Thank you Dear Jesus......

Thank you dear Jesus for this day I pray with the gifts of food and clothing and a place for my daily rest. Thank you for giving the year that has just past, so filled with good memories of friends that I have. Thank you for friendships that have formed on all sides. Thank you for my walking, no matter how crude, you stayed beside me and we got through.For sunshine and fresh air so crisp and so clean.I thank you sweet Jesus for this day I pray.So thankful and I am for the gift of new life. For Ayden, (Little Jesus) who was sent to show the way. His smile and his laughter and all his sweet ways, that calm us and remind us of the mission we have.On this day of Thanksgiving in this wonderful land, I thank you sweet Jesus for making me part of the plan. You gave me new projects to lead me from the pain. Each day has been a challenge a mountain to climb. When I think I can no longer respond, you gently remind me that my day has not come. A verse or a penny somewhere do I find and angels surround me and no longer do I wine. Sometimes I write poems and sometimes some verse but today I'll just leave this quite in the reverse.....so you can just ramble and pick as you will from my Thanksgiving thoughts for this Beautiful Day.

Monday Morning Ramblings

It seems ever apparent, as time moves us on, that so many things cause our world to take shape and be misshapen. This morning I sit here trying with all my might to get my left hand to cooperate and let me type. It curls and it freezes, all terms a "Parkie" might know. It's my left arm I do battle with and thank God for that, because you see I'm right handed and really that is the only really functional part of me left. Parkinson's is a funny disease and it likes to play around. Some day you would barely know something was so wrong and then there are days like today...I take them one and all and know that my Journey has all been Googled for me many centuries before. Some mornings I lay tossing and turning in bed until I finally get up and grab my coffee and off I go to the computer as of possessed. As I start to type all the pain goes away and the answers and some questions form for a new day. This morning this small poem came from nowhere so I copied it down and checked my email.

Tell me sweet Jesus, give me a clue. How do I be such a leader of few? Give me direction as I stumble along, trying to save and then moving on. Questions and Questions come from all sides and so few answers do I find. . So many needles in such huge haystacks, Tell me sweet Jesus, tell me please do Are the answers still out there? For the wanderings of so few. pokie 11/2008

So now on my second cup of coffee and well on my way...I'm ready to square off and face my new day. I can only hope that some of my tasks don't include running and jumping. For those are two things my body refuses to address no matter what shape I get up in. Well leave you with this rambling and wish you a good day on my Journey to 2009....

such special times

From October to April last year and this I posted on Patientslikeme.com hourly or daily, whichever came first, but in that span of time little did I know the friendships that were to be formed for me. I watched these ladies from a far and read everything they posted and admired them so. Following those days so many things came into play....the Unity Walk, Nicole had Dbs, and I found out what great poetry and writings Marian and Karen could produce. I met Marla at the Unity Walk as well as Tom and Dixie and the rest is history. We are watched from afar and I'm sure one would wonder at what an odd combination we make but our feelings run very deep and we are very protective of each other....A closer bond I have never felt with anyone and take that and multiply once again for each of them. I flew out to meet Nicole , Karen and Marian in October and each meeting was as before....as if we had always know each other. The coffee cup , above, was a symbol of such a playful time in our history. We use to hang out on Chatzy in the early morning and pretend we were in a coffee shop for morning coffee...hence "Coffee With Pokie". Karen sent us all a cup that to this day sits next to my computer. We would all get signed in and get our drinks and raise our cups in unison to start our day. I miss those days but I understand their passing. We were kids at play then. Skipping down the lane taking each day at a time and holding each others hand. Then all of a sudden Truth stepped into our little fun house and nothing has been the same except our undying love for each other. Karen's diagnoses of MSA and the sudden noticing of our friendships brought the world and all it's horrible things to that coffee shop and it slowly faded away. God says you should not put great stock in your possessions but that coffee cup could just as well have been made of gold. Inside it says"It's your Day"..... This morning I raise my cup once more to you girls...the members of the coffee club..Here's to you "It's Your Day"....love pokie

'TOGETHER IN STRENGTH, FORWARD IN HOPE"

It's a new day in the neighborhood and I sure hope our day is here to shine . Parkinsons Disease needs all the help we can get to find this cure and save my grandkids from this disease. My family has that dominate gene. My grandmother has Alzheimers on my Dads side as well as my grandfather on my mothers side. My grandfathers brother had Eplipsy and my dad had Myacinia Gravis. My mom now has Alzheimers and I have Parkinsons. We have four generations living now and you would think someone would want to study our family history with atleast blood work. Ah but alas, time moves on and no one appears to be interested. I leave Tuesday for the Parkinson's Clinic of the Ozarks in Springfield, Missouri for a full day of testing and hope to end the day with alot of answers. I have been making a list of questions not only for me but one of my friends, Karen, who seems to present alot like me.....so possibly she doesn't have MSA or I do? I am rapidly losing all faith in the medical community to diagnose us "Parkies" and effectively treat us. So much of our ground work has to be done by us and I worry when I can no longer research who will. Oh, well that is another time and another place and I try to stay in the present. God please bless Karen and I and all our friends and help us to remember "TOGETHER IN STRENGTH, FORWARD IN HOPE"