When I was a corporate meeting manager, I oversaw a team of meeting coordinators and administrative staff, as well as outside vendors such as audio visual companies, translators, entertainment, production crews. I loved doing site visits at multiple hotels to pick the perfect venue for an event, then months later arriving at the awarded property before the attendees, getting everything ready to meet the goals of my client. When it was over, I always made it a point before I departed for home to stop in the empty ballroom, which only hours before was full of chairs, screens, a stage, translator booths, lights, camera, action. Standing there in the deserted room it was hard to believe that it had happened. My aching feet were proof that it had.
Post loss of sight, I have returned to frequent flying, driving (from the passenger seat) and checking in. I am certainly able to approach the front desk of a hotel to provide my credit card in exchange for a plastic key while my husband parks the car. But until last week, I had never taken our bags to the elevator, pushed the appropriate floor number, then found our room by myself since becoming legally blind. I texted Mister Rain, telling him to come to room 907. I began to unpack, thinking about the old days and comparing this me to then. I made myself stop. I am a person with a profound visual impairment.
And that’s my message to you. Meet yourself where you are, not where you were. We are always changing, and it is a cruel habit to put the then you in a now position. Who we once were is still in us, but we must recognize and adapt our thinking. Otherwise . . .
There really is no otherwise. You were. You will be, the good Lord willing. Right now, though, you are. Which, like room 907, is a really great place to be.
#sisterrain #alittlesightalotofheart #legallyblindwriter #blindnessisaspectrum #opticneuropathy #visuallyimpaired #blind #room907
