Editor’s note: This post was to appear December 9th, but was delayed due to technical issues.
With sunrise at 7:34 AM and sunset stuck at 4:54 PM in our area, we only have nine and a half hours of daylight this time of year. This makes seeing certain things difficult, especially if one’s activities and work schedule occupy or take away time from the daylight hours. We are also in the second week of Advent, which has this year led us to ask some questions about how well we see things in life, and how good our vision really is at any given time of the day. We thought we’d share some things we learned about vision in this week’s post.
“The best vision is insight.” –Malcolm Forbes
Theme of the Week: Well Let’s See
Our theme of the week started on the way home from church. The radio was playing some songs I really enjoyed, each one very different from the other. At one point, I asked myself why I liked each song.
Well, let’s see…Each one talked about relationships and brought to mind different people I have known in life. Each one spoke to emotions within me. Though only one song was by a favorite singer, the other songs still had something to offer either through an uplifting beat or a touching lyric.
Looking at what was before me, I thought about how we see both visually and perceptually in life. Why I thought about this was kind of a mystery to me, save for the fact the curious eight-year-old never ceases to amaze the adult in me (or others who know both her and me) with the level of details and insatiable appetite for knowledge. Vision is one subject I’ve always been curious about since I have a medical condition that limits my vision severely in one eye. The condition is due to a birth defect, so there is no cure or way of changing it.
For a very brief time in my life, I remember asking God why He created me this way. The condition made learning difficult and an additional issue with a cataract for a period of seven years made me a huge target for kids who liked to tease in school. Quite frankly, there was a point when things got so bad that I wanted to just disappear to avoid the teasing. I also worried about all the things I was missing or not seeing due to the condition. This created extra stress and anxiety, often clouding my perception of matters. Add all this up and you have a huge mess inside a broken heart.
All these thoughts and memories flashed before me as I drove along looking at the sky, houses, and yards along the way home. It hit me hard how far I had come with not only seeing but also perceiving things. What years ago caused me to pretty much unravel really did not phase me now. (Though admittedly I do still wonder how things would look if I could see with both eyes instead of just one). I also realized how much physical, mental, and spiritual exercise it had taken to get to this point in life. This was often hard work, not necessarily in the action but more so in the facing of the truth and the decisions required to move onward. The path ahead if often far from clear in such matters, and it is only when we really look the issues we have in the eye that we find the reasons why along with the song that gets us by.
“Your vision will become clearer only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” –Carl Jung
Lesson of the Week: Hope Seen and Unseen
Our lesson of the week was a tag-along to our theme of vision. Going about our tasks this time of year can be a challenge with the lack of daylight and all the “holiday” distractions. It is easier to get off track than stay on the course, but being the determined posse we are, we keep trying, even when the odds and statistics are not in our favor.
There were several days where the weather cooperated, allowing time for work, play, running, biking, and holiday preparation. There were also days when not much got done despite all the efforts. The common denominator between the days was the hope each morning brought. Whether visibly sunny or cloudy, the sun was still shining somewhere. Maybe not in front of us, but somewhere light was flowing in streams of color and with great intensity.
On a particularly challenging day, I looked at both dogs and asked, “How is it we can still believe what we do? I mean, this is nuts…”
Four innocent, watery, deep brown eyes stared back at me with a love no words can describe.
Well, that’s how. Guess that answer was obvious.
“True confidence is really a blending of both faith and hope. I don’t understand the alchemy of that union, but I know when it is present and when it isn’t. It often feels like something which I have accidentally discovered, something given from nowhere…” –Richard Rohr
Question of the Week: What We Really Need
In going through our activities this week, we came upon some very well-written and interesting articles. Like the songs mentioned earlier, the subject matter and presentation methods varied. However, each article had a distinct and clear message regarding what we see and need in life.
One article was about a woman who had an accident that left her unable to do her favorite activity—running. This accident happened later in life, so the odds were very much against her, along with additional health issues discovered during her recovery. However, it was the determination built up by all those years of running that allowed her the will to walk again after years of therapy, trials, tribulations, questions, and longing for a sense of normalcy. The woman reported that she can walk, swim, drive, do most household chores, and yes, even run, albeit at a pace not much faster than walking. What struck me most was this woman’s vision. Not just an apparition or dream of what may come to be, but a planned course of action that she carried out with dogged determination despite tears and dissuasion from others (including her own doctors).
