I was (almost) Blind, but now I See

I recently had an experience that challenged my vision and, ultimately, led me to an appreciation of sight that I had never had before.

I’m vision-impaired, and I wear prescription glasses that have quite thick lenses. A couple of weeks ago, I accidentally dropped my glasses. The 10-year-old frames broke apart, and a lens cracked, rendering them completely useless.

I quickly searched for a backup pair, only to find that the prescription was nowhere near as strong as my broken pair. Everything was fuzzy unless it was right in front of my face.

As you can imagine, this makes driving extremely challenging, as well as reading, writing, watching television, cooking, and everything else.

After finding my backup glasses, I headed out to the optician’s office so I could order a new pair. I was told that it would take 10–14 days for them to arrive. Uggh.

Fortunately, my new glasses arrived in about a week, but that week that I waited and walked around with extremely clouded vision was hell. However, this cloud had a silver lining. It gave me a new appreciation for the sense of sight.

I discovered that I had taken the gift of sight for granted and was unappreciative to the good Lord for the ability to see. I’ve vowed not to do that again, and to appreciate all of the senses I’ve been given that help me enjoy the sights, sounds, smells, touches, and tastes of life.

Sometimes it takes losing something before you learn to appreciate it.

If you can read this, take a moment and think about how fortunate you are. There are no guarantees that you’ll be able to see tomorrow, so take time to appreciate the gift of sight (and everything else) today.