HOPE IN MOTION

Parkinson’s brings new experiences we don’t really want, decisions we’d prefer not to make, and challenges that, given the choice, we’d really rather not face.

Parkinson’s doesn’t care—it progresses anyway. We try to bear the physical, mental, and emotional anguish, the various indignities and the fear and uncertainty with grace and humour in the knowledge that we have an incurable condition.

Although we have good days and bad, our lives never return to “normal.” Soon, we forget what “normal” feels like. Parkinson’s hits hard, but it is not about how hard you hit back. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward.

Hope springs from refusing to give up. The challenges, triumphs, humorous perspective, and coping strategies empower us to live with Parkinson’s. With hope everything is possible! As a Chinese proverb states “Don’t be afraid of moving slowly, be fearful of standing still.”

We learn to build all our roads on today because tomorrow’s ground is too uncertain for plans and futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.

The biggest challenge living with this condition is the disconnection of mind and body when we know we still have dreams ambitions goals that our body makes it difficult to follow through.

We can believe in ourselves; can do what we can. Each of us has it within ourselves to reach for the stars and even though we may not catch them, we can, at the end of each day, have fought against the limitations this condition tries to put on us. The battle is a hard one!

Sometimes we do feel invisible. It is difficult for family and friends to see someone they care about be ill.

Parkinson’s is not a death sentence, but a “life sentence." It slowly steals everything, but only if it is allowed to….