When I was doing my student teaching at the School for the Deaf, there was a middle school girl (deaf, of course) who had just found out she was losing her vision. Her eyesight was expected to grow narrower and narrower over the coming months until the last blurry spot of light finally blinked out. Her brother suffered the same disease and had committed suicide.
I think about that girl from time to time. I wonder how she's doing, if she ever adjusted to the darkness. The silence, she was already used to. She was one of the brightest stars in the signing club, dancing and signing the words to "High Cotton" and "Wind Beneath My Wings."
I think about her on days like today when I am jolted out of my little world to be reminded that people in Oklahoma and Missouri spent Mother's Day in the path of tornadoes, that the people of Myanmar still don't have the basic help they need, that the mothers of central China are digging for the children in the rubble left by an earthquake.
Every person is the center of his or her own universe. Everyone interprets the world through his or her own set of eyes. Today was a reminder to me to open my eyes a little wider, to fight against my own narrow view of life.
3 comments:
How typical, Patty, that you would be the one to eloquently word for the rest of us a global perspective of current events.
Your grandma Alta grew up in Pitcher, OK, one town so badly destroyed that they are talking about no even trying to rebuild it.
As storms and earthquakes and volcanoes, and tsunamis kill some by the thousands and displace others from their homes by the ten thousands, I hoping for the grace to not complain if the tempreture jumps into the nineties before the week is over.
Today I have all my family, a well of wonderful water, a dinner of fresh, health veggies, and a soft chair in a warm home to relax me with visiting friends.
Lord, forgive me for being so unthankful and for being such a whiner.
Thanks Patty,
May we all see the world through the Lord's eyes and may we love our "neighbors" enough to get outside of our little bubbles.
Thanks Patty,
Sarah turns 21 today. After wishing her "happy birthday" this morning, we sat down and watched the news. They said the quake in China was so large that if it had occured in the US it would have been felt from Maine to Arizona. It puts Sarah's celebration in perspective. Becoming an adult is milestone, but it means little amongst the suffering in this world. It does gives us all an opportunity to do as your Dad suggests -- to stop whining and count our blessings. One blessing for all who believe is that no matter what disaster surrounds us, our loving Savior remains so, in the midst of it all.
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