“Embrace every moment” you have heard it said. Well, that is easier said than done.
It is even more challenging when you cannot see clearly. That may be physically or spiritually.
Embrace Life’s Moments – Putting It To The Test
About seven years ago, I had a date every Saturday.
My date would arrive pretty early in the morning. One particular Saturday, around 1:00 in the morning, I was still up as sleep had eluded me. Actually, it tried to come upon me but my head is full of ideas for articles, features and stories for a blog that I then had. Most of the previous day, however, was spent nursing a headache, one that came upon me after spending many hours at the eye surgeon’s office having pre-op tests done.
Yes, my eyesight has been affected due to cataracts and other complications to the point that surgery is now required. Some members of the team that I managed in my day job asked whether I was anxious about the upcoming surgery.
Honestly, even when I was not stressed at the moment, the repeated questions made me anxious. “No, I am not,” was my response and it was a very truthful one at the moment it was given.
Getting Your Eyes Checked
However, after being zapped, popped and scrutinized for about three hours, my head not my eyes protested. I had taken the day off from work, thinking that after the eye exam, I would go home and rest for the evening. That turned out to be wishful thinking as a crisis came up at my day job and I felt compelled to go in to calm the seas.
Ended up being at work for a couple of hours. After leaving a fractured team, some were smarting from my rebuke. Others were thankful that some dirty laundry was aired. On getting home, the wrestle started with a massive headache. Try as I might embrace it, hoping that would help me to relax, it stuck around overnight into the Saturday morning.
Have your head even hurt you so badly and deeply that it felt as if your eyes would pop and no amount of painkillers would make it stop? Pill popper I was and still am not. So aside from the ones that I take for my pre-existing condition of diabetes, most of the time was spent in solitude and in the quietude of my apartment.
The thought of the surgery kept creeping up on me and the “what if’s:”
- What if your eyesight is worse than it is now?
- What if the only sight of my granddaughter’s first steps is blurred?
- And of course, the money question. What if you cannot afford to have the specialised lenses put in when the time comes?
Vision Is Everything
“Embrace it.”
Kept hearing that every time another “what if” popped in my head. Flustered by the number of negative possibilities that was taking hold of me, tried every distraction possibly.
As I wandered the distance between my head and my heart, thoughts of the many people who are blind and how they are thriving in life streamed into my mind.
“There are worse things than blindness,” I said to myself. Actually, what about having sight but still not being able to see the things staring you in the face? Isn’t it said that when you lose one sense, others develop even more as if to compensate? You could only lose one eye and see even more clearly from one.
These were all the comforting, we might say, thoughts that flooded my mind. The most poignant was being physically blind but having a greater vision as Life compensates where you are weakened.
Life’s Special Moments
Calmed somewhat by that last thought, when my granddaughter arrived, my sight was actually fine-tuned. I noticed everything about her even more than ever before. And, I gave myself over to fully embracing the moment, while I could still see.
The deeper insight that came was that if and when the surgery occurred, I would have the memories of Saturday with my granddaughter, clear as day in my heart and mind.
Memories of her whistling like a bird and dancing to any beat would most certainly bring a smile to my face – blind or not.
My worry about eye surgery and potential blindness evaporated. I accepted ‘what is’ and left the pity party. That was just about seven years ago. The surgery happened and my eyesight has never been so good since I was a child.
As the song says, “Don’t worry, be happy,” and might I add – in all things give thanks. That will definitely restore your spiritual sight.
What are some of your life’s moments that have given you cause to pause?
Share your story of embrace in the comments below or visit us on Facebook and share there.
Be blessed and be a blessing,
