WE86: Imagining that I suddenly go blind

Imagine you are suddenly made blind between one second and the next. How would it change your life physically and emotionally? What would you miss and do you feel there would be benefits? How do you feel you would cope with the loss of vision?

Not putting ourselves in the other person's shoes because we believe that this situation will not come into our lives is something very common in many societies. Not being empathetic with people who do not have the wonderful opportunity to enjoy and see everything around them, can make things more difficult to overcome, if the day comes when we wake up and cannot see.

I confess that some time ago, my thinking was like that; I did not take into account how important it was to value the privilege of just looking. The day to day, the daily routine, the situations, the problems, the stress, the doing, doing and doing without stopping, did not allow me to enjoy the blessing of being able to see in a conscious way. I remember once, I was walking to my work place, as I do every day, and I saw a beautiful planter with many flowers; when I arrived at the office I told my colleagues what I had seen and what was my surprise, that this planter had always been there, but I had never determined it. That impacted me so much that from that moment a change occurred, I began to be more aware of what was around me, I stopped to be more observant, I perceived the colors, the shapes of things, I felt that I no longer had that blindness.

Then I had the great opportunity to work with people with visual impairment and to have a training where I could feel myself in that situation to be able to support them in the different activities we organized at the center. There I realized that my other senses began to activate more and that was natural, it is survival. I have learned a lot from them, their anecdotes, stories, experiences, sharing and being part of that community and supporting them is wonderful.

I learned after so long to value what I see and to find myself in the dark, that would be very strong for me, emotionally I would be sad. Fear always comes first, it is instinctive, then the uncertainty of what is going to happen now, the insecurity of whether I can continue my life in these conditions and it would even affect my self-esteem, to the point of thinking that I am good for nothing. However, I have to go through this mourning, I would cry, I would get angry, until I accept it, and assuming this reality I would start this new stage of my life. It is not easy to have to shorten the freedom to move wherever I want and more at the speed of my life, I am a woman I do many things a day, I can do three things at the same time and to find myself limited and only do one at a time without seeing, would cause me a lot of anguish. The good thing is that this would definitely help me to slow down the fast pace of my life.

What I would miss the most would be to see the face of my daughter, who is my inspiration and my strength, admire the landscape, read a book, do my work and look into my eyes. The look is a form of non-verbal communication and when we look into the eyes we can establish a bond with another person, the look of the other recognizes us and allows us to recognize ourselves. I learned to look into the eyes and for me it has been a transformative experience, so I would miss embracing with the gaze, making another person present, and enjoying looking and looking at each other.

I have some experience sharing with blind people and I have learned from them, their stories would give me a lot of strength, my training and experiences would also contribute to understand and accept my destiny. However, I cannot overlook the fact that I am a very independent woman, I like to do many things and accepting help from others is hard for me and it is a personal work that I am currently doing. That would be a great challenge for me, to adapt, to ask for help or to have to depend in many cases on others, to go from being the one who helps to letting myself be helped, that is my greatest lesson in life.