Shaky Foot Wisdom
XXXIII.
Shaking Hands with the Unknown
June 3, 2021
Since being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease last August, I have come more and more to realize I am often shaking hands with the unknown. Let alone the future, what will any one day bring? Today, after several consultations, I have become aware that the hip pain that keeps me from engaging in Rock Steady Boxing™ as much as I would like, may be due to off time non-motor symptoms. I am checking on that with my doctor.
Any course of illness, especially ongoing, involves frequent shaking hands with the unknown and perhaps coming to grips with these encounters. As many times as I have faced the unknown in my life from youthful hitchhiking jaunts cross-country in my late teens to undergoing life-saving open-heart surgery seven years ago, I have thought that I might have by now gained a comfortability with the unknown.
Yet, whatever your life experience, you may be like me—not quite ready to embrace the unknown as just another part of the journey. However, I have in many other areas of my life come to cherish letting go of attachment to particular outcomes. So too, this Parkinson’s journey will bring what it will bring.
So today, I look the unknown square in the eyes and shake hands once more, avowing that whatever comes will be just another day that I have not experienced before. To the extent I am able to embrace the unknown with my hand outstretched, I will realize a greater sense of peace and comfort in waking up to each new day.
[image by Yulianazary777]
