Making it permanent (or not)

Parkinson’s disease sketches out a life for me using a pencil. It is a foreboding, restricted and faint life full of storms and difficulties. I would normally believe the world that Parkinson’s presents to me in that pencil drawing. In the past I would believe in it to such an extent that I would go over the lines with a permanent marker pen to make them solid and impenetrable.

It is our reaction to the lines drawn in pencil by Parkinson’s that determine the meaning of the drawing. It is equally valid (but more helpful) to rub out some of the lines or add some of your own or only mark with permanent marker the lines you want to. We have to live with certain aspects of the drawing but we don’t have to make them our permanent focus. There is always room to choose and change…