With Grace

With Grace occurs in an imagined space where two people--partners, friends, earthly, and unearthly figures--reflect on a new diagnosis and what it may bring.

With Grace was a finalist in the 2013 World Parkinson’s Congress Video Competition.

You can read the poem set to the dance below:

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With Grace

It was October, seventeen years ago.
I remember it clearly.
I knew something was wrong,
but I didn't know what it was.
You were with me.
You are with me still.

I remember leaving the doctor's office
and feeling happy.
Why am I happy, I thought?
I've just been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease.

You said maybe I was just relieved
to have a name to call
what was happening to me.

Things change
and change
and change
and change.

When something new occurs,
is it a harbinger of things to come?

When I forget something I shouldn't,
is it just a momentary lapse,
or am I slowly losing my mind?

Can you tell me?

This disease is so hard, you say.
No doubt.
But in a way,
it gives us more of each other.
And it bears other unexpected gifts —
creativity, empathy, lack of inhibition.

What choice do we have
but to accept and try to use these gifts
with grace?

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