January 2, 2024
It is surreal to consider that it was just one year ago I started my Parkinson’s comeback. Much has changed in the past 12 months as my Parkinson’s “progressed,” a word ordinarily reserved for positive characterizations.
Although my symptoms have indeed worsened, my mitigation efforts have added significantly more “time of useful consciousness” to the day, as we used to call it in the Navy. The last year has been progressively more difficult, but since when is easier better?
2023 was busy. Blue Water: Born a Pisces, Poseidon Has Always Been My God was released, while the completion of this essay is evidence that work on a sixth book continues.
Travel this year included three flights to the East Coast, the first to say goodbye to my mother and another to celebrate her life several months later. Our final flight east was to mark my son’s graduation from Nuclear Power School, a prerequisite to becoming a U.S. Navy submarine officer.
I was fortunate to see my grandson and his father several times in 2023. The latter relationship has not been without the occasional bump, but we both stuck with it to the point where I now love my son-in-law, well, like a son. And then there is our daughter, who works full time while raising our grandson and preparing for a second boy, still finding time to call her mother daily.
A week of fishing in Alaska with two old Navy buddies, one who brought his adult son, was another highlight, and I was privileged to make five new friends, all down-to-earth and fun.
What 2023 has lacked in ease has more than compensated with the joy of authenticity’s grace, bringing a fresh resilience. And so, the game continues…