May 11, 2011
In a recent issue of Good Housekeeping, Michael J. Fox answers an interview question about the challenges of living with Parkinson's. He responds that one of the most awkward aspects is that people don't know what to say. Perhaps they don't quite know how to say it.
May 7, 2011
There I was driving home from yoga, my windows open to birdsong and warm breezes. I was happy to slow to the 20 mph school speed limit and roll along taking in spring. So yogic, so in-the-moment. Or so I thought. I began noticing the Magnolias and smiled at their pink saucer petals. I blinked past the glow of Forsythias, breathed in the sweet scent of crab apple blossoms, marveled at the play of sunlight on so many shades of green. I glanced in my rear-view mirror and, poof, the moment vaporized. Following me — on my tail, actually — was a hearse. Oh man, how cliche can that be? While I’m enjoying life, death is creeping up behind me. I sped up a tad. Checked. Still there, still too close. I tightened my grip on the steering wheel. My eyes flicked toward the mirror once more, twice. It had come closer. […]
May 2, 2011
I talked recently with a friend who also lives with PD. We’d touched on travel, parenting, work — the variety of topics that one often covers over coffee or lunch with a confidante. Interestingly, there was a common theme threading through the different thoughts, ideas, plans. We kept coming back to now. “I’m able to at the moment,” she said about a dance program she teaches. “Because I can,” I added about a bike trip I’d be taking in Virginia. Knowing that this disease doesn’t get better has heightened our awareness that now is all we have. I’ve heard others with chronic conditions express it, too, this sense of immediacy. If now is good, then there’s no time like the present to move ahead with our thoughts, plans, ideas. So yogic, this living in the now. I’ve been wondering, though, is there more? This poem answers my question Yes, now, […]