Voice. Listen with intent. Speak simply.

  • FUTURE SHOCK

    I suspect I am in the throes of future shock..  It began about 2007, when my principal suggested I invest in an IPod for my music classroom.  That proved to be one of the most valuable teaching tips I ever received.  I carried at least 1500 sound bytes and songs around in my pocket. I…

  • INVISIBLE

    I have been ruminating on an issue that has affected me deeply in recent years. In fact, I have been working on this particular blog entry for more than two months! The advent of the Pandemic exacerbated the problem of no longer being able to speak. Even though the worst of the pandemic over, at…

  • Miracle

    Some months ago, I wrote a piece about what I can do.  It was written from growing despair as I realized increasing limitations as a Parkinson’s patient…the incessant, inexorable downward spiral as this beast continues to drag me into its clutches.  By focusing on the things that I could still do, I could talk myself out of the doldrums.…

  • Parkinson’s Disease #4- The Waiting Game

    Five months ago, I slammed into the Wall of Reality. The way back to myself has been difficult at times, sometimes intriguing, and occasionally funny. I had a second surgery, 3 weeks after the first, to implant a computer module in my right shoulder – it still feels alien, but I’m glad it’s there. I don’t…

  • Parkinson’s Disease #3- THE WALL

    I’m not really a risk-taker. I’m a dreamer. When I was a child, my Mom always said, “Kay, you have eyes bigger than your stomach!” That was her description of my propensity for taking more food than I could possibly eat at the Sunday buffet. I couldn’t help it if so many things looked so…

  • Parkinson’s Disease #2- The Descent

    At the end of the 2013 – 2014 school year, my eleventh as an elementary school music teacher, I was more exhausted than normal for that time of year.  I was too tired to even be excited about a new clinical trial using a new DBS device.  I had heard about it in March, and now,…