Having just returned home from the PingPongParkinson World Championship in Wels, Austria, I am not only full of impressions from the trip and the competitions, but also aware of how much of my well-being is connected to the joy that table tennis gives me. Table tennis is not only physical training and rehabilitation, but also a social context with community across borders.
For me, table tennis and Parkinson’s is a meeting where magic happens. A magic that is created in the encounters with the people I meet. All the joy, all the laughter, the warm sense of community — all of it together also gives me the power and strength to keep fighting a little longer. But there is something more, something hard to grasp, that gives that little extra, the thing that makes it magic.
I believe that everyone — no, I am convinced that everyone, regardless of Parkinson’s — needs exactly this. A place, a context, that creates this special kind of magic.
It is about finding the thing that makes you not give up. That something that makes you continue, that makes you want more, that makes you look for alternatives and solutions. Something that leads to laughter you can share with others, and where there is energy that helps you look positively at both the present and the future.
Joy, community, encounters and magic. But I realise that, for me, there is more to table tennis. More that makes me choose the racket and ball. Because when I play, my focus is on backhand and forehand, on what is happening in the game with the ball, and then I have to be in the present moment. I cannot let my thoughts wander; a loss of focus means a missed ball. And somewhere there, in the game, it happens that I forget about my Parkinson’s.
Or perhaps I do not forget, but rather my focus shifts so that I am not thinking about Parkinson’s. When this happens, I end up in a “bubble” where I feel healthy. It does not always happen, and I do not notice when it begins, but I notice that it happens, and that feeling is liberating.
The same thing can happen when I paint. Then it is about colours, emotions and preferably music. It is about finding playfulness and allowing myself to be accepting of myself. When all of this falls into the right balance, a creative bubble forms, and once again the focus shifts and I forget Parkinson’s.
But my inner critic is often dissatisfied, so in painting it is harder to reach this liberating feeling.
There are a couple of other occasions or contexts where this also happens. But with the two I have mentioned, I want to show that it is about finding something that brings joy and community, whether or not it is a physical activity. That it is something you become absorbed in, something that requires focus and presence in the moment in a way that makes you feel good.
Have you found your context, your magic? Then my advice is to cherish it, take part in it and share it with others.
Are you still looking for your context? Then my advice is to keep trying different things, and to dare to trust that you will find what makes you want a little more. Above all, do not give up — keep searching. Perhaps that too is part of the magic: actively trying things out for yourself and looking for where the particular magic you are seeking is created.
The sun is shining and the frost is sparkling on a cold morning, with greetings from the West Coast.
Cecilia Qwinth