Fighting Parkinson’s, and being cured six years

For me, today is a blessed day filled with gratitude, acceptance, and surrender. It is the day I woke up six years ago, Parkinson’s gone, life back in balance…cured.

In my recovery, I learned a lot about gratitude, acceptance, and surrender. I became completely grateful for my life, even one that temporarily had a body with Parkinson’s symptoms. My soul was untouched by Parkinson’s, and I was grateful that my soul was in a human body. I learned to accept whatever was happening as necessary in my life and my recovery. And, I learned to surrender that anybody owed me an explanation as to why the things were happening in my life…”Okay. Apparently this is supposed to be happening or it would not be happening.”

Six years after my final surrender and awakening, cured of Parkinson’s, I live my life following these lessons. Today, I share this story with you.

Roughly a couple of weeks ago, I learned that not all of my emails were being received by the intended recipients. Of course, the way I learned this was by people writing to me asking why I had not responded to their emails. When I looked at my sent mail, the responses were there. Then I realized, how would somebody who was the intended recipient of an email initiated by me ever know I sent it if it was not received.

Pre-Parkinson’s, I would have been angry and frustrated over the email problem. I would have been upset that emails had not been received, I would have been worried about what people who had not received my emails were thinking about me, and I would have been blaming myself (go figure) for why it was happening. All of this would have culminated in lots of fear. Instead, I said, “Okay. Apparently this is supposed to be happening. What can I do about it?”

Number 1, log into the my account with the hosting company who was handling the hosting of my website and email and do a support ticket. Since it was a Friday afternoon I thought I would do a support ticket and everything would be resolved by the end of the weekend. It was then that I learned that the company no longer had support tickets, but I would need to have an online chat or call tech support. I opted for an online chat as tech support calls in the past had a long wait time and I wanted to get the issue resolved as soon as possible.

Okay. I had my online chat, and the tech support person wrote that the problem was fixed, he blamed me for the email problem, and he disconnected the chat before I could make a record of it. Not a good sign. However, when I tested email by sending emails to my personal email and my daughter’s email, all emails arrived. Okay.

On the following Monday, I re-sent every email from Wednesday through Friday from the previous week, explaining there had been email issues and apologizing if it was the second time the person was receiving the email from me. A few days later, I learned that roughly 20% only of those emails had been received. “Okay. Apparently this is supposed to be happening. What can I do about it?” Call tech support his time.

At the conclusion of the tech support call, I was told told everything was working. I had sent a test email to the tech support person, and she read me the content of the email. Okay! Not okay. I decided that to be safe, I would blind-copy every email I sent, and I would know the delivery status based upon if a copy appeared in my personal email Inbox. This experiment showed me that there was a bigger problem. Not a good sign. I then re-sent a week’s worth of email a second (sometimes third) time from my personal email with an explanation that there was an email server problem.

One of the other things I learned in my recovery was to pay attention to the signs. Here were my signs: 1. My email was not being delivered consistently. 2. My hosting server company no longer took support tickets, so with online chats and phone calls, there would be no proof of issues occurring nor accountability for lack of solutions. 3. My email issue was unresolved. 4. This was the same company responsible for the up-time of my website on the Internet, and back-up of my website data.

“Okay. Apparently this is supposed to be happening. What can I do about it?” Change hosting server companies. I had been with the same company since March of 2011 when I moved my then-blog-only to this website. I am loyal. However, loyalty can only go so far when these types of issues remain unresolved over the course of two weeks.

I did my research, and on Wednesday this past week, I signed up with the new company. On Wednesday afternoon, I received notification that they had copied over all of the website files, and they gave me instructions how to point the servers from the old company to the new company. Not knowing how such a process would occur, how long it would take, and how long it would bring down the website, I called tech support of the new company…wait time, 2 seconds. Okay! I learned that after I did my part, it could be 48-72 hours for everything to change over. I waited for Thursday morning to point the servers to the new company, figuring that it all would occur on Saturday to Sunday, and by Monday, everything would be fine.

Well, the server propagation began on Thursday afternoon, a few days ago. The only casualties were that Wednesday’s blog post disappeared, and I was without email half the day as the email servers were being changed from the old company to the new company. I mentioned to Sally that the irony of it all would be this: Out of kindness, many of you would send me an email to let me know that the link to Wednesday’s blog post brought up an error message, but I was not receiving email for a while that day, so I would have no way of receiving your emails and responding. Okay.

By Friday morning, all was good. Website and email were with the new server company. Email was working properly. Wednesday’s blog post was on the website and the email notification link was working correctly. (If you missed that post, you can click here and read it).

I am grateful. I had accepted the situation and surrendered that anybody owed me an explanation why it happened. However, instead of being angry about it and fearful of what it might mean (pre-Parkinson’s attitude), calmly, with excitement of what the future might bring, I took action and created a solution (Parkinson’s recovery attitude). Was it an inconvenience? Yes. Did it require more work and slow things down to have to re-send many emails? Yes. Did it require patience? Yes. Did it require something new and different, putting my entire website and email in the hands of a new company when I had been with the other company for over 5 years? Yes. Did I have to have a great deal of faith that I had made the correct choice when I took the leap and made the change? Yes.

Can you see that this is why Parkinson’s does not come back after one is cured doing the Parkinson’s Recipe for Recovery®. Once you learn the lessons and have your recovery, your attitude and behavior reflect the “lessons learned” and you never have to learn them again. Faith, attitude, action, progress, recovery!!! It is life back in balance.

Okay! Apparently, I was supposed to get Parkinson’s, so I could cure myself, so I could find my purpose, so I could serve all of you. I am grateful to all of you for your hard work and dedication in taking the path less traveled and knowing you can recover from Parkinson’s. I am grateful to all of you for helping me fulfill my purpose.

I am grateful for my children, Steven, Genevieve, and Victoria. You have grown into loving, caring, beautiful adults. You make mom and I proud everyday. I couldn’t have done it without your love and support in helping me around the house and not giving up on your dad. Thank you. I love you.

And, Sally, the love of my life…what a journey it has been and continues to be. Thank you for holding me and never letting go. Thank you for holding my hand as we took our most recent leap of faith, leaping 3,000 miles from Florida to Oregon. I love you!

Yes, today I am six years cured of Parkinson’s. You can do this too!

You are worth it!!!

All my best,

Howard

Note: Don’t forget, I am providing a special offer of a discounted cost for Parkinson’s Coaching if you sign up by the end of June. Click here to learn more about Parkinson’s Coaching, including how to sign up for the One-Month Parkinson’s Coaching Package with the special offer.