July 7, 2011
Coleslaw Mockingbirds Cloud reflections in still water The poems of Mary Oliver Watching thunderstorms pass from the front porch swing Painting with my sister Fireflies Pink toenail polish When a hummingbird, hovering at the red feeder, dipping its beak in while its wings are a-flutter, decides to rest on the perch and sip.
July 3, 2011
Sometimes, we meet individuals who change us, help us grow more into ourselves. They exude courage, acceptance, love. These qualities permeate the space between us until we, too, become more courageous, accepting, loving. I spent a full weekend surrounded by more than 40 of these very people. At the first, APDA-sponsored Parkinson’s Disease Arts & Movement Weekend, we gathered not to mourn our losses living with a degenerative disease but to celebrate the abundance of all we have, all we can do, all that we are. Together, we danced, sang, moved through yoga and Tai Chi. We learned to shift perspective of our world to that of a photographer’s eye and to create, express, and simply play with paint and color. We became, not people with PD, but dancers, yogis, artists. Courage If courage means letting go of the familiar, courage checked in to the PD Arts & Movement Weekend with […]
June 30, 2011
You’ve read that yoga is beneficial. Even though you can’t see yourself folding into a pretzel. Even if you’re like many who don’t move with ease and think, I can’t do yoga. Imagine that you search for yoga and Parkinson’s or yoga and movement disorders. Site listings pop up. Perhaps you think that maybe, just maybe you can. You click on one of the number of sites that bring you to yoga for movement disorders. If you click on one of the first few, an image appears on your screen. The beach. Yoga for movement disorders is taking place on the beach. If a picture paints a thousand words, this image paints the same five words 200 times: See, I can’t do yoga. See, I can’t do yoga. See . . . Setting Yoga for movement disorders begins with the breath. As it moves into asana practice, second to the breath […]