Relax, it's just Life!

I must have been 18 or 19 when this incident happened. I’ve told it over the years to only a few people, as I don’t want everyone to think I am totally crazy.:)

I was feeling quite down as I recall. At 18 I was already a widow! I also had recently witnessed a terrible auto accident. I just couldn’t pull myself up on this particular day. I decided to try an experiment. I thought, “hmmm, if I cover one eye with a patch for the day, maybe when the day is over, I will at least appreciate having sight in both eyes. It was an off the wall idea, but I committed to spend the day viewing the world differently.

I wasn’t working that day so decided to drive to a park near the beach. About half way there I realized it was much more difficult to drive with only the sight in one eye. Still I was bound to keep this brief experiment going.

When I got to the park I sat on a bench watching children swing and play on the equipment. The breeze blew my hair across my face and when I brushed it away two little girls were standing in front of me.

One chirped, “You’d be pretty if you didn’t have that patch on your eye.” The other asked, “Will you push us on the swings?”

Of course I would and before you knew it both girls were flying high. Suddenly the corner of the swing nearest my eye patch hit me directly in the eye. It nearly knocked me down. The pain was terrible. Both little girls clustered around me and asked if I was okay. I said “Yes, but I think I need to go now. We waved good bye.

I took a path to the beach and as I stepped on the sand a young man blew by me and sand from his surfboard flew into my “good” eye. After a few minutes of dabbing it with a tissue,  I was able to see once again, but I knew my eye lens must have been scratched from the sand. Now both eyes hurt.

I kept to my commitment and left the patch on until I drove home. The patched eye was throbbing, but prior to removing the patch I had to put eye drops in my other eye as it was still stinging from the sand.

As I removed the patch I found my eye swollen and actually starting to show a huge shiner!

All I could think was “If I didn’t think I had anything to be happy about, I was wrong. Just having two good eyes to see with is truly a wonderful gift. I showered, ate a bite of supper, and went to bed with an ice pack laying on my poor eye. I drifted off into sleep appreciating all of the wonderful gifts we all take for granted.

This entry was posted on March 4, 2007 at 3:30 am and is filed under True Stories, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.