Shaky Foot Wisdom
XXXV.
A Sacred World
July 8, 2021
To find peace and my place in a sacred world, I must make peace frequently with just having a diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease. I choose whether Parkinson’s defines me, no one else. Much has been written about this concept of differentiating between I have a disease and I am this disease.
I have the privilege to choose. Emphatically, I choose to acknowledge that I have Parkinson’s and that I am not this disease. And in choosing also to thrive in a sacred world, I take hold of the reins of choice to the best of my ability.
Choice is the key to the kingdom of the life you and I are gifted to create. That kingdom sacred lies not in some far away as of yet undiscovered mountain Shangri-la, yet right here right now.
I have an old friend who has been a therapist for many years. One of her favorite sayings is ‘that feelings are like burps, they just have to come up’. So it is with both symptoms and emotions too. I am to acknowledge whatever comes up, be it pain, tremor, fear, sadness, anger and a host of other physical symptoms and emotions. In acknowledging each, the trick is to not to ‘camp out’ there for a long time.
Say hello, feel the feeling, assuage the pain, and then visualize as a passing cloud being carried away by the friendly wind. I choose where my attention stays. And I choose to be a part of creating a sacred world by my own actions.
