Airline socks…yes. Some of you may know that when you fly a lot, you are often given a pair of socks. This morning, they volunteered to give me inspiration for a much-needed post for myself. I have traveled a lot (and that is an understatement), and I am good at packing. So, to wake up on the last day of a short trip realizing I didn’t have any clean socks was annoying… then I realized… I had in my rucksack a pair of the never-before-used airline socks. Now – they are not especially fetching, and I will probably replace them as soon as possible… It did, however, highlight to me an important note to self.
Life can be extremely dark in so many ways – clearly, a not-so-good Parkinson’s weekend, including a fall and freeze episode or so, can push you into a bad place. But I choose to focus on something one of my friends said to me in a discussion we had yesterday morning. We really need to bank the little wins – the good moments, the comical moments, the beautiful moments that happen to us little and often. It is really important when fighting things so overwhelming and dark. It made me think…
Over the last few days, I can think of a number of these moments. Seeing my daughter’s report card which gave me huge pride, a conversation with my other daughter about a music band (if she ever read this, she would know what I mean!), my son buying me something so genuinely appreciated, two really good moments at work, getting a bag of goodies for my wife from someone she loves, friends cooking for me using previously unheard-of ingredients in their house, a friend hopefully pulling through a tough time with work and it is going to sound so sad, but getting an upgrade of rental car unexpectedly to a sporty BMW when I had reserved the bog-standard automatic model :-). These are just a small sample of many, many things too easily overlooked.
These – and the socks – do not change the fact that I have advancing Parkinson’s and that there are genuinely really serious challenges to deal with, but they tell me that there are really some good things out there and that I really am truly blessed with great family and friends close to me.
I know it sounds like something you would read on an annoying T-shirt or mug, but it is important to bank these things. Waiting for the one truly big happy moment to come along is a potentially never-ending game of anticipation and ultimately disappointment. Let’s take life’s wins and rack them up alongside and to counter the darkness.
All from a pair of Airline Socks 🙂
