It helps me to hear this message often. As a head injury patient from my service during the last three wars I experience fairly severe memory loss of both long and short term things. After four months away from my family learning things like walking straight, reading and speaking correctly again at Walter Reed Hospital, I returned to my family in Germany, deplaned, and walked right past them...I'd forgotten who they were and what they looked like..my wife of 15 years and two children 8 & 5.
For me, over the past twenty years since then, life has been a huge 'Try Again'. I came home to the USA only to find I didn't know anyone and that I had no emotional 'feelings' towards my extended family members that I hadn't seen in five years. Many simple skills that I was so confident in before now will send me into near hysterical frustration and anger because it doesn't make sense. I can make lists but then the lists don't make sense later when I go to do the thing.
One thing I remember? My Walter Reed Neurologist told me to prepare emotionally for my wife to leave me and to live with a helper/nurse/organizer. He said that over 95% of spouses can't handle the new anger/frustration issues, the personality change from being the "person they married" and the daily requirements for help with simple things. I watched my wife deal with this in terror that she would leave. I was not prepared to try and 'Life' on my own. One day she came home from work so exhausted because of having to care for my needs then work full time and hold our family together, I knew what I had to do. I took her out to a nice dinner and gave her a coupon. It was good for one guilt free divorce. I told her I knew it wasn't fair for her to have to do everything and what the doctor had told me would happen. She was stunned.
My beautiful, perfect wife..near the emotional breaking point..looked back at me and stuffed my coupon into the remainder of her food and said essentially what you just said. That if something was not working for us that we would just keep trying something different. That for us, everyday would be new, and every new attempt at the same old things an adventure! This year, without much help I re-learned to build a large deck from the ground up that is strong enough to carry 60,000 lbs per sq ft. static load and 28,000 lbs per sq ft highly dynamic load to support a medium hot tub and giddy grandchildren running. I even designed vertical and horizontal sheer pins that will allow movement without destruction in the eventuality of an earthquake. The inspector were impressed with my six months worth of planning, erasing, redesigning and finally committing to blue print and implementation that some aspect might be used in future code considerations locally. I don't say that out of pride. I say that because it was my wife's constant but gentle encouragement without ever pushing that allowed my creativity and old skill sets to re-emerge and accomplish what no doctor has imagined I'd ever accomplish on my own!
Did I make many bad cuts, measurements, board placements etc along the way as it came together? Oh! My! Yes! But every time I spotted them I would calm myself, breath and thing through scriptures then tear out my mistake and fix it. I'm not quick thinking anymore. I'm not a 'fun person'. I take life daily and seriously. And I bask in the warmth and glory that is the lasting relationship that is my marriage (32 years now!). So this was a very long tome to say..thank you for putting into words sweetly what my life has become. I cherish the challenges but look to Christ as my daily crafter of all abilities and giver of a sweet and loyal immediate family.