TEN FOLD

How many things do you return home to at night that really, REALLY care? If your lucky it is a sole mate who greets you with a smile and loves that special feeling only you can bring into their immediate surroundings. Some of us are not lucky enough to have a soul mate or have lost them somewhere along the way BUT have an animal of some sort who seems to think their life begins when you walk in the front door. You never get to old to feel this love and when you cannot find it, that is true loneliness. My cat, Boo-Bear has been with me for several years and honestly believes I am his, since I am all he remembers. My granddaughter brought him home to me when he was half the size of my hand.....I never thought I would save him since he barely had his eyes open. Now years later, he is a huge tom cat. He delights in greeting me by jumping on my chest when I sit down and putting his long arms around my neck and purrs this congested kind of purr and closes his eyes in bliss as I tell him I love him and put him down. I have been fortunate to have always had someone or something around to welcome me home this way. Your kids and family do this in early years but as you get older and the world speeds up and we slow down, they never seem to be there or have their own tight circle around them. Some of us or so fortunate to know that warm feeling from a very close love one and some of us or not. Some take that some one for granted or just never cared in the first place and end up just living for the convenience of it all. I think the statement is sometimes made, "It's too late to change or what's the use." There is always a need to strive for the best whether you are 60 or 20 or 90 0r 40. That cat will never be left behind in a move. Just as in moving my family will not be left behind.....I'll always be there to listen.....and that sole mate .....I will never be too old for a hug or to hold hands whether we are walking or not. My thought in all this rambling is.....if you have that special connection hold on to it.....God presented it to you. If you are alone get out and be there for someone else......what you give will come back to you ten fold. Love you always, Pokie

The Rose

This song seems to be haunting me and usually that means something very important is there I need to know. Let's try it again and see:

THE ROSE

Some say Love, it is a river that drowns the tender reed.

Some say love, it is a razor that leaves your soul to bleed.

Some say love, it is a hunger, an endless aching need.

I say love, it is a flower, and you the only seed.

It's the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance.

It's the dream afraid of waking that never seeks a chance.

It's the one that won't be taken who cannot seem to give.

And the soul, afraid of dying that never learns to live.

When the night has been too lonely and the road has been too long.

And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong.

Just remember in the winter far beneath the winter snow...

Lies the seed that with the sun's love in the Spring become the Rose.

Everyone is entitled to one Rose in their lifetime yet so many bounce from flower bed to flower bed never finding fertile ground to grow in or their shell is too hard to penetrate so love can sprout. How lonely to spend your life looking for something and then find it to be so close at hand......A neighbor or workmate a friend or lover long gone years before. If we take the easy way we gain nothing....in love or Parkinson's. For today, try stepping just a litle out of your comfort zone. Call someone you once loved. Look Parkinson's Disease straight on and dare it to come forward. Dare to be strong and take charge. Yes, it's a scary place to be but the rewards are great...remember these quotes I have learned over the years:

The elderly don't regret what they do but what they don't do.

There are many people walking around dead and don't even know it.

We do not stop playing because we are old, we grow old because we stop playing.

It's never too late to be all you can possibly be.

To grow older is no problem. To grow up is another problem.

Good luck with your adventures and smile love pokie

Is The World Watching????

