Well we made it! Tomorrow will mark two weeks since our arrival in CA and time is flying, as it seems to do these days. I meant to check in on the blog sooner but getting settled has taken a little while. We are still not fully settled in by any means but everyday we get a little closer and that seems to be the story with my injury as well. Adjusting to life outside the hospital is just as we thought it would be, a huge challenge, one that Katrina and I are ready and willing to take on full steam ahead! I have had my weak moments only to be reminded by Tinka that I am a long way from being done healing and if I believe I WILL WALK AGAIN then I will do just that. What can I say, she’s my rock, and without her I would have a much longer road to travel.

Some of you know my family has been through a lot this year and I can’t say thank you enough for being there for not only me but also for them. Life has a way of throwing a lot of crazy shit your way all at once sometimes and how we deal with it all is the true test of human spirit. I want to share with you all an analogy passed on to me by a wise old cowboy (my uncle Ralph) that helped me put some things in perspective…

“Life is like an open box jigsaw puzzle you buy at a garage sale. There’s no picture on the front to show you what it’s supposed to look like and you have no idea if you have all the pieces to make it come together. You just start finding pieces that fit together and just about the time you finally think you know what your looking at, you fit in a new piece that makes you realize you have no idea what exactly your working on. This process continues until you lift the last piece from the box and realize what exactly it was you have been putting together all this time and just how many pieces you truly are missing, then your done.”

Now that I am out of the hospital I plan on writing here as much as my new schedule will allow but I plan on changing the direction a bit. Instead of updates on my physical and mental hardships and advances I want to share with all of you the inspirations that keep me rolling down this road to recovery (I will always use my progress and accomplishments as inspiration). My hope is that one day my words will inspire you to find a missing piece to your puzzle and it will make the finished product that much more beautiful.

Thank you again for all your support

Riley