You can imagine, then, what this week has been like for me. We had the outside of the house painted. The painter found some rotting wood, so he had to call in a carpenter. Painting is fairly quiet, so I can deal with painting. Carpentry, on the other hand, is not quiet. It involves saws and hammers; saws and hammers make noise. Noise is commotion.
But that's not all. We also were laying a hardwood floor in two rooms. Scheduling of the contractors didn't go as planned. The floor layers showed up early because their prior job was cancelled. Floor layers use loud tools. There are rubber mallets, another saw and, worst of all, a high pressure thingy that makes many many loud "shots" while pushing tongues into grooves. So all of these people, their trucks, their lunch bags, their refuse and the conversations they were having among each of their respective crews was creating an unbearable level of commotion.
We all know that stress exacerbates tremors and other outwardly physical signs of Parkinson's. You can imagine, then, that all of this commotion created an excessive amount of stress. The hands started tremoring such that I couldn't hold anything still. The tears came easily and quietly streamed down my face.
So, what did I do? I went outside and sat down. There were drop clothes, but no painters. There was a downed rain spout, but no carpenter who was supposed to be putting it back up. I can't say the deck was calming. The chairs were all over the place. There were leaves everywhere and my planters were shoved together. But there were no people and very little noise.
I managed to stop the tears and make the lump in my chest melt away. I got my hands calmed down not by staring at this:
but rather by concentrating on this:
I didn't see the forest because I just concentrated on the "tree."
Peace,
G
The reaction to commotion is true for most of us at some level. I can only imagine how much worse it is for people with Parkinsons!
ReplyDeleteGod bless.