“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen nor even touched, but just felt in the heart” Helen Keller

The past week has been difficult for me due to the blood that is currently floating in my eye. It has impaired my vision as well as the other restrictions that limit me from lifting anything, bending over, etc.. The scans will be repeated in 2 weeks to make sure my retina is healing and not continuing to bleed. The blood floating in my eye will heal eventually in a matter of weeks. My eyes work independently and my left eye which is the one affected is my “close up” eye. It reads and sees things close up, my other eye sees distance. I’m making many mistakes as I type this because I can’t clearly see and I never mastered the typing scenario!

I was discouraged this morning to wake up and once again battle this vision problem. I decided I needed inspiration! I not only found it but I also believe my situation is only temporary unlike those that gave me inspiration!

The two people I researched for my encouragement were Helen Keller and Fanny Crosby. The more I read, the more I appreciated my temporary eye problem!

Helen Keller was born a normal child but at age 19 months became ill and a high fever left her both blind and deaf. Most of us have heard of her through our history lessons, but how many really considered her awful plight? She definitely lacked the resources we have today and the world she lived in offered little hope. Yet she penned this statement ” the best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, but just felt in the heart” Those are truly powerful words that were spoken from a heart that had learned to overcome.

What a legacy she left to us: she visited 39 countries during her lifetime, wrote to 8 U.S. presidents and received answers, she was friends with several famous people, including Alexander Graham Bell, Mark Twain and Franklin D. Roosevelt,  she was the first blind and deaf person to earn a college degree and graduated with honors from Radcliffe College in 1904.

My next person of inspiration this morning was Fanny Crosby. At 6 weeks old she caught a cold that caused inflammation in her eyes. Mustard poultices were applied that damaged her optic nerves. According to Fanny, this was what caused her blindness but some doctors believe it was congenital. At age 3 it was determined that her condition was inoperable and her blindness was permanent.

Fanny went on to write over 8000 hymns and gospel songs! She became known as the queen of gospel song writers. She believed her blindness was ordained of God that she might have been distracted by the beautiful things around her if she would have had sight. She said when she reaches heaven she wants to see her Savior.

She said:

Oh, what a happy soul am I, although I cannot see

I am resolved that in this world, contented I will be.

How many blessings I enjoy that other people don’t

To weep and sigh because I’m blind, I cannot I won’t

My eye problem doesn’t seem so bad anymore and I feel encouraged to know that we all have our trials and we all have to over come them. Sometimes I think we’re blind to reality and God’s plans for us even though we have perfect eyesight.