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30.01.05

Dear Reader of the Brain Injury Survivor E-mail Broadcast Around The World,

Even though you may fit one of these three categories:

• You have had a brain injury in the past
• You work with someone who has brain injury now
• You work with a brain injury group

.... I trust this e-mail broadcast causes you to reflect on your life at the moment .... in terms of now and how you are living it and its final purpose in the end.

Because there are so many people around the world who haven't met me personally, You can look 'History of the House' this website for Ken and Harriet's Place in Australia. We live in a special house built largely of demolition timber and stone, built twenty four years ago in 1981 for a fraction of the cost of a new house. Some of the stone is very old from the late 1800's. Australia as a whole was only settled after 1778. Compared other countries, the 1800's is very old to us. The house is on five acres of light open Australian bush which we bought very cheaply when we came out to our bush block in 1977 ..... four years earlier. We were way out thirty five kms. south of Brisbane then in the countryside. Now we are in the middle of everything .... not that we want to sell. Acreage land has become very valuable around us now. The file has some photos of Harriet and I as well .... if you haven't seen these.

I ran a small Landscape Design and Construction business in Brisbane, Australia for twenty years for wealthy clients .... they were special designer gardens that you never saw as they were for private clients and not the general public. Then twenty years on from starting my business in 1975, in December 1995, I had a serious brain injury off a boogi - board in a metre of water .... as simple as that.

If you haven't done so already, look at my story 'The Recycled Man' on the website here. I share my story to encourage you that you too can recover from a brain injury in short space of time ...... that all things are possible if you believe it can happen. I was:

• In a coma for four weeks

• In hospital for six months

• Had to learn to walk, talk, eat solid food all over again

• As well get my brain back together from a very scrambled state since December 1995.

I am not the same man as before my accident. I cannot drive nine years out from my accident and my balance is still a bit out at the moment. I have learned in primary way is that you have to work with what you have got and not what you have lost. I would say the following things to others:

• Opportunities of Life: Go through open doors, not closed doors .... Otherwise you will get a very sore forehead. .... Look not at closed doors of the past but expect to find new doors of opportunity in life in the future which will open up for you

• Be a victor, not a victim: You can either treat problems as stepping stones or tombstones. When you can be thankful for the circumstances, you will not camp at the problem. Otherwise, you will then look inwards and be very problem focussed. When you can be thankful or forgive those involved who may have treated you unfairly, you can then move in life. I hear and see many people who have had an accident like mine and fifteen years on, they still are angry with life and still see themselves as victims

• The Garden of Life: In seeing life for ourselves and others, there is now the principle of sowing and reaping: when you plant and sow into people's lives, love and care, you get back friendship and positive relationships which multiply far beyond you. Life is like a garden, you only get up what seeds you plant. It is this aspect of creating friendships, which particularly many brain injured people have real ongoing trouble with. This principle of sowing and reaping is true for all aspects of life. As in gardening or farming, you plant seeds for the harvest you wish gain. If you don't plant, you don't reap

• Effectiveness of a day: Judge not the day for what you have reaped but what you have sowed

• Your Perspective on Life .... Can be one of two alternatives .... like a glass of water:
  
  You can look at the glass as being half empty (what you have lost)
  
  or
  
  As a glass half full (what you do have left)
  
  i.e. work from what you do have left, not from what you have lost

Another way of saying this is that you can look at life like a donut. You can look at the hole (what you have lost), or you can look at the donut itself (the best part which you eat)

WHATEVER your LOT IN LIFE, build something on it. Source Unknown

See the Brain Injury Wisdom on Brain Injury Survivor Network website. I now have a transformed life as described below.

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TRANSFORMATION OF LIFE DIRECTION:

I went from being:

1. Physical Gardener (Outer Sustainability)........................... >>>>>>>>>>>.................................... 2. Life Gardener (Inner Sustainability)

1. Outer Sustainability: In a gardening and agriculture sense ..... can certain practices be maintained..... is what you doing now preparing the way ahead for new life? It was a very difficult business in which to make money, mainly due to the very non-standard and the seasonal nature of the work. My former life was not sustainable ..... my creativity in my business couldn't be standardised vs. a successful business needs to be like a biscuit cutter .... Making a few $$ off large numbers of components.

This side of the accident since I was hospital from 8th December 1996 to now, I have really discovered people in a big way. I have really come to value people, no matter who they are, what they do or say. I have developed a passion to build inner community with many people around the world especially by e-mail. As I am on a permanent paid holiday through my life-long Income Protection Policy, I have time to spend with people in a way I never could do in my busy business.

