A Patch of Moss

The skies are overcast with a thick layer of clouds and the leaves rustle gently now with each passing breeze. Prognosticators assert that a late summer “cold front” is passing north to south as a now category one hurricane is moving its way across north Florida in a track directly over the Carolina coasts. The southern moving front will collide with the northern moving storm and help steer it out to sea hopefully before it wreaks its full potential for damage over the inhabited landscape. This unwilling but accustomed possessor of Parkinson’s symptoms is moving in a calculated fashion, not wanting to inflame a lumbar region well noted for its raging objection to bouts of stress. The overcast sky reminds one of the need for a reprieve from glaring and piercing sunshine that can bake the clay and scorch the landscape. Life exists in either condition but thrives in a moderation of both. The giant Southern Pecan tree standing majestically in the yard gives evidence to the habitat of both sun and shade. The south side, receiving the brightest and more intense sunlight bears dry and brittle bark. The north side, being exposed to very little direct sunlight renders a habitat inundated with a bright green crop of moss that has thrived during this summer of frequent rain. Neither the dry bark nor the moss covered bark is significantly better than the other. They both inhabit the same tree that thrives to produce, some years, a bounty of its fruit. Like the tree, this possessor of PD seeks a balance from the extremes of his symptoms so as to flourish in the fruit of thanksgiving that is nourished by gratitude.