Shaky Foot Wisdom
XVIII.
October 28, 2020
Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)
With a nod to songwriter Mickey Newbury’s 1968 chart hit Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In), I write today asking the question, ‘so how is my condition?’
While I have explored here the psychological and spiritual impact of my condition, today I also touch on the physical experience.
Now nearly three months since receiving a diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease, I remain optimistic. Reduction of hip pain has helped in my sense of wellbeing. Following my intuition, I had another visit with my Spine Clinic doctor who confirmed by x-ray that pain in my hips was due to arthritis. The remedy was a prescription for Cymbalta which belongs to a drug class called serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors. With an immediate relaxing effect upon these neurotransmitters, I have experienced both an immediate reduction of pain and an ability to sleep more.
Though early signs of winter have already interrupted the gentle falling of multicolored leaves, I look forward to a return to soaking up more of nature as the milder temperatures of fall return. Hopefully, I have regained a bit more of comfortability and flexibility that will allow longer walks and gentler exercise.
Which brings me back full circle to how I both see and experience the world now. On the particularly good days, I remember anew that I am so much more than this body, that I am gratefully awash in an ocean of multitudes (“I am large, I contain multitudes.” Walt Whitman in Song of Myself).
This heightened awareness of these multitudes allows me to rise up from all that is going on both within me and in the world. In these moments of remembering, I accept what is going on and I again, surrender.