Another article was about neighbors helping neighbors. The author explained the painstaking process in her area of collecting enough fire wood for the winter and how each neighbor helped the other with equipment, labor, and nourishment in forms ranging from food to good thoughts to prayers. The task for each household was monumental, but when every neighbor and family pitched in, became not only easier, but enriching for the lives of all involved. The article resonated with me from a work ethic perspective. Often in life, we encounter tasks that may challenge our vision (along with other characteristics), but we need not view these tasks in a negative way. We have a choice to find the positive (in either our own efforts or with help from others).
Also this week, we celebrated the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. The mass readings that accompany this feast in the church calendar speak of the vision of God and how the path was prepared for both Mary, the Virgin Mother, but also Jesus. Both Mary and Jesus had vision beyond the circumstances around them. Mary’s answer to the circumstances was faith and willingness to do what God asked. Jesus responded similarly, but with more questions for those challenging Him. He had the vision to ask in order to help others see from a different perspective.
The articles and readings led us to ask what is vision? It is not only sight, but belief. Not only physical in nature, but with mental and spiritual ties. Vision is simple and complex, shared and unshared, real and imagined. It is what keeps us going physically upon our paths, mentally with dreams and goals to accomplish, and spiritually with the questions that build our faith, hope, an love. Vision is what the world needs yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
“Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.” –Proverbs 4:25
Memory of the Week: Dr. Pettapiece
In addition to the articles and readings this week, we came across a tidbit of information that put an exclamation point on our theme of the week. The tidbit of information was about Dr. Milton C. Pettapiece, Jr. Dr. Pettapiece was the doctor that diagnosed my vision condition was I was but a child. Every summer, my mom had to trek to Oakland with me in tow to see him. It was always an adventure for I was a handful and more than once needed six people to hold me down so Dr. Pettapiece could put eye drops in my eyes. After many years of struggling with me, he came up with the idea of tilting my head back with my eyes closed, putting a puddle of fluid in the corner of my eyes, and allowing me to “blink in” the drops. Oh, how much better that was!
Dr. Pettapiece was always patient and kind when describing the latest state of my condition to my mother and me. He also had great toys to play with in his huge waiting room, the best Tom and Jerry cartoons to watch, and the spiffiest sports jackets I ever saw. His favorite jacket was a rose colored one that he said he liked because his wife had given it to him. (He was way ahead of the fashion times with that jacket).
He was my ophthalmologist for over twenty years and the person who helped free me of my vision anxieties by removing the cataract that complicated matters when I was fifteen years old. I remember the summer day vividly, going to Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh at the wee hours of the morning, scared about losing my vision altogether. Dr. Pettapiece reassured me all would be well. (Little did he know that I would have an allergic reaction to the anesthesia and stop breathing in the middle of the procedure, almost giving him and my parents a heart attack).
The surgery was ultimately successful, allowing me to see physically better, but not enough to alter my condition. However, the process we went through as doctor and patient through the years gave me a different kind of vision, one that comes with maturity, hope, and faith.
Though he practiced pediatric ophthalmology, he continued to allow me to be his patient until he retired. During our last visit, he was wearing his favorite sport coat and beaming about spending more time with his family. At the time, he was in his mid 60’s, and I was in my early 20’s. That day was a turning point and moving on for both of us, each one with a clearer vision of the potential before us.
Sadly, the tidbit I was reading was Dr. Pettatpiece’s obituary. He passed away at age 85 after serving his patients and family and even his country.
“If I find myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” –C.S. Lewis
Words of the Week: Vision’s Means
Our words of the week from the Daily Word devotional were peace, guidance, protect, strength, blessing, and prosperity. If we have vision in life, we can often find a sense of peace, though it may take some time to feel the peace inside. The guidance of nature, relationships, and faith can help clear our vision, allowing us to see not only peace, but the protection, strength, and blessings granted to us each day. These gifts lead to prosperity not necessarily in a monetary or economic sense, but in an overall sense of good health.
“Hope’s home is at the innermost point in us, and in all things. It is a quality of aliveness.” –Cynthia Bourgeault
May our relationships in life lead us to better perspectives and perceptions. May we share our experiences along the way with others, allowing for increased faith and vision.
Vision
Vision
Intraspective seen and hidden
Sent from heaven above
In the tethers of love
On the wings of the wind
Never leaving, always a friend.
Vision
Inspection
So that options may be viewed
In a variety of ways in pursuit
Of and in and through our days
Needing and being and finding new ways.
Vision
In grace given
So that all might see
In the dark and light’s beams
Opportunity through faith, hope, and love
Nestled in the days granted us.
-Lisa A. Wisniewski
A Note of Thanks
Our thanks this week goes out to Dr. Pettapiece for his care and concern of the many people he met and helped in life. May he rest in peace with the other angels and saints in heaven.
-Lisa, Leo, and Lena
Natural Deltas 