CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR'S

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By Bill Howard, The Colorado Catholic Herald

WOODLAND PARK, Colo.—A deacon in the Diocese of Colorado Springs has begun a project to collect blank journals so that survivors of traumatic brain injuries can send them and also notes of encouragement to soldiers who have also suffered TBI in their service to the country.

Deacon Patrick Jones of Our Lady of the Woods Parish in Woodland Park hopes to collect hundreds of empty journals for the soldiers during Advent and over the next year. A collection point has been set up at the Diocese of Colorado Springs’ Catholic Pastoral Center.

According to the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, veterans’ and civilian hospitals have recorded at least 6,600 cases of TBI among soldiers who served in Afghanistan and Iraq from January 2003 to March 31, 2008. According to the report, most of these TBI cases are the result of munitions blasts.

Deacon Jones, who began a brain injury ministry in 2003 that now includes an online network over more than 400 people, decided to create a unique holiday project with its members, and he wants to expand it to the diocese. He wants to send packages containing bound, blank-page journals and pens to the soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where screenings of evacuated service members from the Middle East revealed 32 percent to have TBI.

Each journal package will also contain a note of encouragement from a fellow TBI survivor as well as helpful information for living with the ailment.

“We’ve asked TBI survivors to share what helps them get through the day,” Deacon Jones elaborated. “We’ll gather those responses and put them with information on the stages of grief and the need to grieve a loss like this, which frees us to enter life as fully as possible.”

TBI is caused by a concussion to the brain that results in permanent brain damage. According to Deacon Jones’ site, the brain can be trained to work around the damage, but subsequent concussions can worsen the condition. Such is the case with Deacon Jones, whose concussion history dated back to his childhood. In 2003, he suffered his eighth concussion when he hit a tree branch while hiking and a year later was diagnosed with TBI. Among the symptoms he suffers from are severe headaches, vertigo, fatigue and memory loss.

Deacon Jones believes that these journals will allow the soldiers an avenue to express whatever is on their minds and, hence, perhaps help in the healing process as they try to recover as normal a life as they can lead.

He said that, when he feels he is having trouble dealing with the daily grind of a day, he writes down three things he’s thankful for and thanks God for giving them to him.

“It sounds ridiculously simple, but I find it helps shift my fundamental perspective from one of only seeing the daunting trudge up Everest, to looking around and seeing the view,” Deacon Jones explained. “This is a long, hard road, but it becomes smoother and less steep when we focus on the gifts rather than dwelling on the pain.”

“Whether we’re a survivor or a caregiver, dealing with TBI adds a lot of weight to our lives,” he added. “It’s important to do what we can to ‘travel light’ in our hearts and our approach to life, even though we constantly carry a heavy load.”

Deacon Jones was inspired to do this in part by a friend and ‘life coach,’ Dr. Walli Carranza of SUMMIT Coaching Solutions in Colorado Springs. Carranza offers assistance to Deacon Jones’ TBI network and she has contacts at Walter Reed.

 “We are encouraging all the members of the TBI Network to participate in this wonderful opportunity to touch the lives of men and women who have been injured in battle,” she said. “It’s a wonderful way to say, ‘I have been in your shoes and I have survived; so can you.’”

Deacon Jones said he hopes to eventually expand the project to aid soldiers at Fort Carson.