Worldwide Stew

A brief meditation for Parkinsons Disease

This is a transcript of my Self-Acceptance Meditation

This meditation is a collaboration with Claude.ai.

Hi, this is Mike Davis. I am the host of the Worldwide Stew podcast and WorldwideStew.com. This is a focused effort to try to provide some hopefully helpful meditation, brief ones, for those with Parkinson’s disease. I hope this helps. Thanks for listening. So I want to welcome you to this gentle meditation for self-acceptance. However you arrived here today, at this moment, sitting, lying down, in a wheelchair, you’ve made it to this moment and that takes incredible courage.

Deputized on Ash Wednesday

It’s Ash Wednesday. I feel a little sad about that. Why? When I think of Ash Wednesday, here’s the thing I remember most.

I was a chaplain at Baylor Scott & White Heart and Vascular Hospital in Dallas. Even though I wasn’t Catholic, each Ash Wednesday I was deputized to impose Ashes on the foreheads of anyone who wanted them. I received Ashes and then was deputized to impose them on others. I would visit every unit at the hospital to make sure people could get Ashes if they wanted them. There were always lots of questions:

The Saturday Night Monster

The Saturday Night Monster

Late on Saturday nights, the most frightening monster of all enters our home. It drags me to the fridge, seizing my hands and coercing them into into the freezer section. Resistance, as they say, is futile. Before I know it, I’ve succumbed to it’s cruel overtures.

If I were more mindful about the Saturday Night Monster,

Or, if I wanted to be more mindful about the Saturday Night Monster,

You are beautiful

I was passing through the living room. An advertisement was on the television. I feel a special contempt for these kinds of ads. A woman had used some kind of special formula." As a result os using the preparation she said, I was beautiful."

No, dear lady. To the extent you’re beautiful, it comes from the inside.

In the many years I cared for very sick people, I saw many of them when they regarded themselves as ugly.