2. Inner Sustainability: In an ongoing personal sense .... Can your life be maintained to? ..... is what you doing now preparing the way ahead for new life? I have also discovered the significance of the Inner and Outer Life. Sustainability I have come to see, has to be a wholistic view on life of Inner, Middle and Outer Persons (Spirit, Soul and Body). Problems come because things do not change from the Outside to Inside but from the Inside to the Outside.

Inner and Outer Life:

Everyone of us has a private space in our lives that we carefully guard. I call it 'The Garden of Life' A garden is a personal space you can go out into and to enjoy the peace, the cool air, the shadows of trees, the sun shining with translucent light through tree leaves and palm fronds, the perfume of beautiful blossoms.

No one else comes there except yourself and your family. Even friends do not just drop in. They are invited out there with you after you have let them into your house. Strangers who come are intruders and will be dwelt with by the police.

It is the same with relationships. You have enter someone's inner life with their consent. You do this by valuing the person with great value and listening intently to what they say, as though it absolutely important. By listening intently (consciously in a rational way and unconsciously with your intuition), you are as it were gently knocking on the door of their inner house. If that person trusts you, they will then invite you into the garden of their life. Then you can talk gently back and forth and then you have established a relationship with them. They will open their door of their inner life at a later time if you knock. To keep that process going is a Sustainable Relationship. If I act suspiciously or try and crash the door with a sledge hammer, I will not be let in. That is what I call an Unsustainable Relationship.

I cannot drive at the moment but I have learnt to drive on the Internet .... to go around the world in few minutes and see hundreds of people at the same time. Since March 2001, I have started the following three e-mail broadcasts:

• Brain Injury Survivor Network (BISN) for Brain Injury People: I help facilitate the Brain Injury Survivor Network and an international website (at http://braininjurysurvivornetwork.blogspot.com/) which all started in late 2001. in the last year the president of the Singapore Brain Injury Association e-mailed me to be on my e-mail broadcasts. In a similar way, a researcher at a main London hospital also e-mailed me to be on my e-mail broadcasts as they were setting up a global Brain Injury contacts network.

• Statistics for brain injury in QLD : There are apparently 11,000 people a year in Queensland who finish up with a brain injury from various causes. Of those who survive, 4000 of these people will be permanently disabled in some way with reduced brain function capabilities. Less than two hundred of these can expect to receive the quality of care and further rehabilitation they need let alone deserve.

• Of those with a permanent brain injury, up to fifty percent of marriages and relationships will fold up. It is a big silent epidemic in our community. You can see someone in a wheelchair but you cannot see all the invisible changes that have gone on with a brain-injury.

• Ken and Harriet's Place e-mail broadcast ..... to lighten up your day .... bring some fun, laughter and a different perspective on life.
• 'New Earth Community' e-mail broadcast: I have started this broadcast for a new spirituality, life motivation and encouragement e-mail broadcast .... an e-mail broadcast service called which has grown since March 2001 to many hundreds of people around Australia and the world now. The purpose is to encourage, inspire and teach some new things that many people haven't thought of .... Through stories and some Power Point presentations .... Lots of beautiful pictures and words fading in and out. Since July 2004, I have a website which has been developed for this broadcast.

I trust this story below 'The Meaning of Life is but one's perspective! ' causes you to reflect on your life at the moment .... in terms of now and how you are living it and its final purpose in the end.

Regards,

Ken Aitken

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The Meaning of Life is but one's perspective! ..... via Janifer Cronk

A boat docked in a tiny Greek village. An American tourist complimented the Greek fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

"Not very long," answered the Greek.

"But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?" asked the American.

The Greek explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.

The American asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

"I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings I go into the village to see my friends, dance a little, play the bouzouki, and sing a few songs. I have a full life."

The American interrupted, "I have a MBA from Harvard and I can help you.

You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the revenue, you can buy a bigger boat. With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers.

Instead of selling your fish to a middleman, you can negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Athens, Los Angeles, or even New York City! From there you can direct your huge enterprise."

"How long would that take?" asked the Greek.

"Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years," replied the American.

"And after that?"

"Afterwards? That's when it gets really interesting," answered the American, laughing. "When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!"

"Millions? Really? And after that?"

"After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your grandchildren, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife, and spend your evenings singing, dancing and playing the bouzouki with your friends"

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