Core of Courage: Part 3

The Core of Courage: Part 3

It has been a while since I last wrote about courage, but it is never far from my heart and mind. My heart is where I go to consult with courage, intuition, and life purpose. It use to be more difficult to summon courage, I use to have to coax it out and nurture its existence.  It hid away under the negative self-inflicted “hyper sensitive” label and rarely tap into courage at will.

Today, a random stranger on the street had unkind, unwelcomed, and unwarranted words toward me. This man said, “I may be dumb but at least I am not blind”. I could have lashed out. I could have cried. I could have perseverated on the ignorant remark. Perhaps in the past these would have been my response. But now, I stand and live in the wake of courage. I did not respond, I moved forward silently yet proud. The silence was not a sign of weakness but a way for me to go in deep with courage and consult my heart for guidance. For ignorance is not bliss, ignorance is sad and also a wonderful time for lessons to be learned. It is often a lesson for you, not something that you must teach another. It is you time to act with grace, dignity, and surrender to the process. Instead of me scolding these remarks, I find it best to live my life which is full of passion, conviction, courage, and unwavering devotion to others. My life is based on a heart of service which can only be accomplished if I allow ignorance to wash over me momentarily but never allow it to penetrate my soul. Ignorance is temporary despite the words wanting to continuously echo in the depths of the mind, causing indefinite torture. Breaking the cycle of this echo chamber allows for tremendous freedom of the mind, body, and spirit. This freedom is a place where judgments are cast aside and heart based living is crowned king.

In my silent response, I thought to myself what this mans life must be like… I believe him to have been homeless but perhaps that is ignorant for me to assume. Either way, he is struggling.  For that my heart goes out to him.

Something that I have realized though, is that people believe that they can say whatever they want, whenever they want, to anyone. In my so-called disability I have discovered tremendous discrimination. Even in the past couple of weeks I have had to go into battle with my spirit so that it would not become broken. Perhaps we should clear up some assumptions, albeit this is a sarcastic list, but it is a real list none the less.

Top things to say to a visually impaired person

1 How many fingers am I holding up?

2 Shout loudly, does not matter what you are saying… assume the person also cannot hear.

3 Likewise, assume this person is mentally disabled and slow down your speaking rate dramatically and in a very obvious tone that is equally patronizing and somehow slurred.

4 Ask them if they want to touch your face.

5 Inquire how they get dressed in the morning

6 Rather, assume that they cannot do anything, ever for themselves.

7 Despite it being 2016 and the amazing technology available assume they read brail

8 Use phrases like, “the blind leading the blind”; “I see, said the blind man”

9 Complain about having to wear contact lenses or glasses and what a burden they are for you

10 Only talk about their eyes and vision with them… nothing else, EVER.Assuem they have nothing else to say, discuss, or think about. I mean, like, ever.

Alright, that is all I have for now but rest assured I have countless stories of heartache, discrimination, and ridiculous tails. Today was just another instance of ignorance but even more importantly, a chance for me to practice humility, grace, and courage. 

Here are other things that you should know:

1 Yes, of course, I miss seeing. I think bout it every single day and wonder how my life would be different. How I would be, where I would be, and why this happened.

2 Yes, I remember what everything looks like, including colors.

3 Yes, I do think that I will see again.

4 No, I will not be disappointed if I never do see again.

5 No, you do not have the right to just ask me anything you please about my surgeries, eyes, vision, and life.

6 Yes, I am a regular, average, normal person.

7 NO, I am not mad at you for wondering.

8 I would love to educate you.

9 I realize that I would make a great chiropractor because it requires my hands, not eyes.

10 Yes, I can see some things still such as light

Sometimes grace comes with a side of sarcasm but only because at times it is exhausting defending ones life purpose. But, this only means that I must dig deeper and give more of myself. If I could tell you my deepest secrets it would be that I feel guilty how much I secretly miss being able to see. That I feel guilty that this has happened to me. But that I am also so grateful to be me. I am so grateful to have lived this life and seen and not seen so many things. That if I could, I probably would not change anything. I just ask, that everyone no matter what is given a chance.

This goes beyond disability, race, gender, religion, etc. I wish that we can all learn to go in deep and act with greater grace. Every single person on this earth deserves to be loved, radiate love, and to give love. Every person possesses unique gifts that everyone else can learn from and then reflect out to others. Every person is important and should be respected.

It may appear that I Am just this white woman, well educated, doctor pontificating from my privileged princess pedestal but I am really in the trenches every day. I will dig until I hit in the core of the earth if that is what it takes to get my message out to the universe.

Thank you for indulging my sarcasm today… it can be exhausting living in the trenches of courage but there is no place that I would rather be!

In love & light,

Dr. Elizabeth M. Wisniewski

Vitalistic Visionary, Yoga teacher, Chiropractor