Ok here it is, for now:

1. Expect that I will do what I need to do to stay as strong as I can be given the circumstances.
2. Require myself to be less afraid.
3. Routinely be unspeakably kind to myself and others.
4. Own the fact that I have value.
5. Live with the intention of being small.
6. Love with a fearless heart.
7. Step toward and into peace by keeping myself on a life path lousy with joy, gratitude and curiosity.

I honed this list on my way from Dayton, Ohio to Monterrey, California. I decided to take this trip solo and although many things weren’t smooth, I worked it out with little panic and a sense of calm I have never enjoyed. I sit on my balcony and watch the seals come into the rocks in the morning, and the dolphins swim out to sea at night, and try to watch and enjoy not as a woman who wants to forget she has Parkinson’s disease, but as a woman who does. I know that if quality of life is solely dependent on the physical self I am screwed, eventually, but I also can’t give up on trying to be as strong, in all ways, as I can.