Chapter 9: A Parkinson’s Reading Companion on Journey

“Accept what comes. In fact, be grateful for it. Be the one who sees opportunity in any circumstance, the one who doesn’t blink when looking into fate’s eyes.” (from a dear friend of a classmate, Carolyn Huang)

“It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be” J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Précis: “Thought-filled Responses” is a part of my undergraduate course, “Biology of Blood Diseases”; students submitted quotes on (five or more) hope, courage, journey, persistence, positivity, strength, adversity, mindfulness, and life (for further details click here). The current post is Chapter 9 including all of their quotes about ‘journey’ [click here to read Chapter 1 (hope); click here to read Chapter 2 (life); click here to read Chapter 3 (strength); click here to read Chapter 4 (adversity); click here to read Chapter 5 (positivity); click here to read Chapter 6 (courage); click here to read Chapter 7 (persistence); click here to read Chapter 8 (mindfulness)].

The Journey With Parkinson’s: There is no doubt that we are all on a journey with life, with differing destinations and widely varied paths.  When I think about living with Parkinson’s, I  feel it’s somewhat analogous to white water rafting (e.g., rafting the New or Lower Gauley Rivers in West Virginia): sometimes you’re paddling fiercely without going forward; yet a few minutes later you are not paddling and you can relax and enjoy the view; and then your team is paddling in sync as you progress down the river through its many changing rapids. The  obstacles of this disorder are always present and our journey will be a challenge. The journey with Parkinson’s requires effort, teamwork, awareness, and a heart-fueled positive attitude to keep going. May these quotes on journey inspire you to live-positively as you strive for wellness in the presence of Parkinson’s .

Journey:  I am pleased to present Chapter 9 about journey with my co-authors: Angle, Hannah; Arthur, Kallie; Artov, Michael; Bagley, Kendall; Batista, Kayla; Blaylock, Allison; Byrd, Emory; Cabell, Grant; Catalano, Michael; Clark, Kendall; Cossaart, Kristen; Culpepper, Houston; Das, Snigdha; Davis, Eric; Defazio, Stephanie; Doudnikoff, Alex; Dua, Shawn; Evans, Jessica; Evick, Andrew; Farooque, Tazeen; Ford, Kelsey; German, Zachary; Gouveia, Katie; Hall, Nikita; Isler, Victoria; Kirkley, Joel; Koutleva, Elitza; Laudun, Katie; Le, Kevin; Little, Sarah; Mackey, Josselyn; Macon, Briana; Maddox, Kaity; Marquino, Grace; Mattox, Daniel; Mcknight, Kyle; Mcmanus, Brenna; Mcshane, Sarah; Monkiewicz, Caroline; Nguyen, Michelle; Nguyen, Teresa; Olinger, Emily; Patel, Darshan; Patel, Dilesh; Patel, Jenny; Perez, Abby; Peters, Daniel; Quirin, Julia; Rawlins, Shelby; Raynor, Nathan; Renn, Matt; Scott, Alicia; Sherry, Alex; Shin, Christine; Stanton, Kate; Story, Charlotte; Swango, Summer; Szyperski, Caroline; Windley, Taylor; Wooley, Caleb; Xu, Alice; Yang, Michelle.

“And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance.” Lee Ann Womack

“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” Jimmy Dean

“Never let your memories be greater than your dreams.” Doug Ivester

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” Mahatma Gandhi

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” George Eliot

“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” Maya Angelou

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”  J.R.R. Tolkien

”Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” Epicurus

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” Lao Tzu

“Change is inevitable. Growth is optional”  John Maxwell

“Little by little, one travels far.” J.R. Tolkien

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” T.S. (Thomas Stearns) Eliot

“Every man dies, not every man truly lives.” William Wallace

“Life is a journey to be experienced, not a problem to be solved.” Winnie the Pooh

“Anything in life worth doing is worth overdoing, moderation is for cowards.” -Ballad of the frogman (Navy SEALs thing)

“Life is a journey, not a destination.” Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“You take people, you put them on a journey, you give them peril, you find out who they really are.” Joss Whedon

“Let our hearts and hands be stretched out in compassion toward others, for everyone is walking his or her own difficult path.” Dieter F Uchtdorf

“There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” C.S. Lewis

“To get through the hardest journey, we only need to take one step at a time, but we must keep stepping.” Rachel Kennedy

“There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going.” Anonymous

“Life’s a roller coaster. You can either scream every time there is a bump, or you can throw your hands up and enjoy the ride.” Unknown

“Never to suffer would never to have been blessed.”  Edgar Allan Poe

“You never know what’s around the corner. It could be everything or it could be nothing. You keep putting one foot in front of the other and then one day you look back and you’ve climbed a mountain.” Anonymous

“All that is gold does not glitter. Not all those who wander are lost. The old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.” JRR Tolkein

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Winston Churchill

“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

“In the end, people don’t view their life as merely the average of all its moments—which, after all, is mostly nothing much plus some sleep. For human beings, life is meaningful because it is a story. A story has a sense of a whole, and its arc is determined by the significant moments, the ones where something happens. Measurements of people’s minute-by-minute levels of pleasure and pain miss this fundamental aspect of human existence. A seemingly happy life maybe empty. A seemingly difficult life may be devoted to a great cause. We have purposes larger than ourselves.” Atul Gawande, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

“It is good to have an end to journey towards, but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” Ursula Le Guin

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” Lewis Carrol

“Press forward. Do not stop, do not linger in your journey, but strive for the mark set before you.” George Whitefield

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” Roald Dahl

“Beware of Destination Addiction – a preoccupation with the idea that happiness is in the next place, the next job, and with the next partner. Until you give up the idea that happiness is somewhere else, it will never be where you are.” Robert Holden

“Don’t be scared to walk alone. Don’t be scared to like it.” John Mayer

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” Ernest Hemingway

“The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed.” Chinese Proverb

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
Robert Frost

“We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.” Marcel Proust

“I am fated to journey hand in hand with my strange heroes and to survey the surging immensity of life, to survey it through the laughter that all can see and through the tears unseen and unknown by anyone.” Nikolai Gogol

“If my ship sails from sight, it doesn’t mean my journey ends, it simply means the river bends.” Enoch Powell

“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.” Lao Tzu

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…” -Dr. Seuss’ Oh, the Places You’ll Go! 

Cover photo credit: http://www.free-hdwallpapers.com/wallpapers/nature3/71540-nature-974.jpg