IT'S HAPPENING NOW - Brittlestar’s Weekly Newsletter - Issue #58
If you enjoy my writing and videos, feel free to visit our site to get some cool stuff and help me pay my electric bill: PeaceLoveCanada.ca
IT'S HAPPENING NOW
My Dad has Parkinson’s.
Not the Michael J Fox kind but rather the cognitive one that affects his ability to process information and also easily initiate and control his motor skills.
It’s a real bastard.
It’s been difficult to watch him decline in the past several years, but, as time works the way it does, the descent hasn’t been jarring. Seeing him often has softened the change.
That is, until I went through some old photos yesterday.
I’m a loosely organized but meticulous digital archiver. I have every email sent or received by me since 2001. Yes, that is weird.
I found an CD-R backup of photos from 2003 and 2004 and decided they needed to be uploaded to the cloud as well for easy access. It was a lovely trip down memory lane that unexpectedly slammed the so-called, but very real, ravages of time right into my face.
There was my Dad. Youthful-ish. Well, barely older than I am now. Looking healthy, robust and functionally gregarious.
It hit me pretty hard. The images didn’t seem like they were from that long ago but they body-slammed me into my timeline.
He was me.
My Dad in the photos could have done anything.
My Dad in the current day needs a lot of help to do anything.
At first I was sad and panicky. The fear of not appreciating the ‘right now’ almost made me lose my breath.
Then I realized we can’t go back in time and we definitely can’t stay put in one time… we’re moving forward in it. Always. Constantly.
The best thing you can do is realize your life is happening right now.
It’s all happening now.
If it’s not the life you want, change what you can.
Ask for you help if you need it.
Do your damndest to enjoy it.
Right now.
###
(Pictured: Author as young man with young wife enjoying wings and Dom Pérignon)