Lighter Side....Or More Fruitcake Anyone?

  Here is a link to the audio  version of this blog, if you would prefer to listen: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZiPP_28jew

    By now you know that I try not to focus on the negative, (which I might add is a broad category), and look at or focus on the positive. I am not always successful in this, but I feel that any day outside of myself is a good day. By that, I mean taking the time to help others instead of dwelling on my problems. It means always looking at what I can still do, not what I can’t, and doing it. It means making myself available to be an encouragement to someone who is having a harder time than myself at the moment. It means to simply listen to someone to show them that they still matter. My friends, I joke about Ataxia, and probably always will, okay, I definitely will. But, life does not stop because I have this. No matter what your struggle or situation is, I urge you, dear friends, to continue. You are a living testimony. Of what is your choice.

And so I will continue………….

One of the most significant ironies in life is the reality that the things I struggled with or against as a child...either because of a lack of the necessary skills needed,  was too busy in the sandbox, or trying to learn to ride a bike...are things that I should be able to do as an adult, but can’t. An example of this would be Dominoes. I was, as a child, never able to set up more than one in a row. Now?  I don’t necessarily have a burning desire to play with Dominoes, but I should be able to reach into a cupboard or grab something off a shelf without setting off a chain reaction. I mean, seriously, EVERYTHING starts to go over as if I had just spent days setting it up and now I’m going for the world record. Trees even begin to fall; people start screaming, it's mad panic……okay, okay, that’s a stretch, (nobody screams).

The dogs in my house are an excellent example of the current situation I find myself in. The best way to describe this is to tell you about the other night. My wife had made popcorn for us to snack on while we were relaxing in the evening. As is usually the case my wife and I were side-by-side on the couch, and also as per usual, the two dogs were climbing on me. After having dropped a few kernels of corn, my wife turned to me with a grin, and said, “You, my friend, are the weakest link.” It’s very true; it is one of the first things a new dog learns in our house as if they are thinking to themselves, “If I hang around the wobbly guy long enough, good things are gonna happen”! When I have food, I’m their best friend. And the thing is, I don't mind being the weakest link. Somebody's got to do it, right? And it has taken a lot of pressure off meal times once I accepted that, yes, I would continue to spill.( The dogs have me covered)! The sad thing is I can't take them with me into restaurants. (There should be a handicap status, I mean,  they would stay under the table and vacuum the floor, think of the time savings for the staff!)


I have never had a tolerable relationship with fruitcake, and by, "tolerable relationship," I mean of course that I don't like it. To me, the recipe goes something like this: take all the struggles, obstacles, pain and sorrows of life, mix all of these with a healthy dose of Ataxia and.....snap, crackle, pop.... fruitcake! I've been told that you can wrap it in a rum-soaked cheesecloth and age it. No, sorry, just give me a glass of rum and some skittles, and I'll be just fine, (no cheesecloth needed). If the medical community suddenly declared one day that my Ataxia could be slowly reversed by consuming 3 ounces of fruitcake daily....well, let's just say things might get interesting and leave it at that, the less said, the better.

One of the reasons I joke around so much about my condition is not because I'm unaware of how serious it is, but because it helps me accept the present and not mourn for those things in the past that could have been but never were. Not only do I try to focus on those things in the present which are positive, but I also try not to concentrate on the past, (too much). It’s difficult, but I really do try to smile at memories of the past as compared to the present. And so, I would like to share two pictures. The first one is myself and my beautiful wife as we expect our first child, and the second is myself with my three kids not too long before my diagnoses.

I can live in a state of mourning for what became impossible and the things that I missed, or I can count my blessings and live by faith in the present. You Know what I choose. My question is,"what do you choose"?
Here is a link to the audio version of this blog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZiPP_28jew