help
(By Cathy Garrott)
It’s interesting how people with PD tend to bond immediately. A former student of mine (30 yrs. ago) goes to the same rehab center that I do and recently, because of a schedule change, we have been in the same group exercising in the pool once a week. Her husband told me last week that since she has been in my group she has been doing MUCH better physically and mentally/emotionally as well.
In thinking about this woman (who is 10 years older than I) she and I were not the best of friends when she was my student, so I didn’t feel particularly “close” to her. But after I was diagnosed with PD in August of last year she suddenly became very interested in renewing our contact. Now she looks forward to coming to rehab and walking in the pool with me. She has opened up her heart and shared things I would never expect to know about her. It’s like God just opened the door and gave me a grand welcome into her life.
She told me that before I came she felt as if no one really understood the struggles she was dealing with, and going to rehab was so emotionally stressful that she could not see the physical benefits from it. But now she feels that she has a companion in the struggle and she looks forward to rehab. Before she did not want to walk, once she got into the pool, because her pace was so much slower than the others and she was embarrassed. Now I walk beside her and encourage her to keep moving … and she does because she knows I’m struggling with the same foe.
We are trying to climb this same mountain, known as PD, and sharing with others the victories we have had is an encouragement to them as well. Keeping our mental focus looking up instead of inward enables us to make the next leg of the journey with hope instead of despair. Heart to heart we can overcome the psychological barriers and help others in the process. This way, EVERY day can be Valentine’s Day!!!
Trees, pastures and homes of childhood friends whisked by as the trusted Jeep and I were bound for morning errands. News on the radio flashed from the unimaginable devastation in the Philippines and the tragic loss of life there to the petty chaos erupting in a Toronto town council meeting over a drug using and defensive Mayor to then a congressional hearing that in effect provides a grandstand for political showmanship. The news anchor moved from one to the other as though each was as significant as the other. I was taken by the cavalier way in which loss of life was weighted equally to self indulgent egomaniacal posturing by political pundits. A swift poke at the power button on the radio left me with my thoughts and road noise as welcomed companions. The tears and sobs of the man who had lost his wife and two children as he held tightly to his one remaining daughter and shouted “how could this happen?” echoed as I arrived at my first destination. The answer to the man’s question is easily answered with meteorological facts that explain the formation and execution of major storms. The question the man was asking, however, was more personal than the meteorological response. His question was about his personal loss, the lost lives of his wife and children; why them, why me, why now? Although the previous response gives reasons for nature’s climatic forces, it is not sufficient to address the human element of grief and loss of that which we so routinely take for granted. Exacerbating the loss of life for many is the additional loss of home, food, and water for drinking. Those of us who have not been directly impacted by nature’s fury this time may feel “called” to aid those desperate for relief. May you act on your call and under gird that act and all others with prayers for peaceful hearts and relief from grief and sorrow.