In Celebration of Vision

I went to the eye doctor today for a normal exam. As part of the procedure, my eyes were dilated. I normally am warned in advance about this, but today was caught off guard.

As I left the eye clinic, it was no problem to drive to my next activity which was to have lunch. I tried to look at my cell phone, and I could "sort of" see that I had a missed call, but could NOT read the name of the caller.

As I sat down for lunch and continued to try to look at my phone, and booted up my computer, I was amazed at how complicated it was to try and perform simple tasks.

Picking up my voicemail message, as I tried to use the graphical user interface on my phone was a huge challenge.

I was supposed to make an international telephone call at that time, and realized that there was no way I could look up the person in my cell phone! Nor could I get the phone number (since I use a complex dialing process to make international calls from my cell phone). I ended up looking up the person in Outlook (my email/contact management program), copying the phone number into a blank email and enlarging the text to 72pt so I could read the number. All of these tasks were really difficult given that I couldn't really see my computer screen.

I came away so incredibly grateful for my eyesight! I truly couldn't believe how difficult everything was!

Vision is such an incredible gift!! I realized after today that I take my vision, and probably many other things for granted. I think many of us do this with many of life's simplest and most precious gifts. It's no way to live!!

As my vision came back to normal throughout the afternoon, I completely appreciated the ability to see. I'm not sure I've thought about how precious this gift is - since the last time I had my eyes dilated!

I think it is important to just STOP occasionally and look at the things we tend to overlook as we focus on the challenges and difficulties of life. We can shift our perspective, our mood and our total outlook on life if we realize what we actual have!

Vision, hearing, smell, touch, the ability to walk or move, a roof over your head, food to eat, friends, family, pets, fresh air, clean water... the list is endless... stop and give thanks for what you DO have today, and focus a little less on what you're missing!