This morning around 10:00 a young man called me and wanted advice on how I thought the government was going. Poor soul, I am sure he was not prepared for the conversation that followed. He ask me what was the one thing he could do to make me happy with my government and my answer was.... leave my social security alone. Don't be thinking it can in anyway pay off the deficit and while he was at it leave the seniors alone. Was he aware that there were seniors out here taking their medication every other day because they cannot afford it on a daily bases or because they were sharing their medication with someone who does not have or cannot afford medication. This is not right. This is America. Supposedly the world looks up to us but our heroes are being left behind to fall helplessly through the cracks and who cares. These same seniors are the founders and first caretakers of our country. We could get by on little just to be able to say we were Americans. We should not have to want for a thing in our old age we made this country. Does it make since to take from some one who already has nothing to pay off a deficit that they didn't make in the first place. Why is the person, much younger and with an income(INCOMING MONEY)not made accountable.....it looks like it is because we are not able to speak up for ourselves and who cares we are close to dying anyway....Don't think so. I plan to be around a long time and I don't like the idea of someone who spent his life time in the halls of Congress deciding me and my friends should spend our remaining years strapped for funds. We are the foundation of this country. We can and will make due BUT we shouldn't have too. I have worked HARD ALL MY LIFE to get where I am and I can go without better than most. I can stretch something to eat and make it taste good far beyond the limit..I know what living on the high side and low side and totally without side is. Everything going on in this United States, today, is about the almighty dollar. It appears to me no heart is involved. Is the World watching? Hell yes they are. Am I scared..Hell yes I am...How far away is 2012 and what are we doing to stop the tide.....looks like to me we are just pouring oil on it...Sorry, in some circles this is called "Pokie on a box." If I have offended I'm sorry but enough is about to be enough...love always Pokie

Grandma Says

I grew up in a college town in Southeast Missouri in the late forties.  We were a modest family.  No one ever discussed it but we knew we weren't rich.  We had cousins who lived in St.Louis that must have been rich because their Christmas presents always came in Famous Barr Red Boxes. I saved these boxes and when my friends had birthdays during the year I would be sure they were given something that fit into a Red Famous Barr Box.  We saved the small things for worse times and thats what we should be doing now.Hopefully we all won't have to live through a natural disaster, but does it hurt to be prepared to save YOUR family if one happens?What are your grandkids going to eat and drink for a week while the Government takes care of itself first..  Have you got a spare closet? Could you store a week supply of water in gallon milk jugs?....One per Day.  How about some candles and matches batteries and radio?

Learn a new old plan "Take Care of Your Own".  Are you watching the Haitians? They had nothing and are going out in the middle of fields and sitting up some sort of shelter to huddle under. God bless this mother of seven, who lost four and had three left and was squaring off in the corner of a field so they all knew where each other were.

No matter how much I fuss, my mother cannot throw anything away.  I throw containers  in the trash upstairs and she takes my trash out and sorts it and washes every discarded container and brings them back into the basement. When I head off to town for groceries, she brings them back upstairs and we start the cycle all over again.  Crazy maybe, BUT my mom was one of ten kids.......... five, boys five girls who grew up during the Depression.  Their father was an unemployed carpenter and their mother was disabled most of her life due to a open leg wound..

If there is anything I know, it is how to stock pile, cook and can...prepare for the worse day you could ever have  and come out having a good time. This country needs to stop waiting for the government bailout.....the government will bailout the government...My.Grandma always said, "Straighten up,  stop sniffling and do something...Love Pokie

A PASSION THAT IS UNMATCHED.....

I have spent some time lately spinning my wheels. Be it depression or fatigue, who knows, but it is time for me to get over it and go back to what I love most and that is being with people who are associated with Parkinson's or have it. The truly best times in my life have been in the past three years after I decided to write my thoughts down and commit them to the Internet for all to read. I went full force for all that time and loved it but did not address the idea that sooner or later I would run out of steam and crash. Well I did just that in May and can say I have never been so tired in all my life BUT I have slept and regrouped my meds and visited many doctors. All in all it was the rest I needed most and next was the fact I was extremely over medicated. Once the fog cleared and I stopped sleeping way too many hours a day, things begin to shine again. I really believed my life was ending by God's will. If that was the case I was going to go along with it but needless to say he must have more plans for me. Daily offers pour in and help on how to get what I do write out to the general public.....I have always said that "Today With Pokie" was from my heart and "Coffee With Pokie" was for laughs and Journey to 2009 was commercial. I think that still applies but somehow I need to consolidate so a person can go to one place and find me not three or four......We will see what I come up with in the on coming months but needless to say I am doing well and back with a "PASSION" THAT IS UNMATCHED......see you later love Pokie