Vision

All week I was thinking this was my number “fifty” blog post and was planning to celebrate and talk about just various vision topics — since the underlying theme for my blog is vision-related.  But, apparently I miscalculated and my major milestone was last week and I missed it.  So, belated “Happy Fiftieth Blog” to me!  I still want to share these random thoughts on vision though.  It is pretty different from my usual writing because most of this week’s post comes from an exercise that I do that challenges me to “write 750 words a day.”  I think I wrote most of this one a couple of years ago.  It still hits pretty close to home for me though, and if  you think about it, “vision” surrounds a lot of areas in our lives, not just the “sight” part.

Vision, as in the physical sense of sight, is something that is quite frequently taken for granted. For most people, those without other physical limitations, vision is something that is just “there.” As a new born baby, once they get those eyes open, they see, howbeit a little fuzzy at first, but the vision is there and grows in strength as they grow. For babies with healthy eyes, it is not something that generally has to be trained, or nurtured.

Sometimes there are issues with our vision and corrective lenses are required; or possibly surgery to correct some issues. Once I got to a certain age, before my eye trauma, I started getting the “aging eyes” syndrome. Otherwise known as bifocals! Then in 2001 my right optic nerve was damaged causing vision loss in the bottom half of my eye. Following that, in 2015, the optic nerve in the left eye was damaged, taking away all of my clear vision and most all of the vision in general in that eye. The small blurb of vision that remains in the left eye only sees in black and white now.  My current vision is quite limited, but the small amount of vision that I do have is enough to help me get around (carefully) and do day-to-day life tasks.  I am mostly nearly all the way blind in the dark though.  Even with all this, I still consider myself extremely blessed!  Although, I can most definitely relate to the phrase, “You don’t know what you got till it’s gone!”

Being able to use vision assists in the learning and growing process for all people.  It allows us to see what is around us, to be able to navigate physical surroundings. For very small children (infants or toddlers), a step up or step down may present a much bigger obstacle than that same step would for a youth or adult. The small child has to learn how to navigate that step, and vision is a big part of that learning process. When my niece, Wrylin, was a toddler and just learning to walk, my mom would see her standing at the step from our TV room down into our kitchen holding onto the door frame, trying to decide if she was going to stay up or come down.  Mom would tease her,  saying, “Jump!”  Wrylin would look at her with a mischievous glint in her eye. Then she would simply sit down on her bottom and scoot into the kitchen.

For someone that has a bodily physical impairment, vision is used to survey the geographical area to determine if they are able to continue forward, stop and ask for assistance, or terminate the current effort, especially in older people, who may be somewhat feeble or have weakened leg strength.  A rocky road, or a path with bumps or holes could cause someone to trip and experience a serious fall. I have noticed our back yard, that is fully grassed and used to be very smooth, seems to have a few ruts and valleys in it now. I suppose that has come from weathering of the area and no one really taking care to maintain the back yard in over seventeen years. This is especially hazardous because the grass on top is smooth and the yard looks smooth; but when you start walking through the back yard, you find that you have to watch your step or you may end up on the grass.

What about vision as dreaming? I have experienced dreams that seem so real and yet so unreal at the same time. I feel that so much vision can come from our dreams. Sometimes you have a dream at night that seems insane, then as you are mulling it over in your mind, it comes to play that this is something that could become real, with a little work. I also feel that our dreams are a hint of what heaven will be like. When you are dreaming, you can be from place to place and you can be with people in one moment and then someone totally different in the next moment. I feel that is because dreams are a spirit thing. They are not a physical body thing. (Unless you count sleep walkers!) When you are dreaming, it is different than being awake and having to adhere to gravity and other rules of our physical world. In your dream world, you are able to float or fly or dissolve into a mist and reappear.

Vision is also imagination and creativity. That is sometimes referred to as dreaming while you are awake. So many amazing things can come from allowing your imagination to work and flow. Artists capture their imagination on canvas, in plaster, through sculpture and many other creative mediums. Writers also use their imagination to write everything from commercials to short stories, to poems and song lyrics to screen plays and novels. The accomplished artist is able to capture their vision and pour it out into one of these artistic endeavors. One of the main reasons I am attempting this writing thing is to see if I can get my creative vision working and be able to get words down on paper. I want to be able to move people and pull emotion from them with my words. I want to write things that are meaningful and that will make a person feel better than they did before they read them, to put something positive  and uplifting out there.

So, I hope you will stick with me through fifty more blogs!  I sincerely hope to get better at this, and possibly expand and grow the gifts that God has given me in a way that will glorify His Son, Jesus Christ!

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“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.”   (1 Corinthians 12:4-6 & 11 ~ NIV)