"A stunning guide for those living with brain injury, and those who work with them."
About Thresholds
Though it happens millions of times a year, it takes but a moment or two.
Suddenly, a stroke or traumatic brain injury has come our way. We no longer think the same, feel the same, or understand life as we did just a few moments earlier. We are left to make sense of the world, to unravel what happened and slowly, ever so slowly, discover where it leads.
“What’s it like?” This story addresses the physical, emotional, and spiritual side of that simple question. Larry Pray shares his story, and Dr. Gumm explains how the brain works, and what happens when it is injured. This book is written for those who have experienced brain injury, either from a stroke or a TBI. It is also written for their friends, family, religious communities, and physicians as they help piece life together again.
It is always tempting to count the losses that come with brain injury. We no longer speak, move, perceive or understand God as we once did. But alongside the losses there is another story. It is a creation story that carries us forward in ways we could have never expected or even imagined.
As it does, we too can say, “Surely God is in this place, and I did not know it.”
Praise for Thresholds
A stunning guide for those living with brain injury, and those who work with them.
Bart Rodrigues, Senior Vice President, Mission Integration, Catholic Health System, Buffalo, New York
Larry beautifully weaves his journey as a patient recovering from a stroke with his life's calling as a pastor. His insights into recovery, restoration, and healing is lovingly chronicled in a way that offers hope to all. From a caregiver's perspective, it is a gentle reminder that all of our actions, big or small, can profoundly affect a patient's healing journey.
Jason Barker, President, CEO, St. Vincent Healthcare St. Vincent Healthcare, Billings, Montana
For those dealing with an acquired brain injury, reading this book is like a spa visit for the soul! Necessary and helpful information comes easily packaged in the story of a pastor whose strokes changed him. That alone would have been enough, but the book is bejewelled with the authors' soothing water color paintings, a skill he acquired as part of his recovery. People living in recovery from brain injury – as are sadly many of our current era veterans; the people who love them; the people who minister to them; and the people who work as medical or insurance providers to them will all benefit greatly from reading this book.
Amy Blumenshine, MSW, DM, Founder of the Coming Home Collaborative, a ministry for returning veterans
Pray's perceptions of medical care, abandonment, and frustrations with the system are heard all too often and underline the need to find a better way to deliver healthcare so that we keep the patient at the center. Many brain injury survivors are not fortunate enough to have an advocate and therefore become victims of the system as well. Hopefully this book will be an inspiration to others and encourage them to persevere.
Kari Olson, Stroke Task Force, Fairview Southdale, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Larry Pray offers up an extraordinary gift to those finding their own way across the threshold of brain injury or stroke. But the clarity and depth of his vision is perhaps even more useful for those of us--physicians, family, friends and neighbors--who would have no other way to understand the struggle or the possibilities of the journey. Only one with an artist's bold and true spirit could open themselves with such profound generosity. We cross the threshold with a trusted guide and find life.
Gary Gunderson, Senior VP of Mission, Methodist Healthcare, Memphis, Tennessee
