Birds and Bird Feeders: Journey with Parkinson’s

"Let the bird sing without deciphering the song." Ralph Waldo Emerson "Wild sings the bird of the heart in the forests of our lives." Mary Oliver Introduction: Our move to South Carolina has us living in a 55+ (years of age) gated community with golf courses, tennis and pickleball courts, swimming pools, gyms, many other crafts/activities, …

Friday’s Reflection: Those Brief Times Without Motor Symptoms from Parkinson’s

"There's a brief moment when you first wake up, where you have no memories. A blissful blank slate, a happy emptiness." Candace Bushnell "Celebrate our brief moment in the sun" Lawrence M. Krauss Introduction: There have been moments in the past when I felt "normal" without my motor symptoms being present. Have you had such a …

The Politics of Parkinson’s

"Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong." Richard Armour "No one party can fool all of the people all of the time; that's why we have two parties" Bob Hope The National Plan to End Parkinson's Act (H.R.8585) in the …

The Bookcase: Journey With Parkinson’s

"You must submit to supreme suffering in order to discover the completion of joy." John Calvin "Long is the road from conception to completion." Moliere Précis: This post is about completing a task. SImple for many of you likely, but not always for me. As part of moving away from Chapel Hill, NC, I had …

World Parkinson’s Day 2022: Hope Has Not Been Canceled

"There is no medicine like hope." Orison Swett Marden "If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today" Nhat Hanh Introduction: I have been putting the 100th change/addition/modification to a manuscript that was just submitted for publication. The manuscript concerns the role of SARS-CoV-2 (aka, COVID-19) to promote neurodegeneration in Parkinson's …

Journey with Parkinson’s: Happy New Year

“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘it will be happier’…” Alfred Lord Tennyson "When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around." Willie Nelson We lived through 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. We start 2022 in the grips of the same pandemic, just a different variant. Life goes …

Parkinson’s: Please Come Home for Christmas

“May your walls know joy, may every room hold laughter, and every window open to great possibility.” Mary Anne Radmacher “Kindness is like snow. It beautifies everything it covers.” Kahlil Gibran Introduction: By the end of December, another year is ending, it's winter, and I'm tired and worn out. It always happens to/for me. I …

Parkinson’s: Simple Man

"I'm a simple man, and I use simple materials." L. S. Lowry "I'm a simple, simple man." Jeremy Renner Introduction: There is a start and end to every blog post. The beginning of my post here takes one back to October 20, 1977. We were in a car, getting ready for the concert by Lynyrd …

The Measure of a Day With Parkinson’s

"Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by degree of presence." Alan Watts "It's so much easier to measure life in experience points." Felicia Day Introduction: How do we value ourselves to society, work colleagues, neighbors, and our loved ones and family? We each have some sort of 'value' that others …

Parkinson’s: Fight Song

"Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way." Satchel Paige "Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn." Harriet Beecher Stowe Introduction: Living with Parkinson's is a daily fight (in my mind) because Parkinson's is always trying to …