THE TREE AND THE WIND

Sometimes I sit on the highest branch near the top of this big old tree and I look down on the world below and I wonder if there is anybody following me up this tree of knowledge called the Parkinson's tree. We all know something but we don't know everything. I stopped fighting this illness a long, long time ago and I decided to make it my friend which is why I have been able to climb so high. Every branch that I've been able to climb has taught me a lesson, but I still don't know everything so I am having to revisit some of the branches that I've already climbed in order to learn a little bit more. In fact, we are all trying to climb this tree of knowledge and find out how far we can go. And I am near the top of the tree and I still have a lot to learn. But the higher I climb the harder it gets, and so every now and again I sit down on the nearest branch and have a rest. And, while I am sitting there having a well-earned rest I look down on all these thousands of people with Parkinson's disease running around the base of the tree screaming their heads off and getting angry because they can't clamber onto the first branch. And that's because they think that they are trying to fight this illness when what they are really doing is fighting with themselves, but they can't see it. You have to learn the art of humility in order to be able to climb onto the first branch of the tree of knowledge. WINDSONG I looked up at the trees outside my bedroom window and they were gently moving and swaying with the gentle breeze, backward and forwards, backward and forwards because the wind was singing a happy song to them and making them dance and feel alive. And they seemed so happy in that very moment together and yet within a very short space of time they would eventually wither away and fall to the ground as the seasons change. But they didn't know that was going to happen to them but I did and I felt so sad for them because their lives would be so short. And I felt very very lucky because my lifespan was so much longer than the leaves on the tree and I would have more time to appreciate the gift I had been given of a long life regardless of whether I had Parkinson's disease or not. And my illness seemed so irrelevant in the ways of nature because I was still alive and still had a quality of life that the leaves on the tree outside my bedroom window would never ever have the chance to experience. But we never think like that because we always feel sorry for ourselves in our own selfish lives. Everything that happens is part of the natural world and was meant to be.