Category Archives: Haiku for Parkinson’s

Mood fluctuations in Parkinson’s

Happy to see the new “Haiku for Parkinson’s” blog post on The Haiku Foundation site: using haiku to reflect on, and gain a sense of control over, the ups and downs of mood in Parkinson’s. Read it here: https://thehaikufoundation.org/haiku-for-parkinsons-mood…/

#haiku4parkinsons#h4p#Parkinsons#ParkinsonsDisease#haikufound#livingwithparkinsons#MovementDisorder#Parkinson’s

April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month

Did you know that April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month?

A month to raise awareness of this disease and share information about it with the public. The aim is to highlight the urgency of finding a cure, but also matters in need of attention while waiting for a cure. To remind ourselves too, about the different experiences, approaches and treatments available to help manage the condition. What will you be doing during the month? Sign a petition? Make a pledge to exercise more?

Whatever you do, choose an activity that engages you, inspires you, makes you smile! Play table tennis! Read a haiku! Keep talking, keep thinking, keep learning!

Sky Ponds in CHO 19.2

Happy to see my haibun “Sky Ponds-Himmelsweicher” appear in Contemporary Haibun Online 19.2

I found out about the bomb craters in the Augsburg city forest during a walk with my Parkinson’s walking group. Marvelous recovery of a wounded landscape, and people. And apt for our own situation of struggling with progressive disease.

bomb craters

Sky Ponds—Himmelsweiher

The Siebentischwald, on the edge of Augsburg, acts as the lung of the city. Lush green vegetation crisscrossed by water channels and dotted by silent ponds makes this forest the life force of Augsburg. It turns out it is also the repository of an interesting piece of the city’s history: the forest floor bearing the scars of thousands of bombs that were dropped on it towards the end of World War II.

On my morning walk with my Parkinson’s group, in this peaceful, green oasis, pierced by high-pitched peacock cries from the adjacent Zoo, I come across oval ponds and other depressions filled with vegetation. I am told they are Bombenkrater, the remnants of craters formed by aerial bombing.

The proximity to the munitions manufacturer Messerschmitt meant that bombs often landed in the forest. However, the massive bombing raid in February 1944 literally dug up the forest floor, leaving numerous wounds on the landscape. In recent years, a public charity transformed some of these craters into ponds brimming with life.

cool forest shade. . .

lingering by the sky ponds

heat from the past