Why I Love Being a Visually Impaired Person

October 15, 2019 | 5 Comments

by Amber Miller, Guest Blogger

Tags: artistic perspective, imagination, Visually impaired

 

There are plenty of challenges that come with blindness. Cats lounging on camoflaging area rugs. Eye contact. Stairs…bedeviled stairs. There are, however, some unexpected perks.

1. 1. It sounds cool. The acronym VIP makes me feel important. ‘Nuff said.
   2. Fewer distractions. When performing a reiki session, intuitive reading, or even getting to know someone on a date, the lack of visual clutter helps me focus. Instead of getting hung up on the relative attractiveness of my date, partial blindness forces me to ‘look’ deeper, using my other senses to assess more important criteria, such as honesty, compassion, and overall compatibility. Without an overload of visual detail, a person’s core shines more brightly to my inner eye. The detritus of personality we mass around our hearts as protection falls away, and I am left with a clearer picture of the Being before me.
   3. No bull spit. Being a VIP has greatly increased the sensitivity of my internal b.s. detection system, an asset in many situations.
   4. Artistic perspective. Seeing the world in a different way translates automatically into artwork with it’s own personality. I tend to see things in broad strokes first, leaving me free to establish the overall sweep of a piece, then dive into the details later. Sometimes, my eyeballs will go on strike, pushing me to find new ways to paint so that the details take care of themselves. It’s quite liberating.
   5. Selective sight. Of course, had I seen that pile of dishes waiting to be washed, I surely would have washed them. Didn’t see ’em. Nope. Sorry.
   6. Freedom of imagination. Maybe less acute sight has left the real world feeling less real, or maybe I’m just a dreamer. Either way, physical circumstances have blossomed in me a rich inner world, less bound by what should be possible in the solid spaces of our visual cosmos.

There are more, of course. Smaller things, like the evocative smell of crisp autumn apples, or the snap of the word “crunch” on my tongue. The journey continues as my vision changes and so the learning continues as well.

We all have our own unique perspective. What’s yours?

Shine on.

 

Amber has participated in our Passionate Focus art exhibit.  This is a reprint of a blog post from her website, Wild Spiral Arts.

Amber Miller, who has been legally blind since birth, is a person of many trades, blogging and painting about everything from the mundane to the miraculous.  She currently resides in Michigan, with some excellent friends and several ferociously fluffy guard goats.