The next hill

December 4, 2023

When I go hiking or just a walk around the neighborhood, I rarely think about traversing the hill at the end. There is nothing to gain by ruminating about how it will be painful and prolonged. Instead, I think about my next few steps, breathing vitality into everything surrounding me.

Living in the present is a much-discussed concept that travels deep into the soul. I only began to realize this as my Parkinson’s symptoms started to accelerate nine years after deep brain st...