blinded by your sight

These are our thoughts feelings and experiences. We accept responsibility for them. We understand your journey may be different. We honor and respect that. Wishing you effortless joy. Eloise and JakeBlinded by your sight.

This weekend my daughter and I went to the DIALOGUE IN THE DARK EXHIBIT. In Atlanta Georgia.
It was a very moving life changing experience. You are ushered into a room with 10-12 strangers, and given a 5 minute introduction, and a cane. Then the lights slowly dim until you are sitting in complete darkness, with no sense of light anywhere. For the next hour you are then guided ()very loose description) through many rooms, by another blind person. Now by guided they mean “given some direction by.” What you are doing is actually using your senses and your cane to get from point a to point b and trying to observe information about the journey while you move. Now of course you are bumping into things and people , all while feeling a range of emotions. There is a grocery store, an out doors experience a boat ride, that included walking a ramp onto the boat, maneuvering through traffic, and finally ordering a drink and paying for it, with real money, (in the dark). (with no one holding your hand or helping you).
My daughter and I had quite different experiences. But the things we learned about ourselves was very intense. The way I handled this hour of complete darkness is much how I handle life. I was so determined to be successful fearlessly and get from point a to point b without feeling fear, I missed the actual experience. In the traffic situation , the sound of the traffic was so loud and I felt over stimulated, so I turned it all off To get to where I was going. (In real life, I would have been killed because I turned it all off.) I did not feel half the stuff in the nature room or the grocery story or other places. I was just trying to get to the place I was going to. The guide said that sometimes sighted people are blinded by their sight. They miss so much in life because they become so dependent on what they see, that they stop feeling and knowing and hearing, and stop using any of the other senses. I would like to do it again, and this time just go with the flow.
I think the healer in me gets so fixated on being a light, that I forget the balance and beauty of dark. When it is dark, you no longer can trust in the traditional. You have to trust in the unseen, the spiritual the energy of life, yourself.
My goal for the day and tomorrow and this week is to be fully present in my body. To be aware of what I see, what I hear, what I smell what I taste and what I feel, and mostly what I know to be true just because I am aware in that moment. I will be grateful for my sight, and periodically shut my eyes to see if what I am seeing is real! For more information on the exhibit: http://www.dialogue-in-the-dark.com