June 3, 2017

Greetings My Friend Recently I have thought about "I want what she has" in regards to my faith. I feel if I am living my life with contentment in what I have then others will take notice and want to find that peace in their lives. My peace comes from my faith in Jesus, as I write it is 3 am and I am wide awake so my thinking turns to Parkinson's Disease and my faith. I know that having grown up with a Dad who had polio and in my marriage to a man who is an amputee I find myself watching in my minds eye my Dad and in living with Junior how he handles his life. Junior has constant pain, he is tired due to the pain and I see how he handles all of this. I marvel because his life is productive, slow but productive. Dad taught himself how to walk even though it was thought he would not and Dad lived life taking care of the house and his family the best he could. I look at both my Dad and Junior finding myself wanting to imitate their sense of "can do" attitude. With this in mind I want to face my disease walking with Jesus and accept the struggles of the disease with grace and strength holding tight to Jesus along the way. I find looking at what Jesus endured on the cross one of the 1st places I look. He prayed asking God to take away the cup of suffering He was entering into. Father God sent angels to comfort Him and Lord Jesus went to the cross. Jesus needed God's support so He prayed and God provided, with this as my example I learn that I need to take the pain whether emotional or physical to prayer and I know that the pain won't be taken away but God will walk with me through the pain. I learn to accept the life of Parkinson's to find I can be content in it. I have undertaken learning new things since finding out I have PD like baking bread, dehydrating, decopauge and sewing. I learned to "work when I can and sit when I can't" without thinking I am useless and I went back to list making to list the tasks I want to do then work the list. I used to make a new list each day. Now I make the list and work it for the week. Most weeks I finish the list and I feel content doing work. The list shows me how much I truly do and that I am useful. Praying with Junior and on my own also helps keeps my attitude positive. At the end of the day I am content where my life is headed and prayerfully I am showing the face of Jesus as I live life in a broken body. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet