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 …

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 …

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 …

Parkinson’s: Here Comes the Sun

"The sun shines on everybody. You've got to keep believing." Dontrelle Willis "After the rain, the sun will reappear. There is life. After the pain, the joy will still be here." Walt Disney Introduction: Recently, I have written several blog posts focused on musical songs that deal with perseverance. And the focus was to use …

Journey with Parkinson’s: Managing Daily Life

"I decided I can’t pay a person to rewind time, so I may as well get over it." Serena Williams "Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to the error that counts." Nikki Giovanni Adding On to Your Life With Parkinson's: Many people, when they get their diagnosis of Parkinson's, will make immediate …

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 and Life Lessons Learned in Bermuda

"You can go to heaven if you want. I'd rather stay in Bermuda." Mark Twain “Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." Roald Da Introduction: Heading to Bermuda for a much-needed break may have been crazy in the middle of another COVID-19 surge, with Delta and Omicron variants spreading like wildfire. Nonetheless, after …

Words with Hope

"There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow." Orison Swett Marden “Hope is a waking dream.” Aristotle Introduction: Over the years, I have used blog posts about a specific word, feeling, or emotion. A frequent word used a lot here is the word …

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 …