Life Keeps Rolling

I open my eyes just enough to see a brilliant, blinding light. It feels like I am staring at the sun, or is it Heaven? I hear people speaking with muffled, familiar voices. I try to piece together who is around me and where I am. Purgatory? It is too straining. I am exhausted. Then, silence and darkness again. Back into this vivid reoccurring dream that I am handcuffed to a bed at the bottom of a damp, rusty cargo ship. Repeat... again and again, until.... Mom? Dad? Kass? Why do I hear their voices? They are in New Hampshire... I am just sleeping really hard in Washington State right now. I find the strength to open my eyes into a squint again. This time I see the beautiful, inviting face of my girlfriend Kass. It had been months since I was able to touch her and kiss her. Let me just sit up and kiss her. Just... kiss....her... Well, that didn’t work... why can’t I lift my head? My eyes look down, why are my arms strapped to my bed? I am exhausted. Back to my bed at the bottom of the c...

I’ll start this one out by talking about small injury I had in my sophomore year in high school. I had just made the junior varsity baseball team and we were getting ready for a stadium game that we played once a year. About a month prior I had sprained my ankle and tore two of the three ligaments that hold that sucker together. It was a pretty serious sprain but I downplayed it a lot in order to stay on the team as their starting first baseman. Because I had downplayed it so much, I had done some actual permanent damage and would have to deal with ankle pain and random joint clicks for the rest of my adult life. This injury and my actions in dealing with it would really put into perspective my next serious injury. At the time the only thing that seemed important was high school baseball. 16-year-old Josh didn’t really think much about the future. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake the next time I had an injury. I had always been fortunate enough to avoid any serious injuries. I c...

It’s no big lie that most of us are naive to people with disabilities. I know that I certainly was no exception. There are a lot of misconceptions regarding paralysis. Granted I can only attest for my own personal experiences and from the experiences of a few others that I have met. Here is my crash course in what I have noticed and experienced.  https://liferollson365.blogspot.com/p/life-keeps-rolling-comics.html If I saw someone in a wheelchair prior to my injury, I would always tell myself not to stare and I would take some uncomfortable side glances instead. Believe me, we notice and you would probably be better off staring that way I won’t feel bad for calling you out on it 🤷‍♂️. Early on in my injury it used to infuriate me when I would catch someone looking at me. I would always say that ‘everyone sees the wheelchair first and me second’. If I caught someone staring, I would yell and try to pick a fight. It must have been quite the sight because I had no voice and could onl...

“Every cloud has its silver lining”.  If that is true then my cloud is a hurricane. A lot of people have asked me how life is going as if they’re expecting me to give them an answer about how difficult it is or how horrible my new struggles are. My answer is always the same, “life is great”. Truthfully, my life is great. All trials of my new handicap aside, I am doing great. I have a beautiful home with the woman of my dreams and I have found peace. I often find random silver linings regarding wheelchair life throughout my days, so I began to make a list. I have fun finding the good in my situation and I hope that you enjoy my silver linings. The most obvious silver lining is the parking. Everyone sees the handicap car with the handicap plate parked crooked over two spots and no one cares (unless you are also handicap (reference my last post)). It is an obvious convenience to be able to pull right up to a building and roll right in. Growing up I usually had one or two pairs of shoe...