I Can’t See to Help

The other day, my wife and I went to the grocery store to pick up a few things. This is a near daily occurrence and I generally enjoy the experience. It is an opportunity to get out of the house, spend time together, and to just be a part of our neighborhood community in a small way. Everything went according to plan and we made our way to the car to load up what we found in the trunk.

Our usual process is that I help with the bags that I can find and then make my way to the passenger side and get in while she returns the cart. This time, it took her a couple of minutes to make it back, which I noticed, but was not particularly noteworthy. When she gets in next to me, she says that saw an older gentleman loading up his car from his cart, but he was moving pretty slow. She decided to wait for him to finish and then offered to return his cart for him so he didn’t have to shuffle his way back and forth from the cart return. This is just how her heart works and when she spots a need, she just jumps in.

However, after hearing this, it made me start to think about how long it has been since I have done this. It is not because I do not have a desire to help, but it is because I cannot see to know what needs to be done in the first place. Up until this point, I had not realized that losing my vision has really limited my opportunities to just jump in when needs arise. Whether it is noticing someone struggling to reach the high shelf at the grocery store or seeing my wife struggling to carry a heavy item, I no longer can be that guy that helps. It really is another loss for me and it also is a loss for all those I can’t help when I could have if I had vision.

Of course, I know that there are other areas that I can help and I do. It really requires me to be willing and observant enough with my other senses to do things that need to be done. Things like doing chores such as laundry or washing dishes are things that I can do that are very helpful to keeping our house running. I also can jump in and do things like having the kids do their chores while my wife is busy doing other things or provide reminders of upcoming things that perhaps others have forgotten. It is all about finding my new place and ensuring that I am always looking for ways to help, even if it’s not how it used to look.