"Longevity is having a chronic disease - and taking care of it." Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. "The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones." Confucius Precis: Today marks an anniversary of sorts. It is the 250th blog post for the "Journey with Parkinson's." "All great things have small beginnings." Peter Senge …
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, …
Continue reading "Birds and Bird Feeders: Journey with Parkinson’s"
The Positive Impact of Friends: Journey with Parkinson’s
"A good friend is a connection to life - a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world." Lois Wyse "Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart" Eleanor Roosevelt Introduction: I have …
Continue reading "The Positive Impact of Friends: Journey with Parkinson’s"
Word for Wednesday: Gratitude
"Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." Melody Beattie "Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other." Randy Pausch Gratitude: Since beginning this blog in 2015, I have mentioned gratitude numerous times and written about gratitude several …
The Significance of a Birthday: Journey with Parkinson’s
"Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed." Arthur Schopenhauer "Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." Mark Twain Introduction: For 26 years, I taught undergraduate Biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill entitled "Biology of Blood Diseases." We …
Continue reading "The Significance of a Birthday: Journey with Parkinson’s"
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 …
Word for Wednesday: Resilience
"Resilience is not what happens to you. It’s how you react to, respond to, and recover from what happens to you." Jeffrey Gitomer “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” Friedrich Nietzsche "The greater the force of your compassion, the greater your resilience in confronting hardships." Dalai Lama Defining …
Life in the Presence of Parkinson’s: A Daily Mantra
"Gratitude is the greatest prayer. Thank you is the greatest mantra." Swami Nithyananda "My mantra: Brainless exercise is a lost opportunity for improvement." Michael Merzenich Definition: Mantra, man·tra (/ˈmantrə/) noun: mantra; plural noun: mantras.1. (originally in Hinduism and Buddhism) A word or sound repeated to aid concentration in meditation. "A mantra is given to a …
Continue reading "Life in the Presence of Parkinson’s: A Daily Mantra"
Journey with Parkinson’s: Adding a New Journey
"Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me." Carol Burnett "It needs to be said and heard: it's OK to be who you are." Hailee Steinfeld Adding a New Journey: In the preceding blog post, I spent a considerable amount of time writing about the quality of life, self-management of our …
Continue reading "Journey with Parkinson’s: Adding a New Journey"
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 …

