Choosing a word as a guiding light for the new year is a wonderful idea. When Dr. Robert Cochrane suggested it a year ago giving Susan the credit for starting the tradition I was happy for the change of perspective. New Year's resolutions, no matter how sincere the intentions, often don’t pan out in the end. Thus causing feelings of failure when that promise isn’t kept a few days or weeks into the year when, too often, we reach above our means. 

Cocreate, focus, love and cultivate were the words we the YAX family started 2024 with. We cultivated love and acceptance. We worked on keeping one another focused in trying times. Acceptance was celebrated by the release of Robert's first book. His great expression of love for us all. We learned to focus on life differently by playing in our Cocreated safe space. Our connections and friendships grew and our numbers multiplied throughout the  year. 

Most of all we cultivated hope. Hope for the future through love and acceptance by learning to trust each other. We learned to better trust ourselves. 

I remember Robert asking us to play with our word of choice and see how it fits into every aspect of our lives. Remembering that today, I chose love as my word for 2025. As I start life over and have the opportunity to redefine what the word love means. I’ve aso at last learned that self love is one of the most important forms. Self-help books, inspirational speakers and therapists in every regard speak to the fact that you can’t truly give love to someone else until you can first learn to love yourself.

The Breakfast Club is another movie that shows us kids in the 80’s, from the most popular to the lone nuts, struggled with negative stigma and low self esteem. Yes, and it took me this long to break free from many of the chains that bound me to those seeds of negativity. It is the one greatest gift Cinema Therapy has given to me. Thank you and I love you all! 

There are many kinds of love. Self love. Disciplinary love. Love of a friend. The heartfelt love for a family pet. Love threw resignation and forgiveness. Compassion and selfless sacrifice. The love that is felt with relief when a seemingly impossible task has been achieved. Love of freedom and seeing a long awaited day at last arrive. 

Then there is the awe-inspired love. Love that comes from faith that God and the universe has a plan. The love and connection between mother and child that transcends meaning. The breathtaking connection that cannot be explained only felt. Moments that stall both time and space. The residual feeling after a warm embrace. 

I’ve always had a deep, regenerative love for the earth and all of its children. I feel it was a love I was drawn to by destiny that brought me to all of you. As the monoliths suggest. The time to tell our stories is now. The perfect storm did at last arrive. So let's all strive to stay alive in 2025. 

Yes, and…may light, love, healing and peace follow us all until we meet again. 

Karen Patterson, a.k.a. Mother Nature 

• Karen is a woman living with Parkinson's disease. For more on her writing, please visit her blog page. Or come to the Jam for Joy to play improv with her!

Originally Published on https://www.yesandexercise.org/

Robert Cochrane, PhD Yes, And...eXercise!

Dr. Robert Cochrane is a graduate of UNLV's Integrated Health Sciences department. He's researching the effect of improvisation and storytelling on Parkinson’s disease. He received grants from the Parkinson's Foundation and support from the Davis Phinney Foundation along the way. He is a popular, unique and high energy Keynote speaker, bringing joy, optimism and practical tools for people in the PD community to thrive today.

He has a background in filmmaking, with the Artisan Entertainment release, The Playaz Court, and two Stephen King-based short films among his credits. His father, Dan, was diagnosed with PD in 2001, which shifted Robert’s artistic lens to health. He made his first documentary, the award-winning Boys of Summer in 2004. There are two follow up films in the series with the fourth film coming in 2023.

He moved his family back to Walnut Creek, CA, where he grew up. He lives there with his beautiful wife, two teenagers who are, indeed, "all that" and is a proud care partner for his amazing parents.