Seeing People in a Higher Light: This is What Blind Looks Like

All of that is what paints this picture of who they are.

Welcome to Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

I'm your host, Kevin Lowe, and I'm excited to welcome you inside.

This is the kind of place where your glass will never be anything other than half full because we choose to focus on the positive side of life.

Now, this doesn't mean that we shy away from the real talk.

No, not a chance.

Matter of fact, we explore all aspects of life.

From the good, the bad, and the ugly.

But all of that is done with one purpose.

One purpose.

To inspire you to never give up on life, even when it may seem like life has given up on you.

Now I get it, life is hard.

But starting today, you've got grit, grace, and inspiration.

What's going on?

And welcome back to Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

My name is Kevin Lowe, your host, and hey, welcome to episode 128.

I'm thrilled to have you joining me inside of today's solo episode.

So, well, I've got somebody to talk to.

Normally I have somebody in the studio with me, but on these solo episodes, well, it's just me and you, friend.

So today's topic is derived from the previous episode, episode 127, where I spoke to Kristen Girard.

Now, if you didn't listen to episode 127, then baby, let me tell you, you've got to go listen to it because we talk about some pretty insane stuff.

Specifically, Kristen's talent for creating what she calls her higher self-portraits.

I'm not even going to begin to explain to you what that is.

You've got to go back and listen for yourself.

Trust me, it's worth the listen.

But in that conversation, it really got me thinking about talking to you as far as how I see people.

Because after being blind for 19 years, I've learned to see people in a whole new way, in a way that I never could have imagined living life.

Now, before I dive into that topic, I have two questions for you.

If I was to ask you, what is beautiful?

What is beauty?

What would you say?

Or on the other side of the spectrum, if I asked you to describe to me what is ugly, how would you describe it?

Over the past 19 years of living in this blind world, I've struggled at times to hold on to the memories of my cited life because I didn't lose my eyesight until a month after my 17th birthday.

Now, I can remember things about my cited life really well, as far as, you know, remembering certain memories about maybe where I lived back then or vacations that we took, stuff like that.

Even remembering colors comes easy to me, which is something that I've heard that some people who become blind can't remember.

But luckily for me, I can remember what colors look like.

I know exactly what color sky blue is, just as much as I know the difference between orange and burnt orange.

But what I do at times struggle with is remembering what my family looks like.

I mean, in my head, in this far distance view, I know what each of them look like, but sometimes it's the finite details of their faces that I struggle with.

Now, what's interesting is that when I'm having a hard time remembering what exactly my mom's face looks like, or my dad's face, or my sister's, or my nanas, whose ever it is, I will go back to a photograph.

And for some reason, and I don't know if this is something common with people who've gone blind, but for myself, I always remember a specific photograph of that person.

And I can remember that picture.

And instantly I can remember all the details of their face.

Now, why that is, I don't know.

My only thought process is that for some reason, my brain just can't stop time.

It can't look back through those 17 years of memories and just pull out individual moments.

But the power of a photograph is that a photograph does that for us.

It's literally a snapshot of time.

It stops time right in its tracks, and it's there for us to enjoy from that day forward.

As an example of what I'm talking about, is that there's one specific photo of my Nana, my grandmother.

And she is standing in her kitchen, and it's at Christmas time, and she's cooking.

She has on a bright red t-shirt with her white and red apron over it.

And that picture, I can totally see her face, her beautiful pale skin, her blue eyes, her gold-rimmed eyeglasses standing there smiling.

And instantly I can remember that's what Nana looks like.

Same thing is said for my mom.

There's a picture of her on just any ordinary Saturday morning standing in the kitchen cooking breakfast.

She's in her big white, fluffy robe with her hair pulled up with a big gold hair clip pinning it to the top of her head.

And she's turned facing the camera, smiling.

Those pictures, those are what I'm talking about.

That in my head, I can remember exactly what my mom looks like.

Now, what gets hard for me is what my family jokes about.

And they, of course, do it in fun, but they often say to me, here it is 19 years later, that they are so grateful that I still remember them for what they looked like 19 years ago.

Because they often joke and say, Kevin, you might be pretty disappointed with the way our family looks today.

And I laugh with them, but deep down it hurts really bad because it makes me so sad to think that I don't know what my parents look like, that I don't know what my sister looks like, that I don't know what my young cousins, who were just little kids back then, what they even look like today.

And let's face it, I don't even understand what I look like.

And if I let it, it can really send me down into a deep moment of depression, of sadness.

And if you've listened to this podcast for more than an episode or two, you've realized that's not what I'm about.

I am not somebody who wants to go down that rabbit hole, who wants to be sad, who wants to be depressed.

No, that is not for this guy.

