Every Day Is The Best Day Of My Life

too late to mend or love

— Andrea Gibson, Take Me With You

Me after 10 minutes standing in the front of the line at Dairy Queen when I’m not getting enough attention

Tincture, by Andrea Gibson Gibson, A. (2018). Lord of the Butterflies. Minneapolis, MN: Button Poetry.

— Henry David Thoreau

The first thing I noticed was a tremor.  I’m a computer programmer and I kept accidentally hitting the shift key.  Then I started to lose my sense of smell. And finally came the depression.  My wife made me see a doctor.  She said to me: ‘Either you get on an antidepressant, or I’m going to.’  That’s when I learned I had Parkinson’s.  Over the years my tremors got worse.  My voice got quieter.  I had to quit working.  My dopamine levels fell so low that I lost communication between my brain and face.  I couldn’t express any emotion.  My daughter grew up without seeing me smile.  I probably seemed distant.  A lot of times I felt like I couldn’t fit in with the rest of the family.  Then a few months ago I had an experimental surgery.  They inserted a wire in my head that stimulates the brain with electricity.  Now all my emotions are coming back.  I’m more talkative.  I have more energy.  I’ve cried more in the last few months than I have in the past thirty years.  And for the first time in her entire life, my daughter can finally see me smile.”