid year.  I still live by that rule of thumb.  From skydiving to dude ranching to ballroom dancing … I’ve tried everything.  And it’s all thanks to a slight brain explosion.

3) Chill.  For the first few months after my stroke, I would have debilitating bouts of fatigue that would come out of nowhere.  The old me would have tried to push through it.  The new me takes a 20-minute siesta wherever, whenever.  And I’m a better person for it.

4) Work to live … don’t live to work.  No one on their deathbed ever said, “I wish I would have worked more.”  Words to live by.

And 5) When people say, “Wow, you’re lucky” … agree with them.  I am lucky to be here and that my stroke wasn’t worse.  Divine intervention had a big hand in it, for sure.  (And quick thinking on the part of doctors and nurses.)  But, yep, I was lucky … and remain so to this day.

When my friend Kristi would say, “Have a blessed day” on her answering machine, I used to make fun of her.  Not anymore.  Now I tell others to have a blessed day … because that’s what it is.