And thankfully, as time passes, we as people, we grow bigger, we grow stronger, we learn new things, our minds become bigger because we experience new things in life.

And for myself, to be honest, as the days go by and the years get marked off the calendar that I've been blind, well, this world continues to come into vision more and more clearly each and every day.

Because I've learned to see the faces of my family in a whole new, beautiful way.

As a matter of fact, it's more than just my family, it's everyone.

It's anyone that I meet.

I get to see them through my eyes.

And to be quite honest with you, the way in which I've learned to get to see people today makes me realize that the way in which I used to see people, or that the world sees people with their eyes, is a really lame, shortcut way of seeing somebody.

Because seeing somebody through our mind, or more importantly, through our heart, is so much more meaningful and so much more impactful.

And to be honest, is so much more spot on as to exactly what that person really and truly looks like.

What do I mean?

What I mean is this how do I see the smile on your face?

Well, it's from the cheer in your voice, it's from your laughter.

I see the sparkle in your eyes by the way your voice gets high with excitement.

But more than focusing on just individual physical elements of someone, it's seeing somebody for who they truly are.

And when you focus on seeing somebody for who they are and not what they look like, only then do you get to truly see someone.

And to be honest, this is exactly why I love the realm of podcasting so much, is because it's the one opportunity I get when I sit down with somebody who I'm interviewing to show you how I see them.

Because you don't get to see them, and neither do I.

We only get to see them through the words that they speak, the stories that they share, the tone in their voice, all of that is what paints this picture of who they are.

Now, with all of this said, this doesn't mean that I don't still ask somebody who I'm with from time to time, hey, what does that person look like?

But I do find that I ask that question less and less as time goes by.

And I also find myself getting slightly annoyed.

I don't even know if I want to say annoyed.

That seems a little harsh, but we'll use it because I can't think of a better word.

But annoyed with people who I'm with who feel the need to describe everything to me, whether that's people or places we're visiting, because, well, they remember how I used to be, and that I was still holding on to that side of life.

So I wanted to know what this or that looked like.

But now today, I see the world my own way.

I don't need them to describe it to me because I see it for myself in my own way.

And maybe it's in a better way.

I want to end today's short solo episode with one final thought.

Inside of one of the Facebook groups that I'm part of, for people who are blind or visually impaired, it's a support group.

So you have people in there who have been blind or visually impaired for all their life, or people who have recently become blind or visually impaired.

But there was somebody who posted something one day that really just made me kind of stop in my tracks.

This young man was born without the ability to see.

So, yes, he is completely blind.

He has never seen before.

And he did a post in this group asking the question I don't understand how people know what is beautiful or what is ugly.

Or how do they know that somebody is beautiful or that somebody is ugly?

How do you know this?

How can you just look at somebody and know that they are ugly or that they are beautiful?

And that post is what brings me back to the questions I asked you at the beginning of today's episode, but now with a slight twist.

What is beauty if it cannot be seen?

How would you know that your wife is beautiful?

Or that your husband is handsome if you cannot see them?

And again, what about ugly?

What does ugly look like when you can't see it?

How are you going to tell that man who has never seen before that someone is ugly?

I would encourage you to sit for a while and to reflect on these questions and to reflect on the way in which you would answer them.

And my hope is that at the end of the day, maybe all of us can start to realize wow, maybe we all need to start looking at life, looking at beauty, what is beautiful and ugly from the view of the man who has never seen.

I hope you have enjoyed today's episode.

If you did, I would really love it if you would hit that share button and share it with your friends on social media or even with just one individual person.

The point of this podcast is to leave an impact, to leave an impact on someone's life living somewhere on this earth.

And well, if you hit that share button, it just helps me to accomplish that goal in a much bigger way.

Hey, real quick before you go, I have one last thought to leave you with.

I of course hope that you've enjoyed today's episode, but more importantly, I want to remind you that I never want you to listen to an episode of this podcast to hear something that I have to say or that my guest has to share and think, wow, I wish I could be like them.

I wish I could overcome my own challenges and do the great things that they are doing, but I just can't.

Well, friend, that's where you're wrong.

unknown: You're wrong.

SPEAKER_00: You are capable, you are able, and you darn sure are deserving of having all that you can imagine in this life.

There's nothing special about me or any guests I have on this podcast.

We are all just normal people trying to make it in this life.

And so I encourage you to take a look at yourself in the mirror and remind yourself that you know what?

I can do it too.

Now, of course, if you would like help along that way, reach out to me.

Whether that's as a listener of this podcast, a friend, or if you'd like to work with me as a coach.

My contact information is inside of every episode's show notes, just like this one.

So go down, check out my contact information, and reach out to me today.

With that said, I encourage you to take on the day every day with great, grace, and inspiration.