Just want to take a quick moment to say hello to all my old friends. I think of you all so often and have missed being able hop on here as frequently as I use to.

There are alot of new "faces" that I am anxious to get to know and share with you our daily tales.

As alot of you know this last year has been anything but easy. However, I have been surrounded by "GOOD" people here that have worked so hard to keep me on track. After my stroke I thought that was it for me but even I am amazed at how little is left that I still have to struggle with.

Talking with BassMan we shared a few thoughts on Rhuematoid Arthritis and how it has affected us both. It is tough I will grant you that, but I think that we all are real tough folks anyway and our endurance levels are much higher than we are sometimes aware of.

As of 2 weeks ago I found out that I am now in the early early stages of Parkinsons. It is called "Younger Onsets" No fun let me tell you. But if you were to look at me (aside from the cain) you would never guess there was anything wrong with me. That can sometimes be a curse. Especially when I need folks to be a little more understanding of my pain and there response typically is that I look fine to them.

Where's my sign!!!!???? I truly feel that if we were all to wear signs saying what was wrong with us, maybe folks would back off a little. Maybe not. Well this rambling even has me confused. Decipher if you can!

Take Care All Of My Friends! And Chin UP!! Mark

Hey Mark!

As one who was away for a while himself, it's good to hear from you. But I'm sorry to hear about the Parkinson's. Truly.

I wanted to share something with you, which although part of a transcript of a Unitarian sermon, draws on Jack Kornfield's wonderful book, After the Ecstasy, the Laundry, and in particular the experiance of Ram Dass (f.k.a. Richard Alpert, PhD. of Harvard, before he got expelled way back when along with Tim Leary for spreading too much good cheer through the land):

To touch our bodies, feel our bodies, watch them move and breathe, is to know ourselves. It is also to invite in the gratitude and awareness that can counteract the madness of our disembodied culture. We cannot trade in these precious, vital bodies of ours the way we might trade in an old car when it begins to clank a little. What we can do instead is taste real freedom, no matter what shape our bodies are in, by inhabiting them fully, letting them be what they are, and gratefully accepting the world through all the windows of our senses.

Ram Dass, is an American spiritual teacher who suffered a catastrophic stroke in 1997. About a year later he said, "For years I practiced the path of service. I wrote books about learning to serve, about how to help others. Now it is reversed. I need people to help me get up and put me to bed. Others feed me and wash my bottom…But this is just another stage….If I think I'm the guy who can't play cello or drive or work in India, I would feel terribly sorry for myself. But I'm not him…I have a new life in a disabled body. This is where I am. We've got to be here now. We've got to take the curriculum."

http://home.att.net/~usnh/20040502.html

And so we take the curriculum.

much love,
Mike

HI Mark!

It's great to see you post. I am sorry to hear about everything that's goin on..bless your heart....I have missed chatting with you! Give me a yell sometime...

Big Hugs

Debbie

Goodness Mark what luck you have...
I hope you have a mild form of PD, are you taking meds for it?