Two extremely interesting things that I've noticed have increased since I got The Disease are my patience (especially with teenagers) and my "pithiness," for lack of a better single word.
Kyudo definitely helped with my patience, but the MS has really helped. Of course I still steam up every now and then, but that's gotten a lot more infrequent since the diagnosis. I notice that I tend to get quiet, intent (but not necessarily intense), and direct without becoming blunt or cruel.
MS is very much the human condition writ larger than any of us really care to deal with. These bodies we drive around are convenient, yes—until they become inconvenient, and burdensome. MS just brings that point upon us faster than we had planned... which is, after all, also the human condition. It's just with MS, we can't put it off or deny it or not deal with it. It's there.
MS brings you into inescapable contact with impermanence, and the truth that you really don't have time simply to fritter away. I've always been a "let's cut to the chase" kinda guy, but more and more I find myself being very quiet, and very "to the point"—but always with kindness.
Because I don't have time to waste on indulging cruelty. Another gift of MS.
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