Hi Everyone,
I hope you are doing well. I am doing good. I had to write today to share with you how inspired I was yesterday after watching Michael J Fox on Oprah. He spoke of all the loss that came with his disease, but that with each loss he chose to view it as a choice to move his life in a different direction, as we all should in our lives. Having just posted about loss in my life this was an aha moment for me. Bing did say to me it was a choice of how I dealt with it, but I still found myself some days like Michael one step ahead, two steps behind. With the idea of taking my losses and filling them with another purpose to grow in my life I feel this will be the key for me as I process my grief. I feel a new sense of gratitude for my life seeing how he struggles each day and yet is so emotionally healthy. I will share some of his book with you. I am looking forward to reading it myself. Thank you Michael for your inspiration and all you do for your cause. I hope this inspires you as well.
Thanks for visiting my blog,
Take Care,
Janet :)
Always Looking Up alludes to an emotional, psychological, intellectual, and spiritual outlook that has served me throughout my life and, perhaps, even saved me throughout my life with Parkinson's. It's not that I don't feel the aching pain of loss. Physical strength, spontaneity, physical balance, manual dexterity, the freedom to do the work I want to do when I want to do it, the confidence that I can always be there for my family when they need me—all of these have been, if not completely lost to Parkinson's, at least drastically compromised. The answer had very little to do with "protection" and everything to do with perspective. The only unavailable choice was whether or not to have Parkinson's. Everything else was up to me. I could concentrate on the loss—rush in with whatever stopgap measures my ego could manufacture. I could rely on my old friend from the '90s, denial. Or I could just get on with my life and see if maybe those holes started filling in themselves. Over the last 10 years, they have, in the most amazing ways. While not a strict narrative, Always Looking Up describes a journey of self-discovery and reinvention. The story is a testament to the consolations that get me through and give meaning to every area of my life. For everything this disease has taken, something with greater value has been given—sometimes just a marker that points me in a new direction that I might not otherwise have traveled. So, sure, it may be one step forward and two steps back, but after a time with Parkinson's, I've learned that what is important is making that one step count; always looking